45 Types of Humor with Examples
45 Types of Humor with Examples
Let’s embark on our tour to get acquainted with the most comprehensive list of types of humor! Or should we say, the many different ways to enjoy the times of our lives, brewed with lots of laughter and witty sarcasm?
Some hearty folks get their kick out of motivational documentaries. Some mushy fellows like to weep as they watch their favorite romantic movie once again. Some rejoice in the thrilling action set-ups while the intellectual minds thrive for mystery and sci-fi for entertainment.
Now, you can pick one or two of those genres to add to your list of interests, but “humor” is what lies common for everyone!
According to Statista, comedy is the most preferred film genre by the Indians.
From leg-pulling among friends to the grand galas and award shows, humor makes its way into the conversations, in one form or another. Guess what, sometimes it doesn’t even need words! Well, we all have quite enjoyed Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick comedy.
Recommended Read: Top Ways To Improve Sense Of Humor.
Not to get all scientific, but it is said that the right frontal lobe of our brain is where it is processed whether something is funny. Let’s have a taste of 45 different types of humor along with their examples, and find out which one tickles your right frontal lobe up there!
Check Out The 45 Types Of Humor And Their Examples:
Physical Humor:
At some time in your life, you must have googled “Funny videos” on YouTube, and you must have laughed like anything to the videos of people falling and tripping in all sorts of ways. One might claim to be a highly sarcastic person with the sense of humor of great intellect but when it comes to Physical Humor, it is a whole another type to get you rolling with laughter and fun.
This type of comedy is not limited to funny YouTube videos with people stumbling upon their shoelaces. Physical Comedy has been in the field of humour since people understood its interpretation, a perfect example of it would be the era of the silent slapstick comedy by Charlie Chaplin.
Physical humor is in itself a broad genre, and it is often adopted in screenplays and short videos in the form of Farcical and Slapstick Humor.
Slapstick Humor:
You must have observed slapstick comedy for the very first time in a clown show, where a comic would have been jumping all around the set, doing ridiculous, absurd, and exaggerated acts to deliver a funny show.
Slapstick Humor is just that, the comics exaggerating the details with their overwhelmed reactions, stumbling upon their costumes, crying too loud, laughing even louder, many times showing the absence of mind in little situations and giving the people something to laugh about every other second.
It makes the most out of the concept of physical comedy, finally coming up with quite a humorous act to get the audience rolling with laughter.
This type of sense of humor has been a major genre of the old comedy movies, and the audience has enjoyed the slapstick comedy time and again.
A perfect example of slapstick would be the great sitcom we’ve all enjoyed, Mr. Bean!
This short video by Dick Van Dyke is also a classic example of Slapstick.
Farcical Humor:
Farcical Humor is very closely related to slapstick humor, but here you may experience a more intelligently written act, blended with physical comedy.
This genre of comedy embraces the use of exaggerated actions and reactions by the characters to emphasize the plot, amalgamated with witty dialogues delivered with energy and brilliance. Like Slapstick, Farcical comedy is ridiculous and funny at the same time, it lights up a serious play with comedy.
What beautifies farce is the use of repartee, the speedy dialogue chain bouncing back and forth between the characters in the act. You can enjoy a bit of Farcical Humor in this short video clip.
Silent Humor:
Although the name says it all but lets us, for once, use words to describe this epic genre, for the sake of the remarkable art of drama that it possesses.
Silent Humor is portrayed with the sharp and timely use of cinematography & videography, embraced with a great sense of direction. Physical humor is strongly used as a major ingredient in cooking the recipe of silent comedy. It was the most enjoyed in the old times, and the video clips of those silent films are still appreciated as a work of commendable art.
Physical burns are different from the ones given by words, and sometimes words hurt more. Well, however hurtful and offending some people might find it, many enjoy Edgy Humor, and many comedians have succeeded in making their audience laugh out loud and shocking them with their dank content at the same time.
Millennials seem to quite fancy this style of humor, and the whole world of the internet is witness to it sinking into our lives.
Edgy Humor:
Edgy Humor is deliberately offensive and involves a risky approach, it is the art of boldly picking up a potentially offensive subject and making it humorous, taking it right up to the line beyond which it could stop being funny, and just sound rude and shocking.
Comics like to play around the subject, exploring various stances in which the facetiousness of the topic could be used, in the name of banter.
Consider a scenario where words like, “faggot”, “gay”, “Hitler”, “jew”, and matters like racism and fat-shaming could be used in the attempt of cracking a joke.
However, if the jokes and lines do land well among the audiences and their typical minds, Edgy Humor can induce a shock value and a deeper laugh, as compared to the ones caused by safer subject matters.
Blue Humor:
Blue is the form of humor that is indecent or risqué, and it is broadly based on serious and heavy topics, often holding sentimental value to a group of society, such as sexism racism, and many times religious and homophobic viewpoints.
While delivering an act with blue as a genre, the comics usually use profane language, curse words, and sexual references, which might usually offend the audience and shock them if they are not ready to receive such content.
Let’s just say if a comedy show is featuring Blue Humor, you wouldn’t want to take your parents to it. Just watch the video below from Louis CK to know more.
Dark/Black/Gallows Humor:
Dark Humor, often referred to as Black Humor or sometimes Gallows Humor, is a style in which the serious topics of society that are considered taboo or painful to discuss are brought to light using comedy, often boldly and seldom subtly by the comic.
Black Comedy generally encompasses subjects such as human sexuality, violence, discrimination, racism, religion, and death.
Dark Humor is not to be confused with Blue Humor, and neither does it promote obscenity. If you are a person with an open mind and broad understanding abilities, you might quite enjoy the black comedy, and at the same time sigh at the subject secretively.
Aggressive Humor:
Aggressive humor, in a nutshell, is likely to be detrimental towards others. It is depicted in the form of sarcasm and teasing which ignites ridicule and criticism, giving shape to wisecrack and jokes at the expense of other people.
Comics practicing this style are seen passing witty remarks on the subjects like racism and sexism, and whatever might offend people, and not being able to see it, or being fully aware and not caring about it.
Everyone must have witnessed or experienced aggressive humor when a so-called friend had passed a comment which would have seemed to be funny, but in reality, it had been hurtful.
Now, humour is not always delivered with self-explaining emotions lying behind the jokes, and the comedians’ expressions and voice modulation supporting the lines of the act.
There are times when the comics want to leave it “dry”. It may seem that it would make the delivery of the jokes easy as one is free of the pressure to express their emotions, but actually, it requires even more effort. How come? Let’s have a look at the two major categories of dry-wit humor.
Deadpan Humor / Dry Humor:
Deadpan is a type of sense of humor in which the comedians deliberately display no emotion and deliver their jokes with a sort of neutrality in their manners, which is ironic, sarcastic, and hilarious if the audience gets it.
They won’t raise their brows or crack a smile and would still manage to make everyone around them fall laughing.
Deadpan comedy involves witty writing to make hysterical jokes and even better delivery to land the sarcasm the way it is supposed to. The neutrality of emotions makes the ridiculousness of the subject matter even more hilarious.
The only problem can be that sometimes people might not realise that you’re kidding.
Steven Wright is said to be the King of Deadpan Comedy, a few seconds into any of his videos, and the concept of deadpan would be crystal clear to you! The Office, the popular sitcom is a favorable example of dry humor, you must have seen many of your friends not like it, but it’s okay, they don’t like it because they don’t get it.
Droll Humor:
Droll Humor is often dry and witty that gets people laughing through the odd, zany, or ridiculous behavior or speech, which when delivered seems to amuse people.
In this form of gag act, the absurdity of the comic and the whimsical behavior with an intelligently written script is what makes the act entertaining and induces laughter among the audience.
As Indians, we have this inherent ability to make fun of everything around us. We enjoy the parody videos even more than the originals. With TVF leading with the fan-base for satirical and parodic videos on Bollywood songs and movies, there are many more channels making hilarious content when it comes to this genre.
Does “Gaana Wala Song” ring a bell?
Not to forget, the Indian mixes of various English songs and video compilations on YouTube with Hollywood actors dancing to the Bollywood beats.
Parodic Humor:
Parody is a humorous imitation of something, a video, a movie, a poem, an artist, a writer, or an actor, often done with the intent of mockery and deliberate exaggeration to bring comic effect.
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