Literally! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Therefore, I am the funniest person in this thread.
Yeah, I’d drop puns altogether. They’re underappreciated. But I like jjimm’s suggestion – go OTT explaining it. Go totally Stewie Griffin on them.
The best humor, IMHO, is not jokes at all. Just notice something in your environment or situation and find the absolutely absurd in it, and point it out in a funny way. It takes a bit of practice, but it’s well worth it.
I’m (in)famous for my bad or esoteric jokes. I prefer the dry delivery. Often people think I’m just strange. For me, that’s part of the joke. It’s kinda Zen: ‘The joke is, there is no joke.’ Often people will know I made a joke, but they just don’t get it. If you have to explain it, it loses its punch. (As an example: René Descartes is at a bar. Just before closing time the barkeep says, ‘Mr. Descartes, would you like one for the road?’ Descartes says, ‘I think not…’ and suddenly vanishes! Not as funny if you have to explain it.)
If they don’t know I’ve made a joke, then much of the time I’ll take that as part of the joke and not say anything. Depending on the situation or timing, I might say, after an interval, ‘Because, you see, [insert short explanation]…’ This works best if they got, or almost got, the joke but it was one of my really bad ones. The followup becomes funny because of the :rolleyes: reaction. But more often I’ll use the ‘single raised eyebrow’ and sometimes they’ll get it later.
My favourites are when I use a very dry delivery and end up with something outrageous. They get sucked in, and then realise at the end I’ve been pulling their leg. The real payoff (for me) is that I can tell a story using the same dry delivery that isn’t a joke, and they say, ‘Wait. Is this a joke?’ when it isn’t.
Oh, yeah, callback humor!
And shit.
On the other end, I will sometimes pretend that a joke has gone completely over my head, usually requesting a diagram of it. This sometimes leads to Ultimate Hilarity, such as a stick-figure drawing of my friend fucking me in the ass.
I approve.
Speaking of which, could we please start some sort of petition to get Robin Williams back on cocaine?
Put on an Eastern European accent and say, ‘I make joke, ha?’
If subtle humor is flying over everyone’s head, maybe you need a better class of folks to hang with. When I make a subtle joke, typically one person “gets” it. (S)he can then explain it to the slower individuals.
I see what you did there.
I giggled when I read that in the OP. I thought it was good, but then, I am in the 0.1% that truly enjoys puns.
The Git R Done comedian may be your saviour here.
After your delivery, where the joke may fall flat or be insulting/insensitive in some way, you then say after a brief pause (as he does) “I don’t care who you are, THATS funny”. Put the onus on them to either get it or be humorless clods.
That will Git R done.
I knew a guy in L.A. who wrote for Leno. He was fired because his jokes weren’t funny. He sued and either won or settled. The funny is that he went to court to prove he’s funny. He isn’t. He really isn’t.
I suffered from a similar problem until I began carrying a large spring which I use to punctuate each of my humorous remarks. <BOIINGGGGG>
Juh? I always do this. Should I stop?
Sometimes I go, in the McBain voice, “These are the jokes, people.”
Immediately.
Now THAT’s funny!
Good grief!
Though, if he had PATENTED his jokes he would have probably made even more money 
The humor. It does NOTHING!
He’s written a couple of cartoon books. Pretty dreadful. The only one I can remember involves a guy and girl chatting each other up. The gist of it is that they’ve both had extensive cosmetic surgery. The ‘payoff’ is that they were both farm animals when they started. :rolleyes:
I sort of make up puns for a living, working on a magazine where I’m always trying for witty headlines. They’re not required to be fall-on-the-floor hysterical, so there’s quite a bit of sliding-scale humor.
That said, punning is somewhat expected of me and no one has ever failed to get one, no matter how bad. Recently:
Coworker 1: Frank really loves this band Guar.
Me: Guar? Like the food additive? Guar Gum?
Coworker 2: Yeah like that. Whatever it is.
Me: Guar. What is it guood for?
All: Groan.
“Wokka, wokka, wokka!”
“Eh? Eh?” is totally acceptable if it’s part of the joke, or just to highlight how bad it is and that you know how bad it is. I made a joke recently about the Israel/Palestine situation that would have been flat without it.
Beyond that, I’m not much good at the joke signals either. Either that or I have the wrong audience for my usual style of humor. I keep being taken literally, and it seems so useless to go “Hey! Joke here!”
Around my parts, “All” woulda replied in unison, “absolutely nothing”.