Negative Humor

This weekend, I was exposed to negative humor. This humor came in the form of a comment/joke a friend of mine made to another friend while a group of us were eating lunch. Being a group of college aged boys, it was only natural that we all give and receive our fair share of "crap," but this specific comment crossed the accepted line of what is ok. Just to give a little background, the friend the comment was made about is a college football player and the friend who made the comment was not an athlete in the slightest. Although I cannot remember the exact wording, the comment was meant to imply that because the one friend was a football player, he was not as intelligent or as studious as the average non-athlete student. Obviously, the football player, who cared greatly and put a lot of effort into academics, was insulted by this insinuation. After seeing that his words had caused some insult, the teller of the joke quickly apologized and there were no hard feeling between the two, but it just went to show that even jokes told in good nature can still be hurtful. I think in this case, the joke really found a soft spot because his academic work ethic/intelligence is something that he can and is trying to improve and control. Many examples of negative humor, while still hurtful, are made about things that people can't change, like their race, gender, or sexual orientation. Again, I don't mean to say that comments that attack these subjects are any less hurtful, but they cannot be changed. To be made fun of for something that you are actively trying to improve can be especially devastating.