Do you think you actually have a sense of humor, or....

Post Reply New Topic

...or are you just going through the motions?

It feels to me like I'm not really laughing at things because they're funny, but only because they 'sound' funny. For example, I could laugh at a comedy show just because something 'sounded' funny, even if I didn't understand a word of it.

Also, when I'm emotionally attached to something, or someone, I'm MUCH more likely to laugh at them, because it feels like I'm supposed to. I'm starting to wonder if this is just what I programmed myself to do over the years.

Last edited by Qi on 21 Jan 2009, 12:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

I know what you mean. Alot of things are laughed at just because I know they are supposed to be funny. When in reality, it takes something really funny for me to laugh genuinally. I do have a sense of humor but, it is definitely my own, and not what is considered normal. It is very selective.

It takes something I really find funny to make me laugh out loud... otherwise I can chuckle and smirk at the cleverness and just go "heh".

None of these are really going through the motions... I don't really laugh at what just 'sounds' funny...

Maybe you are tapping into laughter as a social event... and trying your best to do it. I think this is what most people use laughter/humor for. It's all helps to form social bonds and such... people often won't start laughing at something unless others are laughing too.

I have a strong sense of humor but I'm not great at telling normal jokes.

"Polite company" humor isn't funny to me. I like twisted humor.

I have a very good sense of humor, but it tends toward the sardonic and off-beat. Fortunately, I'm around a lot of people with a similar sense of humor.

When I was younger, I didn't really have much of a sense of humour. I'd see my friends laugh at something and I'd immediately let out a fake "hahaha" along with them, even though I had no idea what was/why something was funny. I didn't want to be accused of having "no sense of humour" which people had already used against me several times.

Now, I do have more of a sense of humour. It started developing about two years ago when I found an improv comedy show on Youtube when I was bored one day. It was that show that made me develop a sense of humour, I think because I find my self laughing at more things now.

I do still find myself laughing at things that I don't understand or don't find funny sometimes though. Usually this is because, as you mentioned, it "sounds funny" or because other people are laughing. A lot of jokes go over my head but I hate people knowing because missing a joke makes people think you're stupid, so I just laugh along and pretend I understood and hope no one quizzes me on what the joke was about.

I think I have a very good sense of humor - I enjoy the irony of Sarah Vowell ("The Partly Cloudy Patriot"), off-beat & absurd comedy (Monty Python), screwball comedies (films from the 1930s, such as "Bringing Up Baby") & dark satire ("Dr. Strangelove").

I haven't seen a TV sitcom (at least, an American one - I have watched a couple British ones) in years. They just tend to be too predictable for me to find funny. Among other things, humor has to surprise me.

On the other hand, there are some things that I find humorous over & over - clever word play, fast dialog (the original "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy" radio production comes to mind.) Maybe it's because I always manage to see the humor from a new perspective - the comedy has many layers.

When I was younger, about 8 I would just laugh at those things that I thought others found funny, while at the time I did not understand the joke at all. My brother once caught me doing this and said ' you don't get it'.
Now I've got quite a good sense of humor, it's a a bit strange to some people though.

I sometimes laugh at something just because it's in the right humorous intonation; sometimes I find myself laughing if others are laughing even if I think something isn't funny at all. I guess you could call it social echolalia.

But I do have my own sense of humor, definitely. It's just extremely weird.

I have a very good sense of humor.

I don't seem to find things funny anywhere near as often as other people do (although sometimes I wonder if even their laughter is genuine or if it's just some kind of expected social response. I created a thread asking that at some point here). On the occasions that I do find something really funny, though, it's usually something that barely raises a smile from everyone else, but I can laugh about it for hours.

I agree with Aurore in that sometimes it's not what's said that seems so funny, but the way it's said. In a similar vein, I think there are people who are just naturally funny and who could say just about anything and it would make you laugh. I've seen a small but fortunate number of comedians with this gift: the audience will quite literally be laughing before they've even opened their mouths.

Me too, especially the sardonic quality. I wouldn't go so far as to call my sense of humour good, I guess for me that depends on the audience. I don't joke as much as I used to, because I got the impression that people were finding it too hurtful or weird. From day to day it's mostly ironic one-liners and brief parodies about "the system" or about colleagues who are higher up in the food chain than I am.

It's hard to know whether anybody likes my humour or not. I've known people laugh and then say they don't like what I've said There's a lot of non-genuine laughing goes on, I guess it's seen as an insult to stay deadpan after somebody's cracked a joke. I usually deliver my jokes deadpan so that it doesn't look too much like a failure if nobody laughs.

I don't tell "story" jokes - I have trouble getting to the punchline because I can't stop embellishing the storyline with unnecessary details, so everybody gets fed up. It's much the same with explaining anything.

I'd like to try my hand at being a stand-up comedian. I do some compering for the music club, so in principle all I have to do is start injecting a few one-liners into that, but so far I've limited myself to the sparing use of ad-lib comments that are (hopefully) mildly amusing but not really designed to get a big laugh.

All-time favourite stupid joke:
"I've got a theory about the Loch Ness Monster. I think it's a great big monster that lives at the bottom of Loch Ness." (Alexei Sayle)

I drive people nuts with my sense of humour. It is often very dark and irony filled. I also love puns - which pop into my head all the time, people often remark I'm quick witted. I'm not, its just I have a weird word association. I also enjoy teasing people in a good humoured way, never maliciously.

I'm not really good with imitating people and doing what's 'right'. So when I laugh, it's about something I find funny or it's me pretending because I think it's a good idea to pretend to influence how a conversation goes.