A horrific realization ~ someone please prove me wrong.

It occurred to me while reading Dave Barry, a universal truth about jokes. They are all, every one of them, at someone's or some thing's expense. Now part of the horror of this, is that I have to wonder if I am the only person on earth who didn't know this. I mean, is that just a given? Or are there others out there to whom this might be a heart-rending, world-shifting epiphany?

I've heard the concept before, of course. The butt of a joke. The joke's on me. Making fun of someone, some group, some concept, some thing. But I always thought those kinds of jokes just weren't very nice. Now I am slapped in the face with the truth. That's the only kind of joke there is!

Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side, you idiot. The part in italics is implied of course, but it's there. That's why the joke is funny. We are to imagine that someone watched a chicken crossing the road and couldn't grasp the concept that the reason for the crossing was the getting across. that person is the funny part, even if that person is ourselves.

When I made this realization, I got on the net and went to some jokes pages. Sure enough, not even one of the jokes I found were devoid of this element.

Well, I guess the jokes been on me all along.