A Sport Joke

When a person thinks of humor, what is the first thing that comes to their mind? Jokes. Jokes make the world more joyous and interesting because they can show hidden truths about different subjects, while at the same time lightening up one’s mood. Many jokes are said in a half-joking, half-serious manner. This leads us to another question, what makes a joke funny? What makes a joke especially funny is if the person reading it can in someway relate it to an experience he had at some point in his life. I find sport jokes particularly humorous because they (in a blunt and truthful way) make a seemingly serious and intense subject entertaining. Here is an example of a sports joke.

A senior basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh, 'I'm going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes.'

To fully understand this joke, one must be fairly knowledgeable about sport recruitment, basketball, and life as a college student. Not always, but most of the time, recruits for serious college sports teams tend to have weaker grades and test scores than other students. Why? Well, for a player to be recruited, that player must be exceptional at his or her sport. In other words, a recruit must have practiced and spent an exorbitant amount of time playing the sport. Thus, one often gives up the time to study.

Basketball is an extremely time intensive sport that requires much practice and discipline for one to succeed, especially in college. So when this quote says, “ I’m going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes,’” one finds this humorous because that player has probably spent the majority of his or her time playing basketball. This statement is ironic because no person can graduate “on time” if there is not a specific date on which to graduate. This seemingly contradictory statement might allude to the intelligence of the player, just because of his or her illogical thought pattern. Americans love to joke about sports and find any fault they can with athletes who are so good at what they do, because they are seemingly untouchably good. Making a joke of a talented athlete brings that athlete slightly down from their revered, at times immortalized status. Americans do not like to feel as though they are inferior to anyone.