There are a lot of very, very funny posters on this forum, I think. There are also a lot of jokes in posts that don’t … quite land. The variety and diversity of senses of humour across a sample of a population astonishes me, always.
To you, What are the essential things that make a joke, a standup bit, a written humour piece, or some other vehicle funny? Just scratching the surface of things that genuinely make me laugh:
-it’s surprising or unexpected (ie I don’t see the punchline coming, or there’s something about the structure of the joke or skit that is a deviation from expected storytelling or joke construction and rhythm)
-it’s absurd
-the delivery doesn’t detract from the content (and ideally, contributes to the content).
-dick jokes are always funny, except in specific contexts.
That said, I’ve always remarked about the range of reactions from posters when the topic of what is funny comes up here. There are some comics that I just can’t imagine anyone not liking, that other posters completely hate. Or types of humour that I love that would be torture to others. so, I’m narrowing the question to what’s funny to you.
To you, What are the essential things that make a joke, a standup bit, a written humour piece, or some other vehicle funny?
For me, it is a combination of chemistry, relevance, bawdiness, and of course biting satire. For example, this is pretty much the gold standard of all of it:
It’s like pornography, you know it when you see it. Hard to articulate what actually makes something qualify as funny, and certainly varies from person to person.
Has to catch me off guard and be something I can relate to.
I find it interesting how people have a different thresholds for what they will laugh at. My wife and I attended a comedy club a couple weeks ago and she was laughing non-stop the entire time. I laughed a few times but my laugh is very selective. Yesterday she almost had to get up and leave the kid’s middle school band concert when the teacher was doing the introduction and my wife started counting the teacher’s “ahhhhs”…there were a lot of them…and my wife had to fight with all she had to keep from audible uncontrolled laughter.
22 years in the US Navy Submarine Force - 12 of it as a CPO. What I find funny would cause most people to at least cringe, and I have been asked what the hell is wrong with me.
It’s like pornography, you know it when you see it. Hard to articulate what actually makes something qualify as funny, and certainly varies from person to person.
There are a lot of very, very funny posters on this forum, I think. There are also a lot of jokes in posts that don’t … quite land. The variety and diversity of senses of humour across a sample of a population astonishes me, always.
To you, What are the essential things that make a joke, a standup bit, a written humour piece, or some other vehicle funny? Just scratching the surface of things that genuinely make me laugh:
-it’s surprising or unexpected (ie I don’t see the punchline coming, or there’s something about the structure of the joke or skit that is a deviation from expected storytelling or joke construction and rhythm)
-it’s absurd
-the delivery doesn’t detract from the content (and ideally, contributes to the content).
-dick jokes are always funny, except in specific contexts.
That said, I’ve always remarked about the range of reactions from posters when the topic of what is funny comes up here. There are some comics that I just can’t imagine anyone not liking, that other posters completely hate. Or types of humour that I love that would be torture to others. so, I’m narrowing the question to what’s funny to you.
Thoughts?
I like subtle, dark and situational comedy. I’m not a fan of slapstick, morning zoo comedy, insults or fart jokes.
Funny:
Anthony Jesselneck
Anything Coen brothers
Arrested Development
Dave Chapel
The Office
Martin McDonagh movies
Mike Birbiglia
Not Funny:
Big Bang Theory
Dane Cook
Anything Eddy Murphy after about 2000
Superbad
I saw Tim Minchin playing on Saturday evening. For those unfamiliar, he’s the dude sitting closest to Jimmy Carr.
The show was titled An Unfunny Evening with Tim Minchin and his Piano. As something of a retrospective of his musical career, the title was neither ironic or satirical, something which he was at pains to point out prior to the performance. The concert was about the music, and the circumstances of life which lead to the composition and performing those songs over the last 25 years.
But holy fuck, the man is just so naturally amusing. His unscripted banter between songs was consistently hilarious.
As others have mentioned, much humour is to be found in the unanticipated, particularly when unexpected connections are drawn between the otherwise unrelated, whether that be simple objects or the merging of complex plot lines.
Politically incorrect jokes and self deprecating humour. There are few of us at work from the Balkans and we understand each other well and each other’s humour. The woke idiots would have us fired and deported if our jokes would or could be translated. But they would have a hearth attack before they could do anything.
