Amusingly NOT Funny

I had a very peculiar contemplation today. While my friend Sail (not his real name :p) is busy passing on his not so funny tale across the room, most of us were only smiling instead of bursting into laughter uncontrollably, like him. It was a very bad joke and I figured the others were trying to be polite, responding to it civilly. It gets worst when the group splits and he tags along and repeat the gag in my face. Being the very affable me, of course, I laugh once more good-naturally and arched an eyebrow as if to say, “Yeah what’s with that, totally hilarious.”

Whenever Sail tells me jokes that really make me laugh, he tells it to me like five or six more times, then it’s not funny anymore and I hate it. I disgust at people attempting multiple re-enactments of the same single account. I believe there is a certain limited timing to everything you hear and when the warranty period's up, sorry but let's move on to the next most riotous thing. Catching the ball too late and my very slight unnatural behavior, Sail quickly spun a new joke out of nothing and I could no longer contain my patience. This time instead of laughing, for once I’m thankful I had a bad throat and I coughed intermittently facing the other direction as if saying, “Sorry it is indeed very humorous but I’m clearing my throat now and I would feel very bad if I spread my germs to you,”

Back facing him, I retreated quickly and located my long lost group mates. Not long before I am seated on a sleek black couch preparing to partake in a Hokkien story telling session about some farm animals by one of our lame looking facilitators. He didn’t have a funny face, his Hokkien story was dull comprising of a very bad mixture of other dialects, and downright nonsense. I couldn’t even smile. While my friends were focusing hard to appreciate the content, I was desperately praying for any form of distraction just to save myself from pretending to be amused further. I coughed yet again like I suffered from a serious throat infection (touch wood now! :P).

I wonder; if people who like sharing jokes should have a comical looking face or features to have that special added "witty" advantage? Is there any officially agreed response to save oneself from a very bad pun in the future without embarrassing the speaker in the process? I guess I’ll be safe from now till the day I recover.

And I hate to imagine my life after that.