Boring was too far

Recently I was at a fundraising event where sports players from my local club tried stand up comedy.

During the night, one player took to roasting the other player/amateur stand-up comedians.

This one player picked one trait per stand up comedian and told 3/4 jokes off it.

Now, what I found interesting was that the characteristics of being old, angry and loud were all considered funny but being boring didn’t get any laughs.

In my opinion it felt like it was done in bad taste and it came too close to bullying.

Pondering this now, I reckon it comes down to societal archetypes.

Being old is factual and elderly people can’t really take offense to that.

Anger and loudness can be intrusive on other people and are sure to get some complaints behind their backs. So, it feels deserved for them to be taken down a peg or two.

But boring is usually associated with the quiet type who minds their own business. They don’t offend anyone by their lifestyle choice.

Now the jokes may also have felt like they crossed the line because we, as a crowd, judged the individual to be unable to take our laughter but if I had to pick one reason I think boring is more mean than funny.