When we were growing up, there was always someone in our group who would come out with the worst jokes. It’s true that he would be shouted down by all of us with hoots of derision, yelling “ PJ, PJ”.
But it is only now that we learn that the person telling the poor jokes may not have been only comedically challenged but indeed may well have had a disease. Yes, apparently, telling PJ’s can be a disease. Who knew?
According to researchers, a tendency to tell bad jokes and puns may well be the result of a disease of the brain. Not only that the Germans have even a name for it- Witzelsucht!
Witzelsucht (the Germans just have the best words for everything, don't they? Remember Schadenfreude which is taking joy in the pain of others. That too is a German word. Anyway witzelsucht is a brain dysfunction that causes all sorts of compulsive silliness: bad jokes, corny puns, wacky behavior. It's also sometimes called the "joking disease," and as Taiwanese researchers phrased it in a 2005 report, it's a "tendency to tell inappropriate and poor jokes." Now, we have a brain disorder that actually causes a poor sense of humor.
It's a symptom of an injury to the right frontal lobe, which could be caused by brain trauma or a stroke, tumor, infection or a degenerative disease. "Patients who have disease of the left frontal lobe often are sad, anxious and depressed," explains Dr. Kenneth Heilman, a neurologist at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Fla. "In contrast ... patients with right-hemisphere disease often (appear) indifferent or euphoric and have inappropriate jocularity."
Heilman says he sees several cases of Witzelsucht each year.
The Taiwanese case study mentioned earlier describes a 56-year-old man's symptoms, and introduces an interesting conundrum found in some Witzelsucht sufferers. Although they're constantly making others laugh, some patients don't seem to get the joke themselves. "On some occasions, he showed no smiles or laughter to the jokes ... which made everyone laugh loudly, while on other occasions, he was not able to appreciate jokes from the others." But as Heilman explains, the jokiness "can be annoying to family and caregivers, (but) it is usually not a terrible problem."
Interesting!
ReplyDeleteHow does only this reflection come?Is it worthy of validation?If yes , I shall refer it to some expert,I may know.
One question that comes to my mind is that why we have to analyse every thing which comes before us .This may also be true for PJ tellers, they want to share some fun but can't reach the same level as that of the listener....S.K.Chawla