Some months ago, myself and a few friends were chatting in school when a person who none of us preferred the company of, let's call him/her Johnny Depp, joined in the conversation.
Exhibit A:
As the conversation flowed, I said some sort of humorous observation and everyone in the group laughed. It wasn't especially funny, but just that sort of funny that you laugh at more for the delivery than the content of the joke. Well, Johnny Depp over there responded with an equally funny joke relating to mine. Mr.Depp's joke was pretty funny and delivered in a humorous way, and I laughed, despite my dislike for cross-dressing pirates. No one else laughed and another person in the group made a snide remark to Johnny.
It occurred to me later that night that un-liked people have a disadvantage of becoming liked. Despite Johnny Depp's legitimately good joke, his reputation amongst this particular group of people was negative, thus, a negative reaction to a rare sign of wit and likeableness.
While a well-liked person has to do little to maintain reputation, a Johnny Depp must go leagues beyond what the average person might have to do to improve his/her reputation. The social playing field is not level.
Of course, this entire argument is based on my assumption that I know what a good joke is, which is entirely objectionable.
1 comment:
It's interesting, the dynamics of teenage relationships with one another and I believe you are completely correct in assuming such things. People who are considered "uncool," "weird," or "clingly" are ostrisized and have to work miracles to get in with the popular crowd. Even better are those people in the middle. The ones who aren't really popular, don't really have a cliche, are friends with just about everyone, but close with almost no one. Some of them are just fine and enjoy the diversity. However, I believe most are dying to get in with a certain cliche they deem "cool," while avoiding a chance to be in with a different group of people they deem "uncool." I'm an observer so I watch most of this happen and am friends with a lot of people who fall under the latter category. I also notice a lot of people who aren't pleased with being in the spotlight while some are dying to get in. Teenage dynamics just blow the mind.
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