Death of a Joke

(first written 5-25-2006)

I’ve decided to over-analyze the following joke.

The joke: my friend told me she was sure she was getting into heaven. I told her it was impossible because heaven was only for beautiful people… like me.

The analysis: the joke is making fun of the friend in question saying that they aren’t attractive.

The over-analysis: this joke can also be funny if you notice the vanity involved. In it, I’m not only saying that my friend is not beautiful, but that I am. Vanity is a sin and it would be likely that I would go to hell because of it and other facts such as the probability that I’m lying about the requirements to get into heaven as well as making fun of my friend for not meeting the made up requirements (making the listener/reader assume that the friend is ugly).
I think this joke can work the other way; saying that since the friend is beautiful, they won’t be getting into heaven. This drops the vanity but adds two different things to be the butt of the joke. On one end, it makes fun of the physical quality of heaven, saying that no beautiful people are allowed in heaven. On the other hand, it makes fun of beautiful people making the allusion to (the likely fact of) selling their soul to the devil for the attractive physical appearance.


There! I think I sufficiently killed this joke. Remember folks: the only way to kill a joke is to over-analyze the crap out of it. Put the anal back into analyze!
Good night folks!
-Sam D.