Answer this... What makes a joke funny?

This has long plagued my mind, what makes a joke or action or a series of actions funny? Think about it deeply enough (like I have) and you slowly become disturbed at what you find out about yourself.

For example, man walks into a room, in the room there's there's a kitchen and in the kitchen there's a horse...

What's your first reaction to that?... What makes something funny?

A man walks into a room, in that room he finds a kitchen and a horse making breakfast.

I'm heading into Paul Merton's Territory here the surrealism of it, but would a horse cooking breakfast be funny because it's ridiculous? Or is it funny because nobody's ever seen that happen? If you've never seen it happen before and you see it for the first time, is it funny? (As long as it's legal not violent etc.) How many of you laugh out hard at watching the Guinness Book of Records?

So what makes whatever it is you find funny, funny?

I preferred him cocking the breakfast, that was funnier

I try to proof read as I type honestly I do try

I think seeing a horse making breakfast is not inherently funny. It's actually quite similar to the Borat line about "a shoe walking down the road."

The joke is in how people react.

A great example of this is when Bart Simpson sees a cowboy's horse hoovering. And the cowboy's response: "he's not much good he messes as much he cleans."

The joke there is in a few words a rapid burst of meanings eg

1 The cowboy is unsurprised a horse can do something that is surprising for a horse.
2 The comparison between his response and that of a surprised other character.
3 The bathetic punchline moving from the ridiculous to the sublime. E.g. a horse isn't much use as a domestic, on account of its tendency to leave manure on the carpets as it cleans.

A similar variation would be.

JIM
Wow your cat's taking a dump in the toilet.
DAN
But he never leaves the seat up.

or

DAN
Yeh but he makes a fuss if I piss in his litter tray.

Comedy is all about sudden realisation, status change, perceptual leaps and rapid changes in gravitas.

Oh yeah there's much more than just a punchline, wit, hidden meaning, political or not, subtle ways of saying things without saying them.

E.g., my wife always bitches about the fact I leave the toilet seat up, no problem I say... the next day she's yelling about why toilet seat is covered in piss.

The "hidden" part of the joke which does not come clear until the end of the joke is crucial the timing...

But there are things that are funny without intention, eg you're walking down a street and you see a police man walking a pig, it's funny it just is but if you saw it every day it would no longer be funny, so is the unexpected (non bad way) funny?

The piss joke is sweet.

I think it works because you're amused both by the association/familiarity. At the same time as the delight in how quickly it imparts a lot of information in a few words. And of course how it slightly twists a familiar premise.

Like I say a lot of comedy is the expected unexpected.

Quote: cjdelphi @ April 18 2012, 9:59 AM BST

For example, man walks into a room, in the room there's there's a kitchen and in the kitchen there's a horse...

What's your first reaction to that?... What makes something funny?

A man walks into a room, in that room he finds a kitchen and a horse making breakfast.

View original

...

Quote: cjdelphi @ April 18 2012, 9:59 AM BST

For example, man walks into a room, in the room there's there's a kitchen and in the kitchen there's a horse...

What's your first reaction to that?

View original

First reaction is, why is a kitchen in a room, surely a kitchen is a room? What's with all the rooms within rooms?

Could be he's refering to a time lord?

Perhaps the horse is the Doctor's neighbour.

What's in the room is irrelevant... it's what makes something funny, eg Rowan Akinson he's been able to make people laugh from just making up words...

Ok you see a dog in the street he's wearing slippers, is that funny? Why do we laugh at the things we do, Jimmy Carr think's it something to do with our primeval instincts, in this case fear. Not entirely sure of his reasoning but it's something along the lines of, we don't know how to react to it so we laugh.. Jimmy Car's Comedy Cuts (have a listen).

We (can) laugh at the unexpected because it subverts expectations.

Quote: cjdelphi @ April 18 2012, 2:51 PM BST

What's in the room is irrelevant...

View original

But it is, if it's a distraction to the funny stuff. If the first thing I think is "I'm not understanding this", then you've lost any element of surprise which might have made me laugh.

to me, if I saw that sketch on TV I'd think WTF and laugh at it.. but the more and more I read from others who "enjoy" comedy, I seem to be laughing at all the wrong things ...

all I know is if I saw a horse making breakfast, wtf followed by LMAO, followed by what else is on worth watching?..

Quote: cjdelphi @ April 18 2012, 4:40 PM BST

to me, if I saw that sketch on TV I'd think WTF and laugh at it.. but the more and more I read from others who "enjoy" comedy

View original

Yeah, f**k 'em for 'enjoying' comedy!

I enjoy a hot dog by the way. Some people don't.