Most of what was mentioned, especially:
Slapstick
Body fluid/gases humor
Borat and his ilk.
But I confess to often wondering if I have a stunted sense of humor. I often see a link here to things that are supposed to hilarious and usually I think: wow, you are too easily amused. But maybe I’m would be better served by being more easily amused.
TV shows / movies where the main character just can’t catch a break.
Meet the Parents was funny for maybe the first 10 minutes, but after that it just gets sad. You start feeling sorry for the guy and wanting to punch the dad in the face.
Same with the main character of Scrubs and Dr. Cox / Dr. Cox’s girlfriend girlfriend / the janitor.
The worst offender has got to be Curb Your Enthusiasm. As if I’m not misunderstood enough by idiots in my own life. Now I have to watch it happen over and over again to some guy on screen :mad:
I don’t like humor in which a person is humiliated or embarrassed. I’ve been in that situation enough times that it doesn’t appeal to me. My daughter told me about an incident at school in which a boy had a juice pouch squeezed all over his clothes, and he had to walk back to class in his undershirt and boxers, and everyone laughed except the teacher, including my kid. I reminded her that it could have easily been her in that situation, and she stopped laughing. This is why I didn’t like “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” even though my brother found it uproarious.
I also don’t like bathroom humor. It’s just not funny to me. There’s an anime OVA in which a character has to take a dump and it’s basically 10 minutes of his unsuccessful and unfunny attempts to go to the bathroom (long line, toilet’s being cleaned, unaware girl asks him out as he tries to sneak into the ladies’ room, etc.) He eventually shits his pants. I did not find that funny in the least.
I don’t like comedy based on stereotypes. I don’t even like stuff like “why computers are better than men” if they get too mean.
Humiliation, unless it’s someone who really deserves it.
If you have to ask, you’ll never understand.
I agree with the OP. I hate scatological humor. I also don’t really like watching slapstick (reading about slapstick, now; that’s a different matter).
British humor in the original. I find things from Monty Python, Douglas Adams, etc. funny when they become in-jokes and people I know tell them to each other, but watching or reading this type of humor just puts me right to sleep. I only like it second hand.
Funniest video type stuff where people get in accidents and really hurt themselves.
I used to like Morning Zoo type shows. I don’t know if I’ve matured or if the ones we get around here have just gone to crap, but now they are too racist, misogynist, predictable, full of blatant product placement, and just plain not funny.
Stephen Lynch is a genius. Otherwise, I agree.
That BET comedy show that used to be on at night… not sure if it’s still on. It was, supposed “black stand-up-comedians”, women and men, that really didn’t have an punchlines or coherent jokes. It was really more like telling stories that may or may not be funny in a stilted dialect. It really didn’t show any genuine talent, just a chance for “pimp boy G” to front and show some weird machismo or Big Sista to relate a smack down . Reminded me a lot of rap, actually, no real “melody” or substance to the comedy.
Whatever happened to the Richard Pryor/Eddie Murphy tradition?
Never really thought Adam Sandler was very funny, either… I do, however, think that Rob Schneider is funny acting to an Adam Sandler script.
Everybody loves Raymond type humor, I also don’t see why Bill Crosby is considered to be so funny. I guess it comes down to “reality family” comedies which are so very corny and predictable.
Well, to answer my own question… I do think Katt Williams is funny as hell, and maybe carrying it on down the line.
Good one. I agree, though you’ve described it better than I could.
I’ll add: A character who is a self-absorbed, over-the-top (to cartoony levels) jerk is not funny. Frank Burns from MASH probably isn’t the best example, but he’s the best example I can think of at the moment.
Here’s the key to enjoying slapstick, I think: Cartoon characters cannot be physically damaged, and they cannot feel pain, at least not severe pain. Rather, what would cause a real person harm or pain causes them humiliation and embarrassment. So, when Daffy Duck gets a shotgun blast to the head, or Wile E. Coyote falls off a cliff, or Yosemite Sam has a stick of dynamite blow up in his face, it is their pride, not their person, that is injured.
Some live action characters, including the Three Stooges, count as cartoon characters in this regard.
Cringe humor, and gross-out humor. Everything else, if it is not well-done.
And especially shaggy dog stories.
Regards,
Shodan
Chris Rock is the heir to that throne, and . . . [shooting a sacred cow right between the eyes] . . . he’s better than them.
Yes, but they’re not. The Three Stooges were three old men, and they had keep replacing the one who got the brunt of the abuse because of injury, so much that one replacement had a clause in his contract prohibiting being hit too hard. Cartoons are funny, and I laugh at “Roadrunner” cartoons. Human beings, not so much.
I generally dislike the notion that “irritating” or “annoying” is the same as “funny”. I suppose that’s more a social thing than a “genre”, though.
Not sure what genre it specifically belongs in, although I’m guessing physical humor, but the over-mugging for the camera a-la Jim Carrey just does not do it for me.
Slapstick is pretty lame, but I do chuckle at the misfortune of others, like on AFV. Babies doing cutesy things on there need to go away, but dumb people falling out of trees while doing something stupid makes me laugh.
Bodily fluid/ fart, and scat jokes stopped being funny after high school for the most part.
I love stand-up, but hate singing stand-up and ventriloquism. My sisters love Jeff Dunham, and I just do not see it at all.
Here’s one that hasn’t been mentioned yet that I’ve never found funny:
The “I’m so drunk I act dumb and slur my speech” comedy. When I was a kid I would see it performed by people like Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, or Dudley Moore. It just seemed stupid to me then and it still seems stupid to me now. Same goes for the “I’m so stoned” comedy of Cheech & Chong and the like.
Stoner comedy…any sort of self-cool “woah dude” comedy is totally unfunny to me. e.g. Cheech and Chong, or Harold and Kumar.
I can find value in examples of every single type of comedy mentioned… except ventriloquism. I am utterly mystified that successful ventriloquists exist. Seriously, why?
I think Dave Chappelle’s standup routines are very good… and yet I hated his show. I just thought it was amateurish and stupid.