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?

  • Thomas_Dankara [any,comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I figured rake-stepping type stuff was slapstick and fell under madcap but I guess you're right. Madcap and meta-humor are honestly so broad as to cover most types of humor that you're not sure if they show up on the list or not. Like I was thinking about subversions of other genres. Like a horror jumpscare that turns out to be something harmless. That's meta-humor too.