I have always been obsessed with the concept of humor. I believe firmly that humor is not just a thing that happens. It’s a skill that can be learned, studied, and perfected. Humor is way more complicated than just seeing something and laughing. There are so many factors that make people laugh. It’s different for everyone. For example, you can play peek-a-boo with a baby and watch it lose its mind laughing. But go to a full-grown man and try playing peek-a-boo with him. I dare you. Or you can make a teenager laugh by saying incredibly vulgar things. But go ahead and talk to a sweet old lady about the awful things that are in your group chats. The point is, we don’t all laugh at the same things, and that’s okay. In my opinion, the first law of humor is to know your audience. And if you don’t get a chortle out of someone, don’t get upset. You won’t get a definitive answer if you want to know what makes something funny. Because humans like to analyze anything and everything until it becomes a chore, we have separated humor into a ludicrous number of categories. If I were to go over all of them, this article would spread far enough to take up half this newspaper. So instead, I’ll talk about some of the most well-known humor categories: slapstick, absurdism, and relatability.
Slapstick humor is most appreciated by children and toddlers. This is because you don’t need much cognitive development to enjoy it. So what is slapstick? It’s when something is funny because a physical thing is happening. Think of a cartoon character stepping on a rake, or a car slamming into a fake tunnel. It doesn’t have to make sense, but it’s funny because you’re watching something crazy happen to someone that’s not you, and it’s typically exaggerated. If you want to make an enjoyer of slapstick comedy laugh, find a pie and slam it into your face. Slip on a banana peel. Fall down the stairs while making sure your body folds into a slinky on the way down. Or if you value your life, you can turn on Looney Tunes and let Bugs Bunny do it for you. It’s why cartoons like Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Animaniacs are so funny.
My favorite type of humor by far is absurdism. Almost everyone can enjoy it, but especially kids and teenagers. The whole premise is to use the element of surprise to shock and amuse. It’s essentially random. It’s raining, so a man will pull out an umbrella. Is it to cover himself? Of course not. He’s going to open and close it repeatedly and fly away. That’s not what you expected him to do, so you laugh. The elevator is going up, and it has reached the top floor. Will it stop there? Nope. It’ll burst out of the building and continue rising until it’s in the stratosphere. That wasn’t supposed to happen. So you laugh. It’s absurd. So you laugh. A man is sitting at a bus stop, and his bus is arriving. Will he get on the bus? Yep. He got on the bus and is heading to work. Wait, that’s supposed to happen. But because you expected another absurd thing to happen based on the pattern I’ve set up, I was able to twist it around so nothing out of the ordinary happened. And yet, you might have found it at least slightly amusing. And if you didn’t, then you’re probably a real grouch.
Our third and final topic for today is relatability. This type of humor relies on experience to make people laugh. Basically, it’s when the joke revolves around an experience people often have. This humor requires a little bit more cognitive thinking to understand. Most comedians use relatable humor to make people laugh. So why do we laugh at things we find relatable? My theory is that when others express that they’ve been through something you’ve been through, it can be a relief, like you’re not alone. And with the right delivery, it can even make you laugh. Of course, you can’t just say “I waited for my fast food and they got the order wrong”. That’s not quite funny. But you can use this idea to create something people can find amusing. For example, you could tell a story about getting a fast food order wrong with exaggerated details and emotion. Make the audience feel like they’re in the story. Misery loves company. Adding a little bit more emotion makes all the difference. Emphasis on “little” bit more emotion. There’s a difference between someone funny and an absolute drama queen.
As stated earlier, these are not all the types of humor. There’s an insane amount I didn’t go over that would be just as fun to cover. Anti-humor, dark humor, light humor, crude humor, and self-deprecating humor, to name a few. And you don’t have to go around analyzing every joke you encounter. One of my favorite sayings comes from E.B. White, who stated “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better, but the frog dies in the process.” And it’s true. Once you explain a joke, it won’t be funny anymore. So learn to laugh at whatever makes you laugh. And I’ll keep doing everything in my power to make people giggle.
