You know, I love to laugh and make other people laugh (sometimes). Whenever I hear something funny, I laugh. Whenever I think of something that I believe is funny, I share it with others.
It wasn’t until I hit my twenties, and most importantly, started reading internet message boards that people prefer certain types of humor. It varies from person to person. I always hear people say “Oh, I like a dry sense of humor” or “I’m a fan of slap-stick humor”. However, I only have an understanding what they mean on a basic level. I almost never hear any examples.
So what do these types of humor mean to you?
Slap-stick
Dry
Sarcastic
In your face
Witty/clever
Biting
Tongue in cheek
Obnoxious
Off-color
Oh yeah, what’s the difference between satire, mockery, and parody?
I forgot to add dark humor.
Slap-stick
Goofy shit. Three Stooges, Benny Hill, and Charlie Chaplin among others
Dry
Deadpan. Not a lot of energy. When I think of dry humor, I think of Norm MacDonald.
Sarcastic and Biting are pretty much synonyms to me.
It pushes the edge of insulting. Generally, if you laugh, it’s sarcastic or biting, if you don’t, it’s in-your-face.
In your face
Signifying. Actively trying to get a rise out of you or worse. The one good in-your-facer I know is Don Rickles. Bad in-your-facers tend to have their own face rearranged sooner or later. Mockery falls into here.
Witty/clever
Kind of a grab bag. Just about any type of humor can be witty or clever. Maybe puns or other plays on words, but generally it can apply to anything.
Tongue in cheek
A little less mean than sarcastic. Lots of irony, lots of double-meanings. Fractured fairy tales and one minute movie summaries strike me as tongue in cheek. I’d say that satire and parody fall into this one neatly.
Obnoxious
You think you’re funny, but you’re not. The usual result of crossing the line between sarcastic and in-your-face. Depending on where one decides to be obnoxious, he might want to have a quick exit, some judo skills, or a bulletproof vest.
Off-color
Any joke you wouldn’t tell your mother or five-year-old daughter. Can cover just about any type of humor.
I’d also like to add another category, if I may:
Graveyard humor (My favorite)
Deals with dark stuff like death, crime, and oppression. You find graveyard humor among quite a few doctors, nurses and policemen. I imagine it’s how they get through the shift without having to be committed. My favorite example of graveyard humor is The Far Side, no contest.
My favorite is black comedy although it is hard to do well:
Black comedy takes things that are normally tragic, morbid, or frightening and turns them into humor in some way. The way that is done varies and often incorporates other types of humor such as parody to get the effect.
Pulp Fiction had some black comedy types scenes. I would say the scene where the Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta accidentally shoot the kid in the back of the car killing him instantly is black comedy. They play it off as just a big screw up and now somebody is going to have to clean the car.
Other movies that have black comedy:
Heathers - Teenage girl and psycho boyfriend start killing the popular, clickish high school students and make it all look like suicide. Comedy brilliance.
Election - Reese Witherspoon plays an overachieving and vicious high school student who ruins the lives of students and teachers.
Note: Black humor is situationally based and generally requires an entire scene to build up to it. It does not include things like dead baby jokes. It would be difficult to build proper black humor without context. It works best in movies, novels, and short stories.
Slap-stick - A lot of it Blazing Saddles, like the ending that pretty much descends into general silly chaos.
Dry - George Burns: “It’s a shame that all of the people who really know how to run the country are cutting hair and driving taxis.” (Okay, slightly dated, that.)
Witty/clever - Oscar Wilde: “I hope you really have been bad, rather than pretending to be bad but actually being good. That would be hypocrisy, you know.”
satire - Al Yankovic
mockery - Don Rickles, insulting everyone, and not kind insults, either.
parody - Chevy Chase stumbling over himself, mimicking President Gerald Ford
Dark humor: Slim Pickens riding that atom bomb.