Why Rabbis Tell Jokes

you know there was a guy who was uh on a hot-air balloon trip and he got lost the wind came he got blown off course he didn't know where he was so he was desperately trying to figure out his location and he was flying over a field a big open field and he saw a fellow standing down in the field and he screamed down below he says you there can you help me the guy down below in the field says yes I can help what do you need the guy in hot-air-balloon says can you tell me I'm lost can you tell me where am I the guy's standing down on the ground says you're in a hot-air balloon got in the hot air balloon says yes yes I know but where's my location in relation to earth the guy who down below sensing you're about a hundred meters off the ground the guy says yes I know I'm talking location like where am I located in the world so the guy down below says you are 38 degrees north 12 degrees east longitude the guy in the hot-air balloon says sir may I ask you one more question guy below says yeah they're going above system are you a rabbi the guy below says yeah I am I'm by trade I am I am oh I am a rabbi how do you know I'm around I the guy in the hot-air balloon says because from the moment I met you every single thing you've told me has been a hundred percent true and totally irrelevant to my situation by the way I said it as rabbi but you could plug in any expert right that's the occupational hazard of the expert I know something you don't know that's why I'm up here talking but what's gonna happen is I'm gonna speak on a level I'm gonna speak over your head it's not gonna resonate and the more I talk the more alienated you become the more apparent that becomes that we're in two different worlds so what's the quickest easiest way for us to take a step into common ground and share a universe the quickest easiest way is a joke when you tell a joke and everyone laughs we're all in on the joke right that's how we say and in English right you're in on the joke when we both laugh at the same thing that means we both share at least in some limited fashion a common outlook unreality so you know like a Venn diagram with the two circles so here's the circle of the speaker here's the circle of the audience here's his expertise which is his area of his or her area of mastery then here's the audience who doesn't yet have mastery in that in that area the overlapping of the two circles is what we both agree is funny so when I open with a joke it's not to loosen you up it's not to prove to you that I'm a nice guy and a cool guy okay it's all right put you at ease the joke is instantly to draw those two circles into an overlap even the tiniest bit of overlap and once there's overlap there's some common ground I can start to pull you into my work