# "funny is the opposite of nice" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 16, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976 "2005-12-16T21:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/1 "2005-12-16T21:16:00Z")
i.e., someone usually has to get hurt for something to be funny. Does anyone know the source of this ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/2 "2005-12-16T21:17:16Z")
Does anyone know the source of this quotation? Or did I just imagine it? ISTR some old vaudevillean saying it … but maybe it was all just some fever dream. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/3 "2005-12-16T21:32:53Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > Does anyone know the source of this quotation? Or did I just imagine it? ISTR some old vaudevillean saying it … but maybe it was all just some fever dream. Never heard of it, nor did google! Maybe it was on ‘Dream River’ wherever that is. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/4 "2005-12-16T21:37:14Z")
I’ve heard it many times (Heinlein talks about it, for instance, in **Moon is a Harsh Mistress**. And it’s in a lot of my college lit books on humor), but I don’t buy it. Wordplay (puns, etc.) doesn’t require anyone to get hurt, nor does the “grace” that made up a lot of the physical humor in Buster Keaton’s silent films. Nor do “tall tales” and many other jokes of exagerration (and shock) that build in humor the longer they go on. That isn’t to say that there isn’t humor in someone (apparently, and these days, clearly not _really_) getting hurt, as when Charlie Chaplin acts like an automaton and repeatedly hits a pursuing policeman on the head. But even here, the humor isn’t that the policeman is getting hit – it’s that Chaplin’s character continues to do it and get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![girls\_shoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@girls\_shoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/girls_shoes)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/5 "2005-12-17T00:02:46Z")
The football into the crotch and running smack into a glass door are always the big laugh getters on “funniest home video” shows. But then I don’t watch them for that reason. Humor always invoves a surprise, but as Jack Benny proved every week, that can be done just by _failing_ to react. ---
**Author:** ![girls\_shoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@girls\_shoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/girls_shoes)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/6 "2005-12-17T00:05:57Z")
Sounds like something that could be a line from a movie about theater or stage or comedy writers. Or perhaps about a slapstick team like the Three Stooges. Their booking agent had lines similar to that. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/7 "2005-12-17T00:07:31Z")
I’ve merged duplicate threads here, if you think things look funny. **samclem** GQ moderator ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/8 "2005-12-17T08:43:42Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I’ve merged duplicate threads here, if you think things look funny. As opposed to them looking _nice_? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/9 "2005-12-17T19:01:55Z")
I haven’t heard that exact quote, but Mel Brooks has a line: “If I stub my toe, that’s tragedy. If you get hit by a bus, THAT’S comedy!” ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/10 "2005-12-17T19:23:16Z")
Well in terms of nice guys finish last (and nice guys don’t get laid), nice can equal boring or dull, which the opposite could be funny. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/11 "2005-12-17T20:02:43Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Wordplay (puns, etc.) doesn’t require anyone to get hurt Puns hurt the listener. That’s why I like them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/12 "2005-12-17T20:16:16Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Well in terms of nice guys finish last (and nice guys don’t get laid), nice can equal boring or dull, which the opposite could be funny. That’s true. That kind of nice means “inoffensive,” and something (expectations, manners, whatever) has to be offended for things to become funny. ---
**Author:** ![Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/59ef9b/32.png) [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-is-the-opposite-of-nice/335976/13 "2005-12-17T21:45:48Z")
I don’t think ALL humor has to involve injury to others, but a lot of it does. Hence “pratfalls”, “butt of the joke” and America’s sub[/sub]Funniest Videos.