Hmm. How about a bulleted list?
- some typos/grammar issues (like when people write “viola” instead of “voila”. It makes the sentence so funny! Or when a sign says something like: We sell “fresh” food. Taking the quotation marks literally makes the sign humorous.)
- really bad singing
- really bad instrumental music (like some of those middle school bands that go viral)
- the couple that does the Sawbones podcast; it’s mostly the husband who is funny, but the combo of the two of them is what makes it work
- kittens at the shelter, especially when we struggle to corral them in the cage; one sneaks out when we try to put another one back and it happens over and over. Makes me laugh every time.
Oddly, things that are meant to be funny often do not make me laugh, especially if they are very overt about trying to be funny. I am much more likely to dissolve into giggles about something that is accidentally funny.
For instance, I don’t find The Three Stooges to be funny at all. But an internet video of some sort of accidental slapstick humor can make me laugh.
Can I get an Amen on the Three Stooges comment. Kristen…..can you please try and help me explain to my husband why this show is NOT funny! I would be eternally grateful LOL!
Well, I’m right there with you. It just doesn’t hit my funny bone!
The terribly cheesy jokes the maintenance guy at school tells over the intercom every morning after announcements. They are the epitome of Dad Jokes, which is fitting because he is SUCH a Dad, and he gets such a kick out of them when he’s telling them, it’s impossible not to laugh along with him. And of course, they’re perfect jokes for little kids, given their unsophisticated sense of humor, so it’s also impossible not to laugh along with a roomful of giggling kindergarteners.
* Norm MacDonald – RIP :’-(
* Homestar Runner, particularly when Strong Bad reads the kid books.
* A lot of slapstick comedy, particularly that of the silent era although sometimes I’m laughing on the inside: where it counts.
I have a very low threshold of humor so I do a lot of laughing. (But I, too, do not find the stooges funny. Or the Blue Man Group). The various animals we have had always made me laugh, especially our miniature sheep that hopped like rabbits. Now our pound hound has learned a trick that makes me laugh. One time he just sort of fell over, like one of those fainting goats, and I laugh really hard. The next time I told him off for begging for food, he stared at me and fell over. I laughed again. Now he does it every time I speak to him sternly. It really is like having one of those fainting goats. The problem is that dissolving into laughter does not help teach him how to behave…
I can’t remember the exact studies or citations, but know I have understood for years that laughing is super-healthy! It decreases high blood pressure, anxious tension, pain, etc. so I seek it out. It’s funniest when it’s unexpected, right? Like from a kid, an animal, or just some kind of spontaneous situation. My husband was hilarious! I so miss that! So now, I intentionally seek out laughs, either by spending time with people who I know are funny, or by watching TV shows or YouTube, like Funniest Videos. I paid a lot recently to see a live comedy show, and it was pretty awful. That doesn’t work for me, although I laughed to be polite, and was with someone who knew how I felt, so it was actually funny that we were forcing ourselves to laugh. The viola thing as previously mentioned by a Kristen fan cracked me up!
I love watching the silly things my daughter does as she’s learning (she’s just over 10 months old). She’s JUST starting to understand that we laugh and smiles when we do. I love her giggle when she finds something funny – this past weekend it was her grandpa popping up from the water in the swimming pool.
Kristen, I also agree about the spelling of voila! A lot of people will write things like, “wuala” or “wah-lah!” and it makes me giggle.
my hubby always makes me laugh. he says something iffy and i say to him you are so lucky i have a sense of hoomor.