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“Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you’re gonna get.” - Forrest Gump

“Jokes are like the chocolates in a box of chocolates - all the good ones have gooey centers.” - Harrison Greenbaum

The Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that everything in the universe had a telos, or purpose for being.  It’s easy to see the telos in the functional objects humans have created: for example, the telos of a coffee mug is to hold coffee.  In other words, the coffee mug was created in order to fulfill the creator’s goal to have something to put one’s coffee in.  That is not to say that we can’t do other things with a coffee mug, like use it to hold pencils, but the reason the coffee mug was created in the first place - the coffee mug’s telos - was to hold coffee.  In fact, if the telos of a coffee mug was to hold pencils, it would not exist in the form it currently exists - the coffee mug would look like a pencil holder (wouldn’t need the handle, for example, and might be made of a better material).  Without “holding coffee” being its telos, a coffee mug would not be a coffee mug (that is, an object of particular shape, material, etc. we have come to know as a coffee mug).  Thus, the coffee mug exists in its particular shape and form because it was designed to hold coffee: the reason an object exists in the form that it does is  because of the object’s telos, or reason for being.  In regards to things not designed specifically by humans, however, determining whether something has a telos and what that telos is is a trickier proposition.  (Here’s a fun question to debate with friends: do humans have a telos?) 

I do believe that jokes - which (at least in the form we use them) were created by humans - have a telos.  In determining the telos of jokes, however, we should recognize that a joke’s reason for being cannot simply be to make someone laugh - if that was the case, the joke is not the only form that would work.  A pratfall, a pie to the face, or a silly voice all can make people laugh - all would be equally valid forms for a joke if creating laughs was a joke’s entire telos.  Thus, we need to find a telos that fully explains the form of the joke.  In order to do that, we need to look closely at what a joke is.

Just as ordinary mail contains two parts - the content being sent (the letter) and a means for getting it to the recipient (the stamped and addressed envelope) - a joke, too, is comprised both of the message and the means for delivering that message.  (In this sense, the comedian is letter writer and the medium - his stand-up performance - is the mailman.)  As many psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists have found, humor is one of the most effective ways to impart a message - it is the sugar, in many respects, that makes the medicine go down.  The form of the joke, then, is a thought or idea enveloped in a delivery system characterized both by its speed and efficacy.  The telos of a joke - that is, the goal or purpose of a joke - is to deliver a thought or idea in a fast, effective, and generally enjoyable way (i.e., a way that elicits a humor response in the recipient).

If we continue to use the analogy of the joke as consisting of a letter and envelope, we can see that there are three kinds of jokes.  The first is a joke that consists only of the letter - that is, an idea or thought without the mechanisms of humor to deliver it.  In other words, a joke without its envelope is not a joke at all - it’s just a statement of fact.  The second is a joke that consists only of the envelope - that is, a joke that is all technique, with no real idea or thought at its center.  The third is a joke that consists of both - a joke that is both funny (thanks to the envelope) and thought-provoking (thanks to the letter).

It’s in comparing the second and third forms of the joke that knowing a joke’s telos is important.  We know the first form of a joke (only letter) is not a joke, but neither is the second form of a joke (only envelope).  A joke that doesn’t deliver an idea is a joke that doesn’t fulfill its telos, which, as we said before, is to deliver a thought or idea in a fast, effective, and generally enjoyable way: you can’t deliver a thought or idea without having a thought or idea in the first place.  True jokes must not only provoke laughter but provoke thought as well.  (Otherwise, why use the form of a joke in the first place?)

There are plenty of comedians, especially those starting out, whose jokes don’t contain real ideas or thoughts.  They’re frivolous, myopic, narrow, or some combination of the three.  They’re like the fast food of jokes - satisfying in the short-term but of no long-term nutritional value.  It’s not to say that they’re wrong, per se, but that they don’t fulfill the true potential (telos) of what a joke is supposed to be.  The jokes we as stand-up comedians should strive to write should have a gooey center - in other words, should contain a real thought or idea.  That’s what takes our jokes from transient fun to persistant art.  It’s our job, nay, our telos as stand-up comedians to make our audience laugh and think.