# What types of humor do you not "get"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872 "2009-05-09T20:26:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/21 "2009-05-09T21:47:09Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#): > > Comedians with a song (which includes a guitar, banjo, keyboard), and think they’re funny when they sing a song. > > 99% of those acts are not funny. **Musical comedy**? Admittedly, I’ve seen few comedians who use a instrument as a prop be particularly funny. But on the other hand, I consider “Weird Al” in that genre, as well as Tom Leher, the comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan, the songs in Monty Python, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/22 "2009-05-09T21:48:33Z")
Monty Python, except maybe the fish-slapping dance. Dead baby jokes - just not funny. Even though I’m not crazy about babies. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/23 "2009-05-09T21:52:28Z")
Maybe this is what people mean by awkward comedy, but I’ll call it insult comedy, ala Don Rickles. I don’t get it. **FairyChatMom** , ditto the “smart kids, idiot adults” scenario. I’ll add another vote against scatological humor. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/24 "2009-05-09T21:53:18Z")
> [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](#): > > Monty Python, except maybe the fish-slapping dance. Again, please avoid making this about specific comedians or groups. Python was not a genre - they were in the same genre as the Goons. Also, they covered a number of different genres of comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/25 "2009-05-09T21:56:27Z")
> [@Todderbob](#): > > “awkward” comedy. Forgot about that one. I almost stopped watching The Office after the first two episodes because it was SOOO awkward. (I was told that it would get less awkward, I’m glad I stuck with it.) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/26 "2009-05-09T21:57:26Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > **FairyChatMom** , ditto the “smart kids, idiot adults” scenario. Oh man, I wish I had thought of that for my OP. Any situation comedy featuring pre-teens mouthing **smart-alec** lines put in their mouths by the writers. It’s so unnecessary, as kids acting like themselves can be howlingly funny. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/27 "2009-05-09T22:05:12Z")
Romantic comedies in general leave me cold. There’s one or two exceptions. Comedy relying on crossdressing does nothing for me. One genre of comedy that’s gone that was very popular was dialect comedy (i.e. the Chico Marx routine) Too UnPC now. On the other hand, I like well done slapstick. ---
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/28 "2009-05-09T22:06:21Z")
Crap, editing time is up! So here goes… Most of Monty Python, except maybe the fish-slapping dance. I can’t think of any comedians who do them, but: dead baby jokes. Just not funny, even though I’m not crazy about babies. Gender and relationship comedy - just LAME. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/29 "2009-05-09T22:09:42Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > B]FairyChatMom\*\*, ditto the “smart kids, idiot adults” scenario. Yeah. Or not even dumb adult. Just a kid saying things that no real kid would say, using big words. Or scenarios where adults are trying to talk around something like sex and then the kid says something that reveals how precocious and well versed they are and the adults just gape. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/30 "2009-05-09T22:20:13Z")
The stuff that’s just not funny, and that can come in many different guises, be it stand-up, visual, satirical, whatever. I definitely can’t pick a category off the top of my head which I always find unamusing. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/31 "2009-05-10T00:30:07Z")
Not funny - bathroom humor, most “blue” jokes (I’m not a prude, just don’t think they are funny), the Git Er Done guy. Also racial jokes Funny - I like and make puns ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/32 "2009-05-10T01:04:56Z")
“Dead baby” jokes any any jokes that rely on shock value. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/33 "2009-05-10T01:19:12Z")
Bathroom humor. Fart jokes. I just find those sorts of things irritating, in or out of humor. Cross dressing. I see a man in a dress, my reaction isn’t “That’s funny !”, it’s “That looks really bad on him”. I’ve not offended or anything, just bored. Watermelon and fried chicken jokes about black people ( fortunately quite rare these days, at least among people I deal with ); as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, that never made any sense to me even as insults. Black people eat fried chicken ? How . . . terrible of them. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/34 "2009-05-10T01:31:41Z")
Tim Allen. His birthname is the funniest thing about him. Larry David. Only reason to laugh at this man would be in a sort of Pavlovian response to his accent. Dudley Moore. He could even unfunnify Peter Cook, and that’s goin’ some. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/35 "2009-05-10T01:39:43Z")
Slapstick doesn’t do it for me, either. I’ve never been able to sit through more than a minute of 3 Stooges-esque stuff. I wonder, how would you classify stuff like old Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis routines? Because that stuff puts me to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/36 "2009-05-10T01:54:08Z")
I don’t get practical jokes. How is it funny to make a fool out of someone else? I’ve never understood that, or ‘pranking’. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/37 "2009-05-10T02:04:57Z")
Humiliation. I find nothing funny about humiliation. Infantile men: men will never be more than over-sized eight-year olds but women still fall for them. (Note: Tom Hanks in “Big” is not what I mean.) I really hated “The King of Queens”, but I love “Family Guy”. In-jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/38 "2009-05-10T02:08:18Z")
Cringe comedy. Where some buffoon is stuck in a mildly socially awkward situation (like, they forgot to buy a birthday present) which serves as a Maguffin for the buffoon to go to ludicrous lengths to avoid the consequences of the problem/attempt to solve the problem. It depends for such success as it has on our shared fear of embarrassment arising out of the original situation, but the far greater embarrassment generated by the attempt at avoidance/resolution usually drags me out of the joke. As always, there are exceptions to every rule. Fawlty works for me big time. Lucy most assuredly does not. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/39 "2009-05-10T02:21:21Z")
Insult comics. Especially “Roast” comedy. I have never seen it done in a way I find funny. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872/40 "2009-05-10T02:30:31Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > **Musical comedy**? Admittedly, I’ve seen few comedians who use a instrument as a prop be particularly funny. But on the other hand, I consider “Weird Al” in that genre, as well as Tom Leher, the comic operas of Gilbert & Sullivan, the songs in Monty Python, etc. Sorry, I meant comedians. In the middle of a standup act, they bust out a guitar and think they’re funny, but it just isn’t so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-types-of-humor-do-you-not-get/495872.md?page=3)