What Is a Joke?

If you see the token of a joke as interchangeable, you're missing out on what a joke really is. Jokes are meant to be funny on the whole - they don't have to say anything immoral in order for people to find them funny. One has to be very careful about what it would take for laughter at an evil joke to show a bad character. Most jokes are narrative fictions and we don't believe what is presented in the fiction. We imagine it. Atheists imagine certain things about heaven and god in order to laugh at new york joe about heaven. And i can appreciate the incongruity in jokes without bearing ill will towards the butt of jokes. For