What Makes Something Funny?

[meanlittlechimp]

Can anyone think of any humor that doesn't have the element of surprise as the basis of the humor?

ALL comedy, written or verbal, has to do with deception (setting up the joke) and surprise (the punchline). GOOD comedy requires timing and assessing your audience (they have to get the joke).

"A rabbi, a priest and a journalist walk into a bar...." The punchline is always going to be what you didn't expect. The more surprising or unexpected the funnier (it doesn't even have to make sense, it just needs to catch you off guard). Hate the kind of humor you might find in a joke book, but it's just to illustrate a point. Taking seemingly unrelated things and connecting them in a new way is also surprising. This framework is necessary for anything that is funny. Narrative humor, cartoons, or any kind of humor, works using the same idea.

Woody Allen isn't funny because of self mockery but its' the way he does it. One of his lines was "with a body of mine you don't get jealous." The self mockery isn't funny in itself, it's the implication (the surprise) that he has a great body. If he said, "with a body like mine, I rarely get dates." That isn't funny - even if it's self mocking.

This also applies to slapstick. A guy is walking down the street minding his own business and then "BLAM!" a safe drops on him, or he gets a pie in the face.... Surprise you weren't expecting that! Whether you find this funny or not is another question, but plenty of other people do.

When I was high school I used to have this habit of calling random people squirrel, squirrel-boy, ferret face, rat-boy, weasel hair, whatever. It made no sense whatsoever, but made people laugh anyways because it was completely unexpected.

[vaguely dissatisfied]

I don't think this humor employs surprise as an element, but I could be wrong. However, I absolutely love Monty Python and almost all British humor.

[meanlittlechimp]

I don't think this humor employs surprise as an element, but I could be wrong. However, I absolutely love Monty Python and almost all British humor.

What humor are you referring too? Don't just say Monthy Python give me the actual gag or bit, so we can dissect whether it stands up to my original premise.

Flying bunnies attacking you is surprising - it's the whole gag. If it was pitbulls biting you, it wouldn't be as funny.

[vaguely dissatisfied]

Yeah............you're right, but the stuff they do that really gets me laughing is sacriligious and politically incorrect or making fun of political correctness.

Examples:

1. From Life of Brian: "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

2. Same movie:
"Why you always on about women Stan?
"I want to be one."
"You want to be a woman? What for?"
"It's my right to be a woman if I want.......don't you oppress me! I wan't to have a baby."
"I'm not oppressing you Stan. You can't have a baby! Where's the fetus going to gestate....in a box!"

[meanlittlechimp]

Yeah............you're right, but the stuff they do that really gets me laughing is sacriligious and politically incorrect or making fun of political correctness.

Examples:

1. From Life of Brian: "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

2. Same movie:
"Why you always on about women Stan?
"I want to be one."
"You want to be a woman? What for?"
"It's my right to be a woman if I want.......don't you oppress me! I wan't to have a baby."
"I'm not oppressing you Stan. You can't have a baby! Where's the fetus going to gestate....in a box!"

1. He's not the messiah (setup), he's a very naughty boy! (surprise). The surprise is thinking of Jesus as a naughty boy, which isn't conventional or normal.

2. The setup is someone wanting to be a woman. and why etc. The surprise is visualizing a fetus.... in a box (the unexpected). If you changed the joke to, "where's the fetus going to gestate? you don't have a uterus." It doesn't work.

meanlittlechimp added to this post, 6 minutes and 33 seconds later...

Oh btw, I didn't come up with the theory completely on my own. I started thinking about it when Apethedog mentioned it on another forum, which I expanded upon.

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[vaguely dissatisfied]

O.K. well I thought of one that doesn't involve suprise. Ever watch Little Britain? It's these two guys doing different skits like a modern day Monty Python. One skit involves a nerdy guy taking care of another guy in a wheel chair. The wheel chair guy is also supposed to be a bit mentally challanged. Every skit involves the exact same scenario and is extremely predictable.....with no surprise at all. The helper guy asks the wheel chair guy what he wants with regard to a number of choices available. The wheel chair guy picks something the helper guy knows that he won't want. The helper guy tries to talk him out of it , but the wheel chair guy insists. Then, when everything is finished and done (like painting a room), the wheel chair guy says, "I don't like it."

I laugh every time.





vaguely dissatisfied added to this post, 10 minutes and 30 seconds later...

My test results if you're interested.

If there's one thing you're positive about it's that life is absurd. That's why your sense of humor centers around satire and farce. From social to political to religious, you see all of humanity's institutions as all too serious and totally hilarious because of it. Whether you're roasting the regulars at the coffee shop or going after bigger laughs inspired by newscasters, or dare we say, the President, your razor sharp wit cuts though the bologna. Just remember, when you lay the irony on thick, not everyone gets your humor. That's okay — if you can't laugh with someone, you can always laugh at them.

[Jgib5328]

Observational humor is really funny. It isn't deceptive and it isn't really that unpredictable. It's stuff that everyone thinks about, but nobody really says.

To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. <-- one of my favorite Dave Chappelle stand ups.

Or there is incredibly witty humor like this.

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[meanlittlechimp]

I love David Chappelle, He's up there with Richard Pryor as one of my favorites. Both who I think are INFPs.

The sesame street routine was one of his best but it fits into the model exactly. The idea of juxtaposing children's icons with junkies and pimps is exactly what I'm talking about it. It's surprising and associates seemingly unrelated concepts into one with startling connections. Snuffalupicus does look like a junky when you think about it.

Observational humor works the same way.

[vaguely dissatisfied]

Yeah, but Dave also takes real, serious situations like police brutality and makes them funny. He just tells it like it is, but his delivery is hilarious. I don't think this is so much suprise as satire.

[meanlittlechimp]

Yeah, but Dave also takes real, serious situations like police brutality and makes them funny. He just tells it like it is, but his delivery is hilarious. I don't think this is so much suprise as satire.

If you analyze the individual joke the same structure i's there. I would do it for you if you actually picked one of his bits and posted it rather than referred to his work as a whole.

[DeadSpace]

Monty Python, that kind of off the wall humor, Lewis Black, observational and commentaries on people/politics, Jim Gaffigan...kinda eerie humor, Robin Williams...completely off the walls, floors, and everywhere else. Red Green show...man cannot live without duct tape. Dave Chappelle, sardonic, sarcastic, oft tongue in cheek way of looking at things. George Bush, loves the way he mangles language...and says the dumbest things with a straight face. Steven Wright, deadpan alley.

[meanlittlechimp]

O.K. well I thought of one that doesn't involve suprise. Ever watch Little Britain? It's these two guys doing different skits like a modern day Monty Python. One skit involves a nerdy guy taking care of another guy in a wheel chair. The wheel chair guy is also supposed to be a bit mentally challanged. Every skit involves the exact same scenario and is extremely predictable.....with no surprise at all. The helper guy asks the wheel chair guy what he wants with regard to a number of choices available. The wheel chair guy picks something the helper guy knows that he won't want. The helper guy tries to talk him out of it , but the wheel chair guy insists. Then, when everything is finished and done (like painting a room), the wheel chair guy says, "I don't like it."

I laugh every time.


Hmm I have to see the skit in question. I think there is surprise in there as well, but I think something might be lost in translation.

The wheel chair guy is picking something he knows he doesn't want? just to fuck with the helper guy? I would argue that's a surprise in itself. Who picks something they don't want, just to waste everyone's time. That's is unusual and surprising I would say - but maybe I'm not understanding the skit correctly.

[NeonTetra]

If you analyze the individual joke the same structure i's there. I would do it for you if you actually picked one of his bits and posted it rather than referred to his work as a whole.

What makes the "I'm Rick James, BITCH!" skits so funny? I looked on youtube and it's a bunch of other people doing it. Here's (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) Dave doing a skit about the R. Kelly scandal a few years ago.

Something I just thought about, when you see the video as opposed to just listening to the song without the visual (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) is it just as funny? Does having the visual magnify the humor?

[meanlittlechimp]

What makes the "I'm Rick James, BITCH!" skits so funny? I looked on youtube and it's a bunch of other people doing it. Here's (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) Dave doing a skit about the R. Kelly scandal a few years ago.

Something I just thought about, when you see the video as opposed to just listening to the song without the visual (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) is it just as funny? Does having the visual magnify the humor?

It's funny because when you know the history of Rick James. He was an undeniable SUPERFREAK. Him saying I'm Rick James, Bitch! is funny in the context on how he lived his life. The real Rick James would never say that while he was tying up bitches and burning them with crack pipes, but it would be unexpected if he did.

It's kind of like a skit in History of the World part II. When Mel Brooks playing King Louis says, it's good to be the king (while he makes random women do his sexual bidding because of his power). A real king would never blatantly say what he's really thinking.

from wikipedia:
"James was a known drug user, mainly addicted to cocaine, which he often smoked; he later admitted to spending about $7,000 a week on drugs for five years straight, and to putting aluminum foil on the windows of his home. In 1993, James was convicted of assaulting two women, with the first assault during one of his cocaine binges. In 1991, he and future wife Tanya Hijazi were accused of holding 24-year old Frances Alley hostage for up to six days (accounts vary on how long she was actually held), tying her up, forcing her to perform sexual acts, and burning her legs and abdomen with a hot crack pipe during a week long cocaine binge."

[NeonTetra]

It's funny because when you know the history of Rick James. He was an undeniable SUPERFREAK. Him saying I'm Rick James, Bitch! is funny in the context on how he lived his life. The real Rick James would never say that while he was tying up bitches and burning them with crack pipes, but it would be unexpected if he did....

Is all that background knowledge necessary to make it funny? I had no clue about Rick James' history, but I still think it funny without that knowledge.

Maybe what makes it funny is the fact that I didn't know. Rick James was a disgraced R&B singer before Dave Chapelle brought him back to the public eye. For Dave to parody James by saying "I'm Rick James, BITCH!" (don't you know who I am???) as if he were still relevant makes it funny. Also I think it's unexpected to call people bitch. Just like in the "Piss on You" video. Notice the audience went wild every time he said "piss" threw around the water and then said "drip, drip, drip." Some of the best humor is incredibly literal I think.

[meanlittlechimp]

Is all that background knowledge necessary to make it funny? I had no clue about Rick James' history, but I still think it funny without that knowledge.


It makes it extra funny if you get the reference. Some people just like it when someone says things in an animated or exaggerated way period. Like when you make a funny face at a child. The funny face is a surprise to that child.

Which reminds of the old standby that makes ALL babies laugh - the peekaboo game. You put your hands over your eyes, and pull them away "surprise!" your eyes are there again. They never tire of that one.

[Haphazard]

Humor has to do with a brain misfire, I've heard.

It sets up a situation that makes sense and that veers off route. This is part of the idea that 'situation and then something unexpected'. It's also situational comedy, because where something is in the situation that's known as normal to an everyday person, it can proven absurd by the comedian. Again, brain misfire. Then you laugh.

What tends to be even funnier is the disconnect between two things that make sense, but connect between in nonsense. That's how most jokes go, anyway. The punchline is funny not because it's nonsense, but because it's unexpected and yet still makes perfect sense.

Or something like that.

[meanlittlechimp]

Humor has to do with a brain misfire, I've heard.

It sets up a situation that makes sense and that veers off route. This is part of the idea that 'situation and then something unexpected'. It's also situational comedy, because where something is in the situation that's known as normal to an everyday person, it can proven absurd by the comedian. Again, brain misfire. Then you laugh.

What tends to be even funnier is the disconnect between two things that make sense, but connect between in nonsense. That's how most jokes go, anyway. The punchline is funny not because it's nonsense, but because it's unexpected and yet still makes perfect sense.

Or something like that.

Interesting, I think you're right! It does come from a primal hard wired place. I think I'm trying to detect the pattern, which causes the brain to misfire in the first place. Surprise, humor and fear - I think are related in that way.

Do you think the chimp here was consciously aware of trying to make the cameraman laugh? or do you think he just lost his balance? I have a feeling chimps do jokes too, if they were observed enough, with this in mind.

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[deepFlow]

Humor isn't always a cerebral construction, or even "surprising".

What I love about Dave Chappelle performances, or George Carlin, or Lewis Black, or Chris Rock, and many others, are often how they physically perform their material. There is something viscerally satisfying and ... funny... about how they perform even the least complicated bit, or bit of a bit. "Physical" to me also includes the auditory qualities and timing of vocal delivery, here. And not timing as in a perfectly orchestrated Rube Goldberg humor-contraption. It's the feel of the human-behavior-show that is being put on.

It usually involves varying amounts of irony, sarcasm, parody, and representational, iconic, or stereotypical/exaggerated truth.

...In my perhaps-hand-wavily-stated opinion. ;)

[lordrrr]

I've always thought laughing is actually an evil action. Think of it, when we laugh, if we trace it down enough, it always involves us feeling better about ourselves because we arn't in a situation or circumstance as bad as the person/whatever we're laughing at. Unless your high on pot/airplane glue and you just laugh for no reason at all.

[vaguely dissatisfied]

I think laughter actually releases endorphines or something and is supposed to make you healthier. Anybody know anything about this theory?

[thod]

I think laughter actually releases endorphines or something and is supposed to make you healthier

I have seen similar research, the more times you laugh each day the longer you live. Maybe its simply that healthy people laugh more.

Humor usualy doesnt cross borders. Euro humor simply doesnt exist. American humor is often genial rather than funny. Only a few shows are side splitting funny. I dont sit there laughing to myself, I have to laugh out loud for it to pass the funny test. If i just think thats clever or nice then its not good enough.

[LunarMoon]

I've always thought laughing is actually an evil action. Think of it, when we laugh, if we trace it down enough, it always involves us feeling better about ourselves because we arn't in a situation or circumstance as bad as the person/whatever we're laughing at. Unless your high on pot/airplane glue and you just laugh for no reason at all.

I wouldn't say that. Slapstick humor seems to hold the pure form of your premise but other types based simply on logical absurdity don't really seem to follow this. Puns and the typical joke book gags are at the opposite side of the scale as they often involve no human subjects to elevate ourselves above. It's unfortunate, though. Laughing is only evil if you're actually good at it.

[Learning]

Yeah. I guess it's just the unexpected. Irony gets me, too, sometimes.

[INTJoe]

Humor usualy doesnt cross borders. Euro humor simply doesnt exist. American humor is often genial rather than funny. Only a few shows are side splitting funny. I dont sit there laughing to myself, I have to laugh out loud for it to pass the funny test. If i just think thats clever or nice then its not good enough.

I enjoy the dry humour* of the Brits. Don't say Euros aren't funny. And I wouldn't judge a Country's sense of humor based on television...American sitcoms blow huge amounts of donkey dick.

Plus, keep in mind it's hard for NT's to laugh out loud. We're stoic and unexcitable by nature. I think that is setting the bar rather high. I rarely laugh out loud, but that doesn't mean I rarely come across funny stuff.

*U added for courtesy.

[vaguely dissatisfied]

I enjoy the dry humour* of the Brits. Don't say Euros aren't funny. And I wouldn't judge a Country's sense of humor based on television...American sitcoms blow huge amounts of donkey dick.

Plus, keep in mind it's hard for NT's to laugh out loud. We're stoic and unexcitable by nature. I think that is setting the bar rather high. I rarely laugh out loud, but that doesn't mean I rarely come across funny stuff.

*U added for courtesy.
I laugh alot less now than I did when I was younger, but when I laugh it's a falling down, teary eyed, holding my stomach sort of thing. Oh yeah...........it's definately out loud.