According to (former) Onion Editor-In-Chief Scott Dikkers

  1. Irony – Intended meaning is opposite of literal meaning
  2. Character – Comedic character acting on personality traits
  3. Relatable – Common experiences that audiences can relate to
  4. Shock – Surprising jokes typically involving sex, drugs, gross-out humor, swearing
  5. Reference/Parody – Mimic a familiar character, trope or cliche in an unfamiliar way
  6. Hyperbole – Exaggeration to absurd extremes
  7. Wordplay – Puns, rhymes, double entendres, etc.
  8. Analogy – Comparing two disparate things
  9. Madcap – Crazy, wacky, silly, nonsensical
  10. Meta-humor – Jokes about jokes, or about the idea of comedy
  11. Misplaced Focus – Attention is focused on the wrong thing

Do you have a favorite "kind" of joke or is it more about the execution? Do you have a least favorite kind?

Do you agree with this theory of comedy or are there more types of joke?

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Nah this leaves out intentional cringe for the purpose of cringe-tainment.

    Alan Partridge, The Office, Peep Show, etc etc.

    Literally the polar opposite of number 3, unrelateable and intentionally uncomfortable.

    • wackywayneridesagain [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Ha, this is interesting...

      For me, Peep Show is extremely (and uncomfortably) relatable at times, and the jokes/gags that aren't relatable for me I can fit neatly into the other categories individually (the dog of the one woman that Jez hooks up with namely). EDIT: I think we could probably agree to update the definition of "Relateable" to include things that are uncomfortably relatable/even if you've never personally experienced it, you can still relate to why it's uncomfortable. I'm sure there's some specific example of a social situation where the cringe is played for laughs in Peep Show that just doesn't translate to some other culture because it's not seen as abnormal/cringe-worthy. The cringe is suddenly not relatable to them, so the joke falls flat.

      I think "ironic" intentional cringe types of comedic performances, eg not sitcom levels of rehearsed, usually fall into "shock" and "meta".

      For me, this list is complete.