If You Laugh At Sick Jokes, It’s Probably Because You’re Really Smart

Love dead baby jokes? You just might be a genius. Kind of.

I’m guessing approximately half the population finds dark humor enjoyable, even if they won’t admit it. For example:

Where do you find a dog with no legs?
Right where you left it.

Haaa.

Between friends, this type of joke is pretty damn funny. (Well, to me, at least.) However, they tend to be frowned upon in public, because many, many people are sensitive, and dark humor hurts their fragile feelings.

But did you know that delivering a classless, tasteless, sarcastic joke, like Louis C.K. loves to do, is a sign of sharp wit and cunning intelligence? Yup, if you laugh at racist jokes, it means you’re one smart cookie, and you have a fabulous sense of humor. Good for you!

According to a new study conducted at the Medical University of Vienna, a person who likes dark humor is smart and awesome, while a hard-ass who hisses at your dead baby jokes and tries to lecture you about morality is a miserable dweeb who probably hates his life.

Let’s elaborate on this.

For the study, a team of researchers, led by Ulrike Willinger, recruited 156 middle-aged participants with an average age of 33. Each participant was asked to rate 12 dark humor cartoons from a twisted German cartoon book called “The Black Book.”

Then, each participant completed questionnaires that tested them on their verbal and non-verbal IQ abilities, and then they answered questions about their mood, aggressive tendencies, and educational background. You know, to find out how peppy and well-educated they are.

On a side note, The Black Book apparently has some seriously sick jokes that would make even the most seasoned paraplegic-joke veteran say “Oh shit. That’s fucked up.”

The results found that participants who understood or chuckled at the cartoons were more intelligent than someone who either didn’t understand the jokes, or got butthurt over them. What’s more is that those who understood the jokes and found them funny were also the ones who scored highest on the IQ tests. Smart and sassy!

The researchers also discovered that those same dark-humor-loving people were less aggressive and had generally more positive moods, which means they are living their best lives.

On the other hand, people who did not appreciate the humor in the sick jokes had average-to-low intelligence scores, on top of having the most negative moods and highest levels of aggression. So, it would seem as though the sensitive people who get their feelings hurt from foul yet hilarious dick jokes and such are lame. Like, super lame. 

Long story short, the brightest minds have a penchant for the most twisted, tasteless humor. But it makes sense, considering that kind of humor takes a certain type of faculty to find funny.