Are you funny? - Page 2

Ha! See... that was funny! And very true.

There's a lot of truth to that, but even the funniest person is going to run into a group of people that don't find them funny. It may not even be a matter of the audience. It just may be you having an off night. Timing is everything.

I can't begin to explain what makes people do what they do. I've been stuck at far too many parties with comedians who clearly see every room they're in as a chance to perform. Very rarely does it work in a social setting. You want there to be some give and take at a party or get-together. You don't really like to made into an audience against your will.

That's when I catch myself, too. When I realize I'm working to be funny or to riff on what's been said rather than actually engaging in a conversation and letting funny stuff come out of it. Before long that can annoy the crap out of people.

On the other hand, you shouldn't take it as a mark against you that you failed to make someone laugh. Maybe it means you're not a world-class killer funny person, but it may also mean you just weren't up to snuff at the time. Everybody had a crap night whether they know it or not.

And I agree with some of the posts above: people whose entire "sense of humor" is bound up in making movie or TV or other comedians' jokes are a trail. As are people that think that just talking at top volume with some kind of "whacky" attitude is comedy gold. The funniest people I know can always read the temperature of the room and act accordingly. (Which often means knowing when to let someone else be the funny one.)

If by funny you mean desperately trying to make people laugh to cover up my severe emotional and psychological pain - I'm a riot.

A sad and lonely riot.

After reading it several dozen times I've realized funny is a ridiculous word.

I can be funny in the right crowd, but I'm not consistently funny by any stretch.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. Most funny people have a sense of humor that works extraordinarily well within a certain context. I don't think it's necessarily an adaptable trait. To use an even more immediate example than the Pythons and Mongolian herdsman, I'm not sure Woody Allen, even with his least culturally-dependent material, would know how to entertain an Amish village. And I don't think this is because Amish villagers are necessarily "humorless," but that their senses of humor and Woody's just wouldn't have that many commonalities. Woody might garner some pity laughs, but he probably wouldn't be as funny as Jebediah and his trick with the carved duck and the rope.

Yes, this is another point about trying too hard to be funny. When I was humiliating myself up on a stage doing stand up, family, friends, etc. would say to me, "This should be natural to you! You're so funny!" And the thing is, it's easy to crack up the old gang around the lunch table. It's quite another to be up on a stage in front of strangers who are expecting you to be funny.

That's funny!

And yes, unfunny people think they are funny. Otherwise they would probably stop.

I run hot and cold. I do a fair amount of public speaking, and sometimes I kill and sometimes I crash. If I could be consistently funny, I'd find a different line of work.

Asking someone "Do you find yourself funny?" is like asking someone if they find themselves smart or attractive. There's a natural skew toward yes, but a self-assessment of 'funniness' depends heavily on external feedback- for example, if you're attractive, you'll get a positive response from the opposite sex; if you're smart, you'll get scholastic accolades; if you're funny, you'll get laughs. Of course it's mostly subjective, but here's the thing:

1) even the most inane, shitty joke has an audience somewhere, and

2) not all laughter is a result of a funny joke. Some laughter is meant to appease the joke teller, to break ice, to kiss ass, or whatever.

Unfortunately, both of these reinforce bad, unfunny behavior, and might make an unfunny guy think he's funny.

I don't believe that all "unfunny" people find themselves funny. My Mom, for example, doesn't think she's funny in the least. However, thanks to #1 & #2, MANY unfunny people think they're funny.

While I do think that humor is more subjective than almost anything, there are objectively effective and ineffective joke mechanisms that pass through all cultures. At it's most basic level, a joke needs some element that genuinely surprises the brain of the joke recipient, which is one reason why dumber folks generally have a more difficult time making smarter folks laugh. Finding a way to surprise an external brain is very challenging.

Stand-up actually sounds like my worst fucking nightmare, so I'm with you there.

You could even use The Human Face with John Cleese as a cliff notes source of info on anthropology, psychology, cultural history, and biology.

I still haven't figured this out:

Wenn ist das Nunstruck git und Slotermeyer? Ja!...
Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.

Balls to bones.

Maybe it's a defense mechanism of some sort or even an ingrained sense of social modesty, but I think many of us would skew toward "no."

But this has a lot to do with who's around to hear the answer. I certainly wouldn't call myself smart if I were surrounded by Jeopardy champions, i wouldn't call myself attractive if surrounded by male models, and I wouldn't call myself funny if I were hanging out with a bunch of good comedy writers. Now, what's interesting is that I'd also be careful not to call myself smart if I were hanging out with a bunch of really dumb guys who could beat my ass, not to call myself attractive if I were hanging out with a bunch of ugly guys who could beat my ass, or funny if I were hanging out with a bunch of seriously unfunny guys who could beat my ass.

This is absolutely true. The fact that a sense of humor can evolve and mature over time is proof that not everyone has a good feel for what's funny.

There's a huge distinction between thinking you're smart, funny, or attractive, and saying to others that you're smart, funny, or attractive. I've known very few people who've ever told me that they find themselves funny (and they rarely were). I'm talking about a personal self-assessment of your own comedic worth.

But, at the same time, there are other people who suck who just may find you really funny. The Rob Schneider model, if you will. Just because a sense of humor isn't discriminating and gravitates toward the LCD doesn't make it not a sense of humor. It's just one that the rest of us don't quite understand.

Its not even about that. I think most people like to laugh, so something makes them. Even swedish __ has a sense of humor. Granted, it sucks, and he is not remotely funny.

Do you think you're funny?

I hate to prove you wrong, Minsky, but I generally don't think of myself as being funny. I cannot explain why this is and I'm not fishing for compliments. I just don't. It doesn't really occur to me that I'm funny. Perhaps I spent too many years in Jr. High getting laughed at instead of laughed with and it beat the humor self-esteem out of me?

If you don't think you're funny, do you find a lot of things funny or do you feel you don't have a wide ranging sense of humor?

I think of myself as having a pretty wide-ranging sense of humor, but I do tend more toward the highbrow. The only form of comedy I absolutely despise is toilet humor. It is never, ever funny to me. Ever.

If you don't think you're funny, do you still give joking around a shot?

All of the time, as you poor things know.

Do you know people who are not funny and yet try to make jokes? Do you think they know they're not funny?

Don't we all? I don't think they'd keep making the same damn stupid jokes if they knew that they weren't funny.

I underwent a serious personality change a few years ago, where back in high school and early college I was an anarchic nutjob who could get laughs from anybody I felt comfortable around, and could get the official "funniest" people I knew laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. My friends' AIM profiles would just be a gallery of my quotes, I almost single-handedly put out a high school newspaper April Fools issue that could give any Onion paper a run for its money and had the school in the palm of my hand that day, etc. As time's gone on, events happened and I became a movie-making robot, and now my official stance is No More Fun. Every once in a while it'll reemerge, but it's a spontaneously say or do whatever you feel instead of making a calculated effort at humor, which always has and always will fail for me.

Ah, I see where you're coming from. I still think I'd only give myself a passing grade, not an enthusiastic A or anything. If you asked me that right after a particular joke bombed (among the right people - if my co-workers don't get my humor, I'm generally not too bothered), I'd probably rank myself lower. The same goes for attractiveness and intelligence. It always depends on who you stack yourself up against.

It does however make it a bad sense of humor, which is a different way of saying they don't have one. I don't think you need to understand why someone finds humor in Rob Schneider's movies to know that they don't have sense of humor; they have a sense of un-humor, for lack of a better term.

Or, let's say, just by way of example, one keeps trying to tell jokes to their coworkers and all of the references and puns continually fly right over the coworkers' heads.

Do you know anyone like that, Dave?

Insecurity's kind of funny.

Still doesn't correlate. As I recall, studies show most men find themselves more attractive than they are, women less attractive than they are. I don't know if anyone has studied subjective feelings of intellectual worth, especially since that has a lot of facets (as in, most of us are 'smart' at our jobs and/or other things at which we excel, and not-so-smart at other things).

Oh, and although y'all already know this, I don't have to think I'm not funny. I can't tell a joke and get laughs to save my life. Occasionally something sarcastic that I say will be good, but sarcasm is easy. Yes, I still vainly try once in a while, as others have said, because something amuses me and I just don't mind that much if other people know that I'm as unfunny as I am. I do have a good sense of humor in being able to tell when other people are funny (mostly, with the rare exception of a few people's dry humor when I don't know them and can't yet differentiate between the straight faced joke and them actually being serious).

I didn't say that everyone finds themselves funny- just that there's a natural skew toward the 'yes' answer to the question. I claim that this skew exists because we're all very comfortable and familiar with our own brains. All of my experiences and memories and so forth have programmed the "black box" of my mind to have a predefined set of "funny spots," and since I'm the only one who has access to the inside of that black box, I'd naturally be able to recognize those spots easier than almost anyone else. To oversimplify: I'd never think of a joke I wouldn't get.

That's not saying I think I'm funny- it's just saying that my self-assessment of my own funniness would skew towards yes.

Exactly. It's a very old cliche but timing is key. It's why early Steve Martin bits work so well. That mans timing was the best in the business. He also knew when to fuck with it to get a better laugh. His cadence was near perfect. Sam Kinison had it as well. Louis CK is a different sort of timing but it works for him.

Listen to a good comedian live as they find their rhythm and pattern and own an audience. Part of it is the jokes and part of it is the ability to time those jokes for immediate impact. It's a master skill that few are good at.

In answer to the question, am I funny? Yep. Why? I tell a pretty good story that will usually get laughs.

I prefer a wide variety of humour from slapstick to bad puns to long funny stories like Stuart MacLean or Garrison Keilor tell.

Do I know people who aren't funny but that think they are? I think we all know people like that.

You just blew my mind.

I get what you're saying.

You make a great point. I can't think of many women whom I would guess would find themselves funny.

I strongly suspect the only person who finds me funny is me, and I don't even find myself as funny as I do other people who are funny.
So no, I guess I'm not.

Exactly. My office manager tells the best stories. She can take a mundane yet slightly silly event (her dog sitting in a water bucket on a hot summer day to cool off) and turn it into a 20 minute laugh riot. But she would tell you she's not funny.

But still- does your office manager really think she's not funny, or does she just want you to think that she thinks she's not funny?

This is basically as gray as any issue can be.

There are people who think Norbit is a comedy classic and there are people who think Patton Oswalt isn't funny. There are also people who love Michael Cera and hate Johah Hill. Any of you could have a best friend/girlfriend/spouse whose taste is 99% in sync with yours, but you disagree on a huge level in regards to a movie/show/comedian.* Hell, one of my best friends hates Danny McBride and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That's just the way it goes.

I know people that are funny "in the room" but write awful scripts that won't make you laugh out loud or even snicker. I know people that die every time they're in a room but write the funniest stuff you'll ever read. I could go on and on here, but I think you got my point already.

Still, not all comedy/humor is relative. I'm not trying to enable any unfunny motherfuckers. There are people that will never be funny in any context, either in person, on the written/typed page, or in front of a crowd. God bless them, but that's just the way it goes.

* That's a crappy/awful/shitty sentence.

I think timing is key in comedy, but is comedic timing the same in all cultures? I'm not sure that it is. I think that timing, itself, is a product of socialization. Good comedians understand the best timing in their own cultural context. I don't mean to go all cultural relativist on ya, but I think there are many aspects of culture that simply don't translate. It isn't that they don't have a parallel structure or concept. It is just that they aren't the same. I certainly believe that the ideas of humor and beauty are universal to humanity. However, I don't believe that how a given society or culture perceives beauty and humor are universal. I do think we can make judgments on the quality of comedy within our own cultural context. That is why I can say Rob Schneider movies are unfunny and suck, but I don't think that I am qualified to make those judgments for another culture. It isn't that the standards don't exist. I am sure somebody has an uncle who tells shitty jokes in Mongolia, but I wouldn't be able to judge his sense of humor fairly. We just wouldn't have the same cultural cues and sensibility that are present in a shared mass culture.

Do you think you're funny?

I can be very funny, but mostly because it's a great self-defense mechanism from when I was really fat. You are more accepted as a fat person if you're Chris Farley rather than just that creepy fat dude from cube 7J.

If you do think you're funny, why do you think that?

I have great luck in reading people's moods and I have an inate ability to know the right thing to say to change a mood, usually from negative to possitive. In many jobs I have had, one of the things that always comes up in reviews is the fact that I am the "soul" of the department I work in, aside from sometimes glowing reviews of my technical prowess. Everyone likes working with me because I don't take myself very seriously, and will drop a joke or stupid accent at the drop of a hat. I play off of others humour as well, as I am pretty good at improvising. People call me to get cheered up. And while I am pretty good at givining advice, it's mostly because I can act like a retard at the drop of a hat.

Do you know people who are not funny and yet try to make jokes? Do you think they know they're not funny?

There are a few people I know whose sense of humour is very rarified. This is really prevalent in computer programmer circles. Nerd humour doesn't translate well outside of those circles, but some of my friends don't get that and will continue to crack off Java threading jokes while people around them at the lunch table will stare blankly and try to change the subject. They have no clue for the most part that they aren't funny outside of the circle.

Do you like to get involved in jokes, ie, adding to a joke someone else made, riffing on a joke, etc, or do you like to make your own jokes?

I like to riff on other people's humour more than originating jokes. If people aren't talking a lot on a particular day, I usually will try to stay out of their way unless I am in a mood to change their moods. If they are chatty, I'll hop in.

I think I'm fairly funny. Not all the time, but more often than not I'd say my jokes work. If I had to say why, I'd say it's because a lot of people have told me so, and I find a lot of those people funny as well. I think my sense of humor is pretty all over the place, as half the stuff I find really funny makes no sense at all, not even to myself. It's just weird gibberish that, at the time, is the funniest thing in the world to me. That may be sign of some disorder.

I seem to have the ability to make most of my friends laugh, but I also exhibit my fair share of clunkers. I think I'm also audience dependent, because a lot of jokes my friends and I kill each other with are in-jokes. I think I'm funny, but that's probably because I have a good ability to make myself laugh, which, many people will tell you, is the trait of an unfunny obnoxious person.

She really thinks she's not funny.

Do you think you're funny?

Yes

If you do think you're funny, why do you think that?

It's not something I was conscious of, or attempting, but all my life I've been told that I was funny. I've been Invited to join improv comedy groups, been asked by my comic friends to use some of my jokes in their routines etc. I figured that was a pretty decent indication.

Do you know people who are not funny and yet try to make jokes? Do you think they know they're not funny?


There are so many people who I don't think are funny, and they joke a lot. I don't mind it, as long as they aren't making unfunny racist jokes. I'd rather be around a dipshit laughing at his retelling of a Dane Cook joke, than someone who never laughs or jokes at all. My problem with most people's humor is that their jokes are predictable by minutes, and they often times tend to say what they think a 'typical person' would find funny ie boring, bland shit.

Do you like to get involved in jokes, ie, adding to a joke someone else made, riffing on a joke, etc, or do you like to make your own jokes?

Both.

My friends who have suffered a lot in life, and are/have been addicts, seem to be the funniest to me personally.

That's why I said 'they don't act like they know they're funny'. They know they're hilarious. That's why they get Showtime specials. But they'd never admit it. Louis CK makes fun of his existence and family life constantly, on and off the stage. But he knows he's laugh riot, that's why he continues to do it, and make a TV show about it. IDON"T MSITAKEe


As evident from your gigantic rep-stick.

No, that's born out of fear of reprisal.

Here's a rep. Don't hurt me, please.

I don't know if this is the same with everyone else, or maybe it's just me, but I know a lot of guys I consider to be funny (great timing when telling a story of something that happened to them), but know a very few women with this same ability.

The women I hang out with tend to have a pretty good sense of humor, and get the same laughs out of a joke/story that a guy would get. It just seems like they have less ability to do it. And it's not for lack of trying, either. On more than one occasion, I've listened to a woman tell a story, and while explaining it, she's laughing, but I'm not really 'seeing' the humor (usually ends with a "had to be there"). Later, I can hear the same story from a guy, and usually end up laughing.

I tend to think it's just because a guy is willing to make himself look like an idiot more than a woman would be, which usually is what makes something funny - the willingness to end up looking foolish, yet not caring.

Anyone else agree with this, or am I just a sexist pig who doesn't know enough funny women?

I've had people tell me I'm funny. The problem is only people who know me pretty well think I'm funny because since I know them I tend to know what makes them laugh and I'm comfortable with them.

When meeting new people, if I tell a joke it always feels desperate. I don't think I'm consciously able to tell a joke to someone. I guess pretty much all my humor is derived from natural interaction with people.

I wouldn't call your interactions with people natural, Werbal.

I can count the number of genuinely funny women I've met over my entire life on one hand and still have fingers left over. Plenty of girls with wonderful, refined senses of humor, sure, but most of them about as funny as crib death.

If I had to guess, I'd say the urge to make people laugh is some primitive alpha male holdover that's been hardwired into men's brains. A way for all the cavedorks who couldn't chase down a Sabertooth to stay in the running. And most women can't tell jokes because most women don't need to.

Do you think you're funny?

Not really. I don't think I can be credited with a lot of jokes (I long gave up telling other peoples jokes, because I always forget the punchline), but I like to tell stories and people often laugh or at least smile, because of my chaotic motormouth delivery.

If you don't think you're funny, do you find a lot of things funny or do you feel you don't have a wide ranging sense of humor?

I find a lot of things funny, to be honest. Wrinkles on the sides of my mouth serve as a proof. I really, really like to laugh when the jokes are smart or in a right context. One of the many reasons I read Chud.com is because you guys are very funny and entertaining.

If you don't think you're funny, do you still give joking around a shot?

In a company of good friends who know me well, because they don't get offended when I make fun of them. But I never try to be funny on purpose. Just accidental, random stuff.

Do you know people who are not funny and yet try to make jokes? Do you think they know they're not funny?

I'm glad to have a lot of very funny, smart friends, but, yeah, I know a few unfunny people and for the most part I'm pretty much sure they don't know it.
They never seem to be aware that their stupid, tired old jokes are not working.

Do you like to get involved in jokes, ie, adding to a joke someone else made, riffing on a joke, etc, or do you like to make your own jokes?

Again, not really. Especially not here on the boards. One of the reasons for that is that I feel my English is not sharp enough for that.

There's definitely a difference in online-funny and real-life funny.

I know I'm funny to everyone I meet, but I don't really like to think I am. I just say what immediately comes to mind - I think I'm quick, but I don't always think it's particularly hilarious. My humor comes from the way I time things. But people - be they friends or people I just met at a party - generally refer to me as the funniest person they know, which usually sucks in introductions, because then I'm on the spot. I'm really modest and uncomfortable about talking about strengths (if being funny is a real strength), but if it's one thing I have to admit, it's that I do appear to be funny in real life. I'm accepting it though, and trying to enjoy it - it tends to make up for being very boring-looking. There are worse things to be, like being boring and boring-looking. Plus, my acting teacher all through college was encouraging (sometimes to the point of flat-out pushing it on me) to go and pursue The Dream. So when I move to L.A. in August, I guess I'll see if I'm actually clever and funny or just funny to Alabamians. I'm inclined to assume the latter.

As for message boards, I have no idea if I'm funny. There's around 10-15 people on the boards I aim for when I come up with a silly post, and my rep is almost exclusively a result of my Ass Thread contributions. I don't think I'm nearly as funny as other members of the boards, though.

I can be funny, and I have a very broad sense of humor. I also feel that many of my bad jokes deserve laughter. If for nothing other than the fact that I know they're corny as hell or stupid, but I say 'em anyway.

This intrigues me, and brings up a thought: Could it be that part of the difference is how men and women process the act of talking? For example, as a songwriter, I've taught myself over the years to edit everything down to the simplest, most powerful group of words that I could. When I speak, I tend to do the same thing. Guys tend to do that. Get the information out there and move on. My lovely wife and daughters, however, will hardly consider the idea of self-editing in a conversation. All the details have an intrinsic importance to them that befuddles me when they finally get to the "punch line".

Not saying women aren't or can't be funny, but I'm wondering if the assumed gap between the genders might not have something to do with that.