The Deeper Nature of Jokes

As is known by everyone, most cultures have a concept of “joke” within themselves. Except for an exceptional minority of people, the majority take pleasure in making jokes on others. The main reason for this pleasure can generally be associated with the feeling of control/power that the joke brings. However, I believe that when we go deeper into the subject, things go beyond a small amount of pleasure that is received.

Especially in recent times, many joke videos have become popular on social media. A large part of these popular jokes are aimed at humiliating, upsetting, or scaring the other party. In fact, to such an extent that the psychological effects of these jokes on the other person have been found extreme and dangerous by some groups, and because of this, a new type of joke called “harmless pranks” has been introduced in opposition to them. According to this type, a joke is only meant to entertain both the person who makes it and the person to whom it is made. 

So, what does this new type of joke tell a person about jokes in general?

In my opinion, the division of jokes into two different types within themselves as harmless and harmful (the majority) strengthens the main subject of this writing. Here, I will not talk about how harmful jokes can be. What we are looking for is the meanings that lie beneath jokes and the reasons why these jokes are made.

According to the general opinion, a joke should entertain both sides. However, it can easily be said that this is mostly not the case. A few examples can be given of certain jokes made by an individual to another person that cause harm to that person: ending a relationship, scaring by trying to make someone believe in a supernatural being, pretending death or drowning, cheating...

In each of the jokes made, the person who makes the joke takes pleasure in the fear and sadness that the person to whom the joke is made will experience.

The conclusion we can draw from this is that there is (most of the time) indeed a sadistic intention lying beneath people’s jokes. As mentioned before, each of the recent jokes on social media that are especially based on humiliating the other side illustrate this situation. For people, the safest way to make others experience feelings of sadness, panic, fear, or humiliation without damaging the relationship is through jokes, and it is said by Sigmund Freud and most other psychologists that jokes bring certain thoughts hidden in the subconscious to the surface. Perhaps this rule applies not only to thoughts but also to (sadistic) emotions.

I will refer to the ideas of several thinkers in order to strengthen my claim.

Thomas Hobbes and the Pleasure People Take in Others’ Suffering

In his work Leviathan, published around 1651, Hobbes examines the concept of laughter. According to him, when people witness others in a state of disgrace or suffering, they experience a certain kind of pleasure. Hobbes associates this with the feeling of “superiority,” which parallels the sadistic emotions within individuals discussed in this thesis. Hobbes’ views also laid the foundation for what would later be known in modern psychology as the “superiority theory of humor.”

“Sudden glory, is the passion which maketh those grimaces called laughter; and is caused either by some sudden act of their own, that pleaseth them; or by the apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves.”   

[Leviathan, Part I, Chapter 6]

Although Hobbes was one of the first to make these observations, the discussion does not end here.

Nietzsche and the Fascination with Executions

In the section “Guilt, Bad Conscience, and Related Matters” of his essay On the Genealogy of Morality, Nietzsche claims that people take pleasure in the suffering of others. He supports this claim by giving the example of how public punishments and executions eventually turned into a kind of festival. 

“Without cruelty there is no festival: thus the longest and most ancient history of man teaches — and punishment still contains so much that is festive!”

(On the Genealogy of Morality, Second Essay)

According to Nietzsche, these festivals not only bring out the hidden sadism within people, but also show us how the moral values of societies can be shaped. By turning punishment and suffering into a form of entertainment, society reinforces its own fundamental structure.

Such execution ceremonies may no longer be held today. However, when we think about it a little, it becomes clear that this culture has been replaced by social media lynchings and humiliating “prank” videos. 

As mentioned at the very beginning, people take great, almost ceremonial pleasure in watching the suffering of others.

The hidden sadism within people has not been discussed only by philosophers throughout the years. Carl Gustav Jung, the famous psychologist, also makes psychological evaluations about the darkness that exists within human beings.

Carl Gustav Jung and the Darkness Within Human Beings

In his work Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, published in 1951, Carl Gustav Jung introduces the concept of the "shadow" the unconscious part of the personality that contains repressed desires, fears, and morally questionable impulses.

“The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real.”

(The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Collected Works, Volume 9, Part 1)

Jung argues that there is a shadow within every person. This shadow can be seen as similar (not the same) to what is known in today’s language as “intrusive thoughts.” According to him, the shadow inside people pushes them to do things that can be considered morally wrong. And for a person to be considered moral, they must confront this shadow.

Schadenfreude and Taking Pleasure in Others’ Suffering

Schadenfreude(1) is a German word that does not have an exact equivalent in English. It is formed by combining Schaden (harm) and Freude (joy), and it means “taking pleasure in others’ suffering.”

Although Schadenfreude is the most well-known, there are similar words in other languages as well.

For example, the Chinese term “幸災樂禍” (2) has a similar meaning and refers to the joy one feels at another person’s misfortune. Likewise, the Russian word “Злорадство”(3) is very close in meaning to Schadenfreude and refers to the pleasure taken in someone else’s unhappiness.

Sadistic Personality Disorder or Sadism as a Trait

Sadistic Personality Disorder was included in the DSM-III-R in 1987 but was removed from the DSM-IV in 1994. In modern psychology, this trait is still not recognized as an official diagnostic category; rather, it is most often seen as an additional characteristic frequently observed in individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).

When sadism was considered a personality disorder, some early estimates suggested that it could be observed in around 8% of the population . According to those estimates, only about 8% of people derive some form of pleasure from the harm they cause to others. This number, however, rises to over 20% when the context involves sexuality.

This alleged 8% rate is relatively low when applied to the general population, and it offers a kind of criticism of the generalization made in this text. However, before making this criticism, it is worth remembering that sadistic personality disorder is no longer a diagnosis in modern psychology and is instead considered an additional trait.

And the purpose of this text is to identify and shed light on the sadistic behaviors that lie within perhaps a large part of people, whether they are present in an obvious way in some or hidden behind seemingly innocent jokes in others.

Conclusion

The main purpose of this text was to reveal the hidden sadism that exists in people through jokes made in the modern world. In this way, we first discussed the main idea, and then briefly examined how different thinkers tried to reach similar results through their own examples. By both looking at the sadistic actions that humanity has carried out for years under the name of "culture" and making a brief introduction to the etymology of languages, I aimed to show that the existence of sadism in people can be observed even through language.

This sadism can be so intense in some people that it was once diagnosable by psychiatrists, while in others it exists at lower levels that only emerge in certain social situations. At this point, the concepts of overt and latent sadism(4-5), which are occasionally used in psychological writings, may come to mind.

And at this point, many people might think of themselves as exceptions, distancing themselves from everything written here. But in the end, when they make a joke that hurts someone or witness such a joke as a third party, I am sure this question will cross their minds:

“Am I enjoying this?”

(1) Schadenfreude: enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others

(2) 幸災樂禍: A Chinese term meaning "to take pleasure in others' misfortunes."

(3) Злорадство A Russian term referring to the feeling of pleasure derived from another person's unhappiness or misfortune

(4) Overt Sadism: Sadistic behavior that is openly expressed or clearly visible; deriving pleasure from cruelty or causing harm in a direct and explicit way.

(5) Latent Sadism: Sadistic tendencies that are hidden, unconscious, or not directly expressed; these impulses may manifest in subtle or socially acceptable ways.

References

Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905)

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Part I, Chapter 6 (1651)

Nietzsche, Friedrich. On the Genealogy of Morality. Second Essay (1887)

Jung, Carl Gustav. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Collected Works, Vol. 9, Part 1. (1959)

Millon, Theodore, et al. Personality Disorders in Modern Life. 2nd ed., Wiley (2004)

Fromm, Erich. The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1973)

Millon, Theodore, and Roger D. Davis. Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV and Beyond. John Wiley & Sons (1996)