Thought I would share this with you...

Nanapug

That's a good one. I bet the school had a good old laugh.

So is it funny because a "sweet old lady" says fuck or because she's vindictive or both? Or is there something else all together – that she bothered to write all this down or what?

It's just a joke absent FFS

But aren't jokes meant to be funny Gally? It doesn't make me smile, let alone laugh so I want to know why other people find it funny? So is the letter just made up and wasn't sent? Is the sweet old lady and her radio made up and doesn't exist? Why is it funny? Why did someone bother with making this up? Why are people laughing when on other threads they have complained bitterly about the word fuck – or was that a different group of gransnetters?

Okay – it's just a joke. Ha bloody ha.

Are you ok, absent? It was only a joke which the majority of us found humorous. The unexpected ending was what made me laugh.

It's all about context isn't it, surely.

I do not care about the 'F' word personally, lord knows that would be the least of my concerns. In this particular instance the OP did not use the 'F' word to offend but accurately repeat the 'letter' as she read it. Nothing more than that. It was a light hearted attempt to put some fun into the day, it obviously worked for some.

Humour is like empathy or kindness, we all have different levels. If you don't get it, you wouldn't get it even if it were to be explained.

Margot Leadbetter moment methinks

Rubbish Aka as you well know. That isn't funny either.

I have made it very clear that I have no sense of humour on many occasions (something people rarely admit). I appreciate that the disappointment of expectation and the substitution of the unexpected is an age-old source of humour. I just thought this joke, which is itself a variation of quite an old one, was daft and I wondered why so many apparently intelligent women thought it was funny. It doesn't matter.

Piffle.

If you have no sense of humour, absent, how can you possibly judge what's funny and what's not...?

Ana That is why I was asking people why they thought it was funny. It doesn't matter. Please don't bother.

Well, there wouldn't be any point, would there?

It's funny because of the juxtaposition of the sweet old lady idea and the fuck off comment. She's taking the piss out of her room-mate. That's not the same as being vindictive.

I bet what nfk suggested is what would really happen.

It probably isn't real anyhow.

I think you do have a sense of humour, absent, but it is an extremely dry one.

I have to agree with absent that I don't think this is funny at all. I fail to see why "this story is a credit to all humankind." I don't think so somehow.

It's setting a false context so that the ending is even more unlikely. Do we need a comedy workshop to analyse why some things are funnier to some people and not others? I don't see comedy as depending on levels of intelligence. Different things make different people laugh

Yes and I find the thread "For my fellow pedants" incredibly funny because the incidents are REAL.

So are you saying absent that we should refrain from sharing things that we find funny, just because you personally don't have a sense of humour? Not sure there would be many posts on here if we had to please all of the people all of the time. Having shared something that I felt some people would appreciate, I now feel I won't bother in future, if even a light hearted thread has to turn in to an argument. I actually feel quite sorry for you.

KARMA for certain

nanapug Of course I didn't say anything about not posting something that you thought was humorous. I was curious about why people thought that such egregious behaviour funny. The answer was, as I suggested myself, the classic disappointment of expectation but regardless of context. It's like laughing when someone says something embarrassing or farts in public. Of course, any gransnetter is entitled to post something he/she considers amusing and any other gransnetter is entitled to laugh. Equally, I am entitled to ask why. Do spare your pity – it isn't required.

I did say that none of this was worth bothering about. I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition…

Nanapug , good , really really good .

l o l

Very personal thing, humour. On Sunday nights I sit and watch The Geordie, The Scot and The Geek and cry with laughter and the S.O. looks at me in amazement [he doesn't get South Park either and I'd never even attempt to show him The Mighty Boosh]. But we both laugh at Dad's Army.

Neither did I absent, but nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.....

definitely not funny- it has to be a joke