The 50 Types of Humour/Humor
What is humor? What types are there? Why does it matter? Which induces the most laughter? and the most benefit? Are we in the era of unfun now?
Author: Sean Moffitt, Co-founder, Grey Swan Guild
Humor — Does More Than Make Us Laugh
Some might say that for a guild that focuses on making sense of the world, why would you want to wallow in the troughs of humor, comedy, gaffes and jokes? Historically, humor was seen as the opposite of seriousness and might have been ascribed to people who were dissonant, errant and flighty.
For millennia, we likely have done humor a great disservice by dismissing its ability to provide insights, speak truths, promote health and imagine futures better than most media forms. Some among us have seen its merits:
- Aristotle viewed humor as the path to happiness, to leading a good life and a moderate level of humor improved reasoning
- Thomas Aquinas believed humor created reason, virtue and social benefits
- Mark Twain believed humor was mankind’s biggest blessing, replete with wisdom and the good natured side of truth
- Military trained, WW II leader, architect and president Dwight D Eisenhower believed a sense of humor was a key part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done
- Noted psychologist Edward de Bono suggested humor was by far the most significant activity of the human brain and sprung from the ability to make connection between seemingly unrelated concepts, contexts, situations and people.
Humor, as per Merriam-Webster, is defined by the stimulus, effect and process:
- a quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous; a funny or amusing quality
- the mental faculty of discovering, expressing, or appreciating the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous; the ability to be funny or to be amused by things that are funny
- something that is or is designed to be comical or amusing
Humor — Why It Matters
The right type of humor makes us better humans and imminently more relatable as people:
Humor is seen in modern times as being a positive psychological strength helping others feel good, important for friendship & intimacy and aiding us to be resilient to stress. Psychologists call these positive traits transcendance, put together they help us forge connections to the world, provide meaning to life and correlate strongly to other traits like: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, moderation & restraint, learning and optimism.
Personality and humour in particular were rated extraordinarily high by people seeking romantic partners, more than intelligence, interests, looks or money:
Humor also has health and physical benefits. Laughter has been known to 500x more effective than morphine at eliminating pain, facilitates more blood flow and better sleep.
The right types of humor make us more relatable as teachers (done well, 99% of students desire it, with 70% having very strong impressions) with better attention & engagement on the learning content delivered :
Humor allows our content and advertising to be more memorable and likable:
So why don’t be see more of it in our professional and personal lives?
We Tend to Overrate our Humor
Learning more about humor is the first step to discovery. As we can see, most of us tend to overrate how funny we are. Maybe we’re trying to be funny, but it’s not hitting our audience with the same intent.
We Tend to Be Scared to Use It:
Only 33% of workers say they actively exercise their funny bone in the work place because of: real or perceived boss disapproval, lack of knowing how, lack of having time and lack of seeing value.
The Golden Mean — The Aristotlian View
Aristotle believed there was a balancing act to good humour — somewhere between the unpolished boor and the over-indulgent buffoon lay the best form of comedy. It’s an interesting perspective. We’ll make no claim to better versions of humor and comedy as we tease through the 50 types that follow.
Fifty+ Types of Humor
#1 Slapstick
e.g. Naked Gun, Tom & Jerry, Gilligan’s Island def: a type of physical comedy characterized by broad humour, absurd situations, and vigorous/violent action, including the well-defined slaptick elements of: the trip, the slip, the double take, the collide, the fall (or faint), and the roar.
#2 Farce
e.g, Space Balls, The Importance of Being Earnest, Waiting for Godot def. a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations
#3 Parody
e.g. Monty Python, Don Quixote, Scary Movie def. an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect
#4 Self-Parody
e.g. The Extras, First Law (Asminov), Bill Murray/Zombieland def. a parody of oneself or one’s own work, sometimes in the form of a cinematic cameo role or literature self-insertion
#5 Comedy Genre
e.g. Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Jerk, How I Met You Mother def. one of twelve main classifications of literary and entertainment story genres, a branch of drama, theatre, cinema, stand-up comedy, television, radio, literary, or any other entertainment medium.which deals with everyday life, characters and humorous events; usually stories with a happy ending designed to elicit laughter and entertainment dealing with intrigues, errors, sentiments, humours or manners
#6 Rom-com (short for Romantic Comedy)
e.g. When Harry Met Sally, New Girl, Twelfth Night def. a sub-genre of comedy and slice-of-life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles
#7 Memes/Viral Humor
e.g. RickRoll, Dancing Baby, Charlie Bt My Finger def. an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media and person to person or person to group with a network effect benefiting the spreader (“I found this early”) and recipient (“I am now in on the joke”)
#8 Comedic Journalism
e.g. Rick Mercer, John Oliver, Frank Magazine def. incorporates a comedic tone to transmit the news to mass audiences, using humour and/or satire to relay a point in news reports; they generally take a more subjective stance on news and can be more trusted not because of neutrality but because of the emotional connection they generate with their viewers
#9 Droll/Whimsy/Jestering
e.g. The Office, Eraserhead, Rocky Horror Picture Show def. a jester, entertainer or buffoon; comical in an odd or whimsical manner, also considered outlandish, mirthful, queer, odd, or strange, catching their audiences in unusual comedic ways
#10 Wit/Quip/Repartee
e.g. Royal Tenenbaums, Shaun of the Dead, Fleabag, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy def. sharp humour with the ability to think quickly; mental cleverness, especially under short time constraints
Trends in Humor Types I:
#11 Euphemism/Aphorism
e.g. “Spending more time with the family” — is really “I had to resign”, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, Yogi Berra
Euphemism: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing, some intended to amuse, some intended to downplay
Aphorism: a pithy observation that contains a general truth, misquoted or misadvised aphorisms are frequently used as a source of humour
#12 Prank
e.g. April Fool’s, Candid Camera, Jackalope def. a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort
#13 Deadpan
e.g. Steven Wright, Aubrey Plaza, Buster Keaton def. a deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blunt, ironic, laconic, or apparently unintentional.
#14 Gallows/Black/Dark Humor
e.g. American Psycho, Seinfeld “The Finale”, This is the End, Slaughterhouse-Five, Fargo, The Big Lebowski def. humor that makes fun of a life-threatening, disastrous, or terrifying situation, treats serious matters, such as death, war, disease, and crime, in a light, silly or satirical fashion
#15 Edge Humor
e.g. Richard Pryor/George Carlin/Wanda Sykes def. intentionally offensive ironic jokes that are told/posted for the shock value and/or the facetiousness of the subject, play with the edge or line of going too far
#16 Visual Humour
e.g. Jackie Chan/Rush Hour, Mr. Bean def. relies on aspects of a performance that an audience can see, including body movements and facial expressions. using or contorting his/her body or face in order to create humour, unlike silent humour, visual humour may include dialogue or verbal expression in association with action
#17 One-liners/Paraprosdokian
e.g. Rodney Dangerfield, Oscar Wilde, Gilbert Gottfried def. a joke or a clever and funny remark or answer that is usually one sentence long
#18 Musical Humor/Comedy
e.g. Blues Brothers, Weird Al Yankovic, Adam Sandler def. a type of performance, play or film that has singing and dancing as part of the story and that is humorous and entertaining
#19 Theatrical/Variety/Vaudeville
e.g. Tonight Show, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown def. humor achieved when characters are able to triumph over negative circumstances with the creation of some sort of comedic effect, combining music, acting, conversational and/or dancing talents
#20 Low-brow Humour
e.g. American Pie. Big Mouth, Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs def. dramatic or literary form of popular entertainment without any primary purpose other than to create laughter through boasting, boisterous jokes, drunkenness, scolding, fighting, buffoonery and other riotous activity; can be understood with little to no effort, aiming to attract the most common denominators and make the biggest laughs roar in the room
Trends in Humor Types II:
#21 High-brow Humor
e.g. Being John Malkovich, Silicon Valley, David Sedaris def. humor characterized by somewhat vague and advanced knowledge and reflects on the deliberate subject of humor; makes people look deeper and have layered thoughts about intelligence, personality attributes, double meanings, sense of humor, and humorous style
#22 Inside Humor
e.g. Kevin Smith movies Dogma/Mallrats, Dennie Miller, The Onion def. humor that is understandable only to members of an in-group, people who are in a particular social group, occupation, or other community of shared interest, or only humorous to those who are aware of the circumstances behind the humor
#23 Standup
e.g. Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Sarah Silverman def. humor where a comedian performs in front of a live audience, addressing them directly, with acts consisting of one-liners, stories, observations or schtick that may incorporate props, music, magic tricks or ventriloquism
#24 Observational Humour
e.g. Jim Gaffigan, Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Connolly def. observational comedy takes the form of long monologues of personal narrative; the punchline is either hard to predict or never comes, frequently covering an everyday phenomenon that is rarely noticed or discussed
#25 Sketch
e.g. Saturday Night Live, The Two Ronnies, Carol Burnett def. comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation (whereas a skit is a single joke)
#26 Situational Comedy
e.g. Cheers, Modern Family, All in the Family def. a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode (unlike Sketch comedy where the characters may change from sketch to sketch)
#27 Surreal/Absurdity Humor
e.g. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Ren & Stimpy def. predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical; tend to involve bizarre juxtapositions, unresolved incongruity, non-sequiturs, irrational or absurd situations, and expressions of nonsense
#28 Wordplay Humor/Puns
e.g. Mad Magazine, Laugh In, Bob’s Burgers def. clever and witty use of words and meaning, involving literary devices and techniques like consonance, assonance, spelling, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, acronym, pun, and slang to form amusing and often humorous written and oral expressions relying on several different aspects of rhetoric, like spelling, phonetics (sound and pronunciation of words), and semantics (meaning of words)
#29 Satire/Burlesque
e.g. Shaun of the Dead, O,. Brother Where Art Thou, The Beaverton, Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, Adbusters def.
- Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues, as a form of protest can be called culture jamming
- Burlesque is a style in literature and drama that mocks or imitates a more serious subject by representing it in an ironic or ludicrous way; resulting in comedy, derived from ridicule, mockery, or joke. by presenting significant subjects in an absurd or crude way (low burlesque), or by presenting insignificant subjects in a sophisticated way (high burlesque); parody (mentioned above) is a specific type of high burlesque (not to be confused with American Burlesque, which was seeded by the burlesque movement but evolved into a variety show format involving striptease)
#30 Spoof
e.g. This is Spinal Tap, Naked Gun, Young Frankenstein def. typically, a type of film humor that imitates or subverts a genre or specific work, in which an original genre/work is made fun of by creating a similar but altered work.
Trends in Humor Types III:
#31 Physical Humor
e.g. Three Stooges, Coyote & Roadrunner, Jack Tripper/Three’s Company def. humor involving an extreme manipulation of the body for a humorous effect, it can include slapstick (mentioned above), clowning, mime, physical stunts, or making funny faces.
#32 Shock Humor
e.g. Tom Green, Rick & Morty, Howard Stern def. a form of low-brow and/or dark humor intended to shock the audience, frequently used in radio, achieved through excessively foul conversation or overt sexual themes, mocking of serious themes, or through tactlessness in the aftermath of a crisis
#33 Risque/Blue Humor/Ribaldry
e.g. Superbad, Chaucer, Redd Foxx def. humorous entertainment that ranges from bordering on indelicacy to gross indecency, typically sexually related, intended to push the boundaries of normal society and invariably offends some audience members
#34 Silent Humor/Mime
e.g. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Marcel Marceau, Shaun the Sheep def. humor involving no speech (usually borrowed from vaudeville and silent films) often including sight gags, body language, pronounced facial expressions, unnatural sped up or slowed down speed, exaggerated forms of violence and backtrack of music
#35 Screwball Comedy
e.g. It Happened One Night, Anchorman, Runaway Bride def. a sub-genre of romcoms that satirizes the traditional love story, either via a battle of the sexes, attraction between different social classes or backgrounds; elements of the screwball typically include fast-paced, overlapping repartee, farcical situations, escapist themes, physical battle of the sexes, disguise and masquerade, and plot lines involving courtship and marriage
#36 Paradoxical/Mistaken Identity/Epigram Humour
e.g. Blades of Glory, Galaxy Quest, Dave, Oscar Wilde def. the comedic juxtaposition of character, identity or statements of two things that are seemingly contradictory, not frequently seen, or opposed to common sense, and yet perhaps are true, happened or could happen
#37 Hyperbole/Exaggeration/Pushing Limits
e.g Elf, The Grinch, Jackass, Aziz Ansari — Master of None, def. extreme exaggeration or overstatement, performed or said for emphasis or effect; something more intense, “fish out of water’ or a rhetorical device used for ironic or comic effects
#38 Mocking/Sarcasm/Schadenfreude
e.g. Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes, Slaughthouse Five, Darwin Awards
- Mocking humor or mockery is the act of insulting or making light of a person or other thing, via taunts, caricature and/or highlighting unflattering characteristics; either in a lighthearted and gentle way, or cruel and hateful manner; attempts to even or unlevel the playing field with authority or other types or communities of people
- Sarcasm is the caustic use of words, often in a humorous way, to mock someone or something; employing ambivalence, irony, inflection and context-dependence
- Schadenfreude is the effect of humor, the vicarious experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of, or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another
#39 Aggressive Humor/Roast
e.g. Dean Martin, Jeff Ross, Don Rickles, David Spade def. a style of humor that is potentially detrimental towards others, characterized by the use of sarcasm, put-downs, teasing, criticism, ridicule, and other types of humor used at the expense of others
#40 Sophomoric/Juvenile/Toilet Humor/Fart Jokes
e.g. Shrek, South Park, Animal House, Happy Gilmore def. appeals to a silly sense of immaturity, either conceited, overconfident, poorly informed and immature
Trends in Humor Types IV:
#41 Self-Enhancing Humor
e.g. Phoebe on Friends, Michael Scott on The Office, John Mulaney def. humor finding amusement in life’s hardships and staying positive; positive in nature and focused on themselves/yourselves; smiling wryly at life’s absurdities, using humor to manage reality
#42 Self-Deprecating Humor
e.g. Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Gary Shandling, Don Knotts, Joan Rivers def. style of humor focused on belittling, undervaluing, disparaging oneself, or being excessively modest; designed to make complaints about the harshness of society, identify with common fears or phobias, appear more likable or agreeable, invoke empathy or optimal reactions
#43 Affiliative/Relationship-Building Humor
e.g. Pitch Perfect, Ferris Bueller, Jerry Seinfeld def. involves telling jokes about things that everyone might find funny; not exclusionary, affiliative humor is designed to bring people together with a sense of fellowship, happiness, and well-being
#44 Cringe Humor
e.g. 40 year Old Virgin, Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Jersey Shore def. a genre of comedy that derives humor from social awkwardness and guilty pleasure that pushes the limits; actor, real person or reality show protagonists, typically overstep the boundaries of political correctness or acceptance leading to ego deflation and/or no consequences, both invoking cringe amongst audience
#45 Caricature/Impression
e.g. The New Yorker, Donato, Mort Drucker/Mad Magazine, Tine Fey/Sarah Palin def. a distorted representation of a person in a way that exaggerates some characteristics and oversimplifies others or a performance that imitates the sounds, voices and mannerisms of celebrities, politicians, and cartoon characters, in order to produce a satiric or comedic effect
#46 Dad Jokes
“Which bear is the most condescending? A pan-duh!” def. an unoriginal or unfunny joke of a type supposedly told by middle-aged or older men; can be a form of anti-humor eliciting groans among audience, usually in the form of puns or one-liners.
#47 Nonsense/Anti-Humor
e.g. Andy Kaufman, Norm Macdonald, Eric Andre def. indirect and alternative humor that involves delivery of a joke or story that is intentionally not funny, or lacks intrinsic meaning; relying on the surprise factor the audience expects something humorous, and when it does not happen, the irony itself is of comedic value
#48 Ventriloquism/Puppet Humor/Prop Comedy
e.g. Shari Lewis, The Muppets. Tommy Cooper def. is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a “dummy”; commonly called the ability to “throw” one’s voice; or the manipulation of inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure; or a performance using humorous objects, or conventional objects in humorous ways
#49 Storytelling/Humorists
e.g. Mark Twain, Neil Simon, Will Rogers, Noel Coward, Fran Lebowitz def. a intellectual who uses humor, or wit, in writing or public speaking, but is not solely motivated to elicit laughs; distinct from comedians, who are show business entertainers whose business is to make an audience laugh
#50 Improv
e.g. Second City, Whose Line is it Anyway?, Marx Brothers def. a form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers; the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script
Trends in Humor Types V:
Are we living in an era of “unfun”?
Strike one. Some Stanford researchers have suggested we start lose our sense of humor at 23. The average 4-year-old laughs up to 300 times a day. The average 40-year-old only laughs about three times per day.
Strike two. People are self-censoring at lot more than in the past.
Foul Ball. Looks like Americans are going two polarized different ways ion this subject.
Open Question? Is cancel culture killing our ability to laugh?
Some trends on terms we’ve come to know the two sides of this debate:
Come join our Guild (see wayas to do it below) as we create a new event for summer focused on humors’ cousin Play, and its use in learning and discovery.
Read our News Wrap Volume #2, Edition #13 Focused on Humor authored by Doyle Buehler.
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