What do you consider as funny?
In what manner?
In which context?
I’ve been known as “the class clown” for most of my life. My sense of humor either really turns people on or really turns people off. It’s like 50/50. As soon as I open my mouth I become controversial. I guess that I might be doing something wrong, but I really can’t figure out what it is. I need some advice.
It’s not a constant thing - and it’s true for me that I can more or less accidently throw humor into things that I’m trying to be most serious about. I mean, I guess that’s okay, because I can see that most things are both very serious and very funny.
I was writing to my GF about how I was really looking for the faintest gleam of hope in a particular situation - and I threw out the old one about hoping that the light at the end of the tunnel was not just the headlight of an oncoming train. A joke, yes, but I was also trying to make a point. Anyhow, she says she thought that line was very funny.
Seems to me that humor isn’t going to work all the time regardless.
Me, I’m more in the George Burns school than the Don Rickles school. Still, a lot of people loved Don Rickles.
No, I’ve never tried standup. I’ve never figured out how to be funny on demand.
You have to consider your audience, and think, “is what I’m going to say going to make them laugh, or offend them, or go over their heads?” I like to make people laugh. I have a silly sense of humor, but not infantile. I also have a strong sarcastic streak that I use for its humorous implications, not to be obnoxious. I like wordplay, especially puns, and off-color humor. At work, I make somebody laugh every day, and at home, I try to make my wife laugh.
I am also known as a deadly competent and serious person at work, so they don’t see me as that wacky guy who makes inappropriate comments at inappropriate times. Like Hallowe’en, when my costume at work was a yellow Post-It note stuck to my shirt pocket, which read, “Boo!” It cracked almost everyone up. Some people made no comment. Other people didn’t understand what was funny about it. I have told jokes to people and watched as that airplane flew right over their heads and they couldn’t formulate a response. Later, in another room with other people, they’re pounding on their desks, gasping for air.
So, you have to gauge your audience, because some people are going to get it, and others will base their opinions on you according to the fact that they think you’re a buffoon, and not in a good way. You never know what’s going to crack somebody up, and you can’t really be safe saying things that crack you up until you know what kind of people you’re dealing with.
Was that any help?
I seem to “suffer” from this problem also. At times, I try to be funny, and I’ll simply slay them. Other times, I’m dead serious and people will fall over laughing.
I guess its in the delivery. Maybe the timing.
A core of friends swear I should do stand-up. But I can only “riff” on these people. Maybe because I know them and what stupid fux they really are and where to hit them where they least expect (and should absolutly know I’m going to hit) it.
Drinking helps. Both in the acceptance and resignation.
I have had a crowd of strangers absoultly falling over in laughter without even trying just by saying what really should have been said in all honesty by a person “in authority”.
Whatever…
That is what is confusing me so much. I think I follow this rule. When I’m around “vulgar” people, I tell vulgar jokes. When I’m around goofy people who likes to do goofy antics, I use slapstick humor. I’m also a fan of wordplay and puns, I try to use this around people who are more intelligent, because people who aren’t that bright will not pick up on it. Again I usually have at most a 50% success rate. It’s not that I offend people (unless I do it on purpose), it’s that they become totally turned off and try to avoid me, it is often times by other people who are also “class clowns”. It could just be that some people do not find me funny. That’s okay. I don’t find most people funny, but that doesn’t make me hate them. 
I’m considered by most of my friends to be very funny. My last group of co-workers thought I was a riot. But my current group of co-workers is way more subdued than the last group, so I’m constantly stifling my best material. It will be lost on them. Such is life. People with no sense of humor mystify me. It was hard for me to grasp the fact that some people just don’t have one. But it’s the sad truth.