Humor: Can you make any joke?
A choleric chef constantly calls our host Johanna Michaels “Yvonne” – that was the name of the employee before her. Disrespectful and annoying. Her friends make a joke of it, and suddenly it’s her nickname that she loves.
In this episode of the ZEIT-Wissen podcast, Johanna Michaels and Tobias Hürter discuss the question: Can you make any joke? Johanna says yes – with restrictions. Tobias says no – it depends on the function. Together they explore what humor can do: lighten up situations, sharpen criticism, break taboos. But also: exclude, hurt, reinforce prejudices.
They talk about roast shows in which anything seems allowed, about satire as a tool against powerful people – and about when jokes kick down instead of shooting up. Why do autocrats fear humor? What did Freud say about jokes? And why are 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian jokes no longer funny today?
One thing is certain: jokes are never just text, they always need context. And the answer to the question “Can you do that?” is never a simple yes or no.