Maybe your irritating jokester is really just sick

Did you hear about the two silk worms that raced? They ended up in a tie!

Ha ha ha.

I told you that gut-busting gag to tell you this: Pity the poor jokester. He might not be just irritating. He might be ill.

At least that's the conclusion of a pair of recent studies by two UCLA brain researchers (more like UCLA "bruin" researchers, am I right?) that were recently published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. According the studies, two subjects' brain trauma and dementia led to what the scientists describe as “intractable joking.”

Or intractable brilliance, am I right?

Of course, I don't want to make the scientists angry, because I'm afraid of a mad scientist. Ha ha ha.

Anyway, two men had problems with their wit.

In one case, one man would wake his wife up in the middle of the night to tell her jokes he made up. When she complained about not sleeping, he began to write them down – and accumulated 50 pages of puns and poop jokes that he later revealed to the researchers. Lucky researchers!

Which reminds me of the constipated mathematician. He worked it out with the pencil! Get it?

Anyway, back to the guy. It turns out he had a brain hemorrhage 10 years earlier that led to other erratic behavior, including obsessions about recycling and restaurant napkins.

I presume the restaurant napkin obsession started after he visited the "Star Wars" restaurant. You know, the one with Darth Waiter! Get it?

The other case study involved a guy with dementia who lost his job due to continually joking. He "would frequently break out in laughter, almost cackling, at his own comments, opinions or jokes, many of which were borderline sexual or political in content," according to researchers.

Please, don't let those researchers talk to my co-workers!

Anyway, after that impressive opening, the UCLA report descended into scientific mumbo-jumbo, with information about lesions and other stuff I couldn't understand (it was almost like reading a French foreign lesion! Get it?). The article didn't share why those around the men didn't simply appreciate having a funny colleague or husband.

The scientists examined one man's brain after he died (fortunately, he didn't die of laughter. We think.) and found that he had the aforementioned lesions on the right front of his brain, just like the other (still living) guy. According to the study, people with lesions on the right frontal lobe of their brain still respond to silly puns and slapstick, but can’t appreciate more complicated jokes or those that are new to them.

That reminds me of this: What does a brain do when it sees its friend across the street? It gives a brainwave. Get it?

Well, let's just be glad that we're not addicted to dumb jokes, unable to stop.

Which reminds me, did you hear about the two silkworms that raced?

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.