Hit your elbow on the corner of a table and that sharp, tingling, pins-and-needles wave that races down to your pinky and ring finger? That’s not actually your bone. It’s a nerve.
The “funny bone” is really the ulnar nerve - one of the major nerves running from your shoulder down to your hand. Most of the way, it’s safely buried under layers of muscle. But right at your elbow, it has to pass through a narrow channel between two bones, with almost nothing protecting it. When you hit your elbow on something, you’re whacking that nerve directly against bone, which sends it firing in confusion.
So why “funny bone”? Two reasons, depending on who you ask. One: it’s a pun on the bone next to it, the humerus - which sounds like “humorous.” Two: the strange tingling sensation feels weird and “funny” in the strange-not-haha sense. Either way, the funny bone has been laughed about for over a century, and it’s not really a bone at all.
