Melissa Dahl writes: Why did the cookie go to the hospital?
Because he felt crummy.
What did one snowman say to the other snowman?
Smells like carrots.
Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?
Fo' drizzle.
Terrible jokes? Or a sign of a brain disorder? Actually, sometimes it's hard to tell.
Witzelsucht (the Germans just have the best words for everything, don't they?) 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." We've covered all sorts of strange disorders of the mind in earlier Body Odd posts: one disorder makes you believe your loved ones are strangers, another convinces you that your hand has taken on a life of its own. Now, we give you 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. "One of the most dramatic cases (that I've seen) appeared to be attracted to my reflex hammer," Heilman says. "After I checked his deep tendon reflexes and put my hammer down, he picked up the hammer and started to check my reflexes, while giggling."
A 2005 case study describes a 57-year-old woman who suddenly morphed into a more gregarious version of herself. "She had become the life of the party and would laugh, joke, and sing all the time. The patient had decreased self-care and hygiene and wore the same clothes every day," according to the report. Her doctors believed dementia that damaged the front temporal lobes of her brain was to blame for her change in personality.
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," according to the report.
When it's possible, doctors attempt to treat the underlying disease or injury that's causing the Witzelsucht symptoms. Some physicians may prescribe mood stabilizers such as antipsychotic medications, but often they'll attempt to use behavioral strategies to rein in the giggles. But as Heilman explains, the jokiness "can be annoying to family and caregivers, (but) it is usually not a terrible problem."
I wonder if my my Cialis will solve this. OOPS bad joke. Sorry.
Anybody can make a hike harder. The real skill comes in making the hike easier.
life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. Andy Rooney
Anybody can make a hike harder. The real skill comes in making the hike easier.
life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes. Andy Rooney
Two reporters meet and shake hands. The first one says, "Hi, I'm Smith from the Tribune." The other replies, "Nice to meet you. I'm Brown from the Sun."
There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.
hmmm... maybe there's a chance for my humor level to get better.... hiking yesterday I slipped off a cliff edge and body slammed then took a nice head impact! When will the jokes start cracking????
Ageless Mind... Timeless Body... No Way! Use It and Lose It. Just the way it is...
My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, "I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds." So I bought her a scale. And then the fight started...
I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason, took my order first. "I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please." He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?" "Nah, she can order for herself." And then the fight started...
My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table. My wife asked, "Do you know her?" "Yes," I sighed, "she's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since." "My God!" says my wife, "who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?" And then the fight started...
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were getting cold so they decided to light a fire in their boat. It promptly sank, proving once again that "you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too".
te-wa wrote:Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were getting cold so they decided to light a fire in their boat. It promptly sank, proving once again that "you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too".
Ahhhh polar jokes.
A customer's 9 year old son who knows my humor told me this one. I think the source of the joke is the best part.
How do you catch a polar bear? Dig a hole in the ice and put a pea on the edge, when the bear comes up and takes a pea, you kick him in the icehole...
a young american college student is on vaca in Ireland. she is determined to find a man wearing a kilt to ask if the rumor is "true".
she searches for a short while and meets a guy on the street and promptly asks him "is it true, what they say about the kilt?"
the irishman lifts his garment and says "take a peek" in a thick accent.
OH MY GOD she says.. "thats Gruesome"
in his thick accent once again, he tells her "take another peek, it'll grew some more"
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