I never thought of analyzing the joke and why I chose it until I started reading Plato And A Platypus Walk Into A Bar, a book by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein which is subtitled, Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. The authors use good news/ bad news jokes to illustrate the views of twentieth century German existentialist, Martin Heidegger, who believed that human existence is "being-toward-death".

According to Heidegger, "To live authentically, we must face the fact or our own mortality squarely and take responsibility for living meaningful lives in the shadow of death. We must not try to escape personal anxiety and personal responsibility for denying the fact of death."

I had no idea this is what I was doing when I told that joke or others like it. For example, there is the one about an artist who asked the owner of the gallery that displayed his works how things were going with the sale of his paintings. The gallery owner replied, "There's good news and bad news. A man came in and asked if you were a painter whose work would become more valuable after your death.

When I told him I thought you were, he bought every painting of yours that was in the gallery." "Great, that's terrific," gushed the painter. "But what's the bad news?" The gallery owner looked at the artist mournfully, "The bad news is that the man who bought the paintings was your doctor."

¶ 7:51 AM