Introduction
It's no secret that one of the most powerful tools in a man's seduction utility belt is a top-class sense of humor. When you walk through the club and see a group of girls laughing hysterically and one guy in the middle of the group with a knowing smirk on his face, you can bet he's not only going home with at least one of them but the others are like jelly in the palm of his hand for as long as he can continue that vibe. Laughing is addictive. Everyone loves to do it, and they love the funny people who are so talented at making them by extension.
In spite of this knowledge, there is a severe lack of information on exactly WHAT is funny. I have decided to rectify that situation, so put the kids to bed, pop some popcorn and settle into a comfortable chair. Since this is going to be obscenely long, I've decided to break it up into several posts, which I will put up periodically here as replies to prevent over-stimulation and encourage people to read the whole thing. This is the first post, an introduction to what I consider the top six types of humor.
Types of Humor
There are literally thousands of different categories of humor, but for the sake of brevity I've only listed what I consider to be the main six. Most of the other genres of comedy are really sub-categories of these main six.
1) High Brow Humor - This consists of jokes that are based on an intellectual understanding of the topic, which is usually of a very specific and cultured nature. A good example are those shirts that read "Bad grammar makes me [sic]."
2) Low Brow Humor - Comic content that is low-brow is generally based around pain--physical or emotional-- and is more or less universally understandable, hence the popularity of TV shows like Jackass and movies like Meet the Parents.
3) Imaginative Humor - My personal favorite type of humor, this involves heavy exaggeration and a constant playful tone. This occurs when you point out the guy in the corner of the bar who looks like he's seen too many happy hours and suggest that he probably goes home and puts on nylon stockings and high heels and re-enacts conversations with his mother in a dark, sparsely decorated apartment in the bad part of town.
4) Angry Humor - This type of comedy is also based on heavy exaggeration, but the subject matter is more specific: whatever it is that pisses you off. Everybody gets irritated by little things in their lives--we're human, and nobody is immune to it. But where most people simply blow off or ignore that which annoys us, the angry comic emphasizes these topics and never hesitates to let anyone know how they feel about it, usually in overly-dramatic terms. The comedian Louis Black and the internet celebrity Maddox (
http://maddox.xmission.net ) are two classic examples of this type of humor.
5) Parody - Life is ridiculous, and people enjoy having this ridiculousness pointed out in fun ways via the parody. Examples of this are everywhere: the Naked Gun and Airplane movies, Powerthirst, any song by Weird Al Yankovich, 50% of the jokes on Family Guy, Chappelle's Show and any other TV show worth watching. Parodies are always funny; the downside is they are rather hard to gracefully introduce into real-life situations.
6) Innuendo - This is loosely defined as the ability to suggest something is related to something else without being obvious or overbearing. The often-repeated phrase "That's what she said," if a bit over-used, is a great example of innuendo.
I hope you enjoyed this introduction. In the next post, I'll discuss how to implement these comedic archetypes into social situations. As always, any comments, additions, objections, and whatever else are more than welcome.
To be continued ...
Your boy,
870
Where did you learn this? Also any recommendations on books or any other resources where I can learn to be funny?
CHAT
