Who's the Joke On

While in Chattanooga Tennessee I had the opportunity to give a slide presentation of the work that I have created over the past year and a half. At the end I opened it up for questions and the only one that took the opportunity to comment was one of the art history professors. The beginning of her comment centered on Duchampian connections in my work. This is something I have been aware of for some time (two of my works have been a direct appropriation of his work) but I am finding more connections as I reflect on my work and feel I probably need to do a more thorough investigation into him (any reading suggestions would be greatly appreciated). She also asked a question that has been asked of me before but which I have failed to come up with a concrete answer for, which is "who's the joke on?" I don't feel that my work is a direct attack on the viewer and an attempt to humiliate them. However, I certainly set up a situation of uneasiness in which the viewer is unsure if they actually "get it" or not. The embracing of the term one liner would point to at least some of the joke being on me. I think I would prefer the joke to be on "us" but I need to better define (with the work and my words) how that is accomplished.