There's an actual neurological condition that means people can't help telling inappropriate and annoying jokes - but although you may make some pretty marginal calls, you probably don’t have it.
Those who are diagnosed with Witzelsucht - which translates to joke (Witz) and addiction (Sucht) - have “an addiction to trivial, excessive, and often sarcastic joking”, sometimes without even knowing it.
The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences released an article that studied two people with Witzelsucht, and their findings were pretty off-the-wall.
During later visits to partake in the study, the same patient kept on amusing himself in strange ways.
“On one clinic visit, he began disco dancing; on another, he publicly discussed his sexual situation; and at a third visit, he grabbed the examiner’s tie and that of a passing physician and started to compare them,” all while bursting into laughter from his antics.
The poor guy lost his job because of the condition when he said “who the hell chose this God-awful place?” at a work function.
The study states he would also go into his neighbour’s house and start playing the piano; bought two dozen Hawaiian shirts; ate the same meal over and over again for weeks, and did not bathe for at least six weeks.
On a lighter note, the study also shared some jokes that another patient with the condition wrote down, and honestly, some of them are pretty good.
My personal favourite is - “What did the proctologist say to his therapist? All-day long I am dealing with assholes.”
Interestingly, the study found that people with Witzelschut struggle to recognise funny shit when someone else says it.
“The paradox of Witzelsucht and moria is that these patients are actually insensitive to humour not generated by themselves … they do not feel the punchline as humorously connected to the storyline, yet simple forms of humour that do not require integration of a punchline (e.g. slapstick and puns) may still be experienced as funny.”
So next time you're not tossing up whether or not to rag on the food at family dinner or razz your boss, spare a thought for the poor sods who don't have a choice.
