# Are some sounds naturally humorous?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-sounds-naturally-humorous/536454>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 17, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-sounds-naturally-humorous/536454 "2010-04-17T14:40:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wohlfeld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/41988e/32.png) [@wohlfeld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wohlfeld)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-sounds-naturally-humorous/536454/1 "2010-04-17T14:40:45Z")

</div>

Many years ago I heard it conjectured that words containing hard C’s and  
hard G’s tend to be humorous in spoken English. The examples offered at the  
time were Jack Benny’s frequent mention of “Waukegan” and “Cucamonga”,  
and W. C. Fields’s “My little Chickadee” (addressing Mae West). Since then,  
I have noticed a number of supporting examples:

```
   the AFLAC duck
   the GEICO gecko
   Hagar
   Helga
   Gomer Pyle
   Ichabod Crane
   Clem Kadiddlehopper
   Andy Capp

   Is there substance to this conjecture? Is the effect reinforced if the

```

associated vowels are high and frontal? I don’t see much humor in  
“kumquat”, but I can’t even say “stotinki” or “zucchini” without smiling.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-sounds-naturally-humorous/536454/2 "2010-04-17T16:18:15Z")

</div>

Craig Ferguson said recently that the letter k is always funny. I don’t know if he was kidding or not, but I notice the k sound in almost all of your examples.

Plus, farts. Farts are always funny. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-some-sounds-naturally-humorous/536454/3 "2010-04-17T16:51:04Z")

</div>

> **[Inherently funny word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inherently_funny_word)**
>
> An inherently funny word is a word that is humorous without context, often more for its phonetic structure than for its meaning.
> Vaudeville tradition holds that words with the letter k are funny. A 2015 study at the University of Alberta suggested that the humor of certain nonsense words can be explained by whether they seem rude, and by the property of entropy; the improbability of certain letters being used together in a word. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer posited that humor is a produ...