According to Osho, the secret of a joke is the sudden, unexpected turn—the revelatory twist that subverts what the mind is predicting. As expectation builds, tension accumulates; the abrupt, absurd-yet-logical switch collapses thought for a moment, releasing energy as laughter. This stoppage of mind gives a taste of no-time, no-mind—hence a deep, meditative, even orgasmic belly-laugh.
A joke surprises your thinking so much that it stops for a moment, and that stop pops out as freeing laughter.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What is the secret of a joke?
The sudden unexpected turn, that is the secret of a joke -- the revelation. You are expecting something and it doesn't happen; what happens is so totally absurd and yet has a logic of its own... it is ridiculous and yet not illogical. That's what suddenly becomes a laughter in you. You see the ridiculousness of it, and also the logic of it. It is unexpected -- if it is expected, then it doesn't bring laughter to you. If you know the joke then it doesn't bring laughter to you, because now you know, everything is expected. Two insects were living in a cemetery. One said to the other: "Want to make love in dead Ernest tonight?" Now, poor dead Ernest...! An Englishman on his first trip to America went to one of those stand-up comic nightclubs for the first time. After he had had a couple of drinks, the…
Osho, you tell us so many jokes -- what is the basic secret of a joke and why do you tell them?
I HAVE TO TELL JOKES TO YOU, otherwise you will fall asleep. A joke shocks you back into awareness. It is a small electric shock. That's the beauty of a joke, and that's the secret of a joke. It is impossible even for the dullest mind to remain unalert when a joke is being told. Even the dullest, the most stupid, will become interested -- even one who is snoring will come out of his snoring and will start listening to what is going on. That's the beauty of a joke. A joke is something that brings in you a subtle awareness. The awareness comes because you have to listen to the joke very alertly, otherwise you will miss the punchline. If you miss a single word in a joke, it is lost. A joke is a very small thing -- a few lines. You cannot afford to be unaware.…
"A joke moves in two dimensions. First it moves in a logical dimension. You can conceive it. If the joke goes on logically to the very end, it will cease to be a joke; there will be no laughter. So suddenly the joke takes a turn and becomes so illogical that you cannot conceive it. And when the joke takes a turn and the result becomes illogical; then the expectation, the tension that was created in you, suddenly explodes. You relax. Laughter comes out. "Laughter is the relaxation. But tension is first needed. A story creates expectation, suspense and tension. You start feeling the crescendo. Now the crescendo will come. Something is going to happen. Your backbone is straight like that of a yogi. You have no more thoughts in the mind. The whole being is just waiting. All the energy is moving toward the conclusion.
Osho, I laugh so much at your jokes. I would like to ask one question: why does a joke create so much laughter?
ONE THING: you have never been allowed to laugh; your laughter is repressed. It is like a repressed spring -- any excuse is enough and it comes out. You have been taught to be sad, long faces; you have been taught to be serious. If you are serious, nobody thinks that you are doing something wrong; it is accepted, it is the way things have to be. But if you are laughing, laughing too much, then people will start feeling embarrassed by you. They will start thinking something is weird:'Why is this man laughing'?" And if you are laughing without any reason, then you are mad; then they will take you to the psychiatrist; then they will hospitalize you. They will say, "He laughs without any reason! Only mad people laugh without any reason." In a better world, in a more civilized world, in a really civilized world, laughter will…
Beloved Osho, is there a sense of humor beyond the mind? To me meditation has a sense of seriousness in it, and in my experience a sense of humor arises from misunderstandings -- real or imagined -- which have their root in the mind. Is it possible for laughter to arise with no-mind?
I have heard about an American seeker. He was a super-rich man, and having everything, he got fed up. The more you have, the more you become aware that it is not going to satisfy you. The poor man is in a better mental condition, because he can hope that tomorrow he will have a better house, a better job, more salary, a better car. There are millions of hopes around him which will never be fulfilled, and it is good that they will not be fulfilled. The super-rich finds himself in a very strange position: all hopes are fulfilled and his hands are empty, his being is empty; nothing has been found. Life has befooled him. Those hopes have proved to be all mirages. So the man started looking for some wise man who can show him the path to find the real, the ultimate, the absolute truth. And…