I’ll admit it. I have a good sense of humor. People tell me I am funny. I’ve always taken it as a compliment. Until now. Turns out it just means I am a crazy bastard. Science has proven that now.
Some stupid study just published in the British Journal of Psychiatry has determined that comedians have psychotic personality traits, and “having an unusual personality structure could be the secret to making other people laugh”.
This British Book of Wackadoodledom reports that scientific research showed comedians have high levels of psychotic personality traits. It seems they “analyzed comedians from Australia, Britain and the United States and found they scored significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs. The traits included a tendency towards impulsive or anti-social behavior, and a tendency to avoid intimacy.”
Well la dee frickin’ da.
I don’t care what the Limey Binder of Crazy Crap says, I am not impulsive – NOT IMPULSIVE; and as for a tendency to avoid intimacy, I’d rather not talk about it. It is a very personal thing.
Researcher Gordon Claridge said that “The creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis – both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.”
There is good news here, however. Claridge says that although the traits in question are known as “psychotic”, they are also representative of healthy equivalents of traits such as moodiness, social introversion and the tendency to lateral thinking. We all know those are healthy to have, absolutely. Proving all is not lost, he also proffered this gem, saying “Although schizophrenic psychosis itself can be detrimental to humor, in its lesser form it can increase people’s ability to associate odd or unusual things or to think ‘outside the box”.
Really? Schizophrenic psychosis can be detrimental to humor? I’m stunned. We all know how funny schizophrenic psychotics can be. Laugh a minute, really, if you like that sort of thing.
I suppose I can take solace in the fact that I am actually not a comedian. Likewise, those of us with more robust senses of humor should note that Claridge also says this: “Equally, manic thinking – which is common in people with bipolar disorder – may help people combine ideas to form new, original and humorous connections.”
There you go. Funny people may have less in common with the schizophrenically psychotic than those with bipolar disorder. That is truly a relief. Those bipolar guys really have it goin’ on.
There will be people who think I am making fun of mental illness. I am certainly not doing that. I am merely using my ability to associate odd or unusual things or to think outside the box as well as combining ideas to form new, original and humorous connections.
To do anything else would be, well, nuts.