The illustrious Mel Brooks once said, "Tragedy is I stub my toe. Comedy is you fall in a manhole and die." Comedy is subjective. It is founded on the principle that you're okay and I'm okay, but that putz over there is a schlemiel!

Unfortunately, in these politically correct times, while one person will laugh, another will not. This is apparently dependent upon an inordinately large number of unpredictable variables including but not limited to an audience member's social, religious, cultural, political, and/or racial backgrounds, as well as their gender, sexual orientation, and whether or not they've gotten any recently.

While some comedians take this in stride and even use it to their advantage, others seek that Holy Grail of Comedy: the NON-subjective joke.

In other words, an inherently funny joke that does not rely on context. A sort of "my dog's got no nose"-type joke that does not require one to be canine-insensitive, or to even know what a dog (or a nose for that matter) is.

Logic dictates that such a thing exists, only waiting to be discovered. Consider the following:

1. POSIT: Comedy is the opposite of Drama.
2. GIVEN: Non-Subjective Drama does exist¹.
3. CONCL: If non-subjective Drama exists, then just as there is good and evil, night and day, Donnie and Marie in the world, so too therefore non-subjective Comedy (even if it is the lack of Drama) must exist.

So who will be the first to discover (invent?) the Non-Subjective Joke? Or does it already exist, and if so, in what form? By that we mean this: is there such a thing as a funny joke (ie a joke that actually makes people laugh) which doesn't have the potential to offend someone somewhere? Feel free to leave your answer below.