Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before

Introduction

This is another difficult one. I am not a funny person but people do laugh at me. This introductory piece is a few friends of mine who are experts at being funny and I think that is a good place to start this story.

I am privileged to know people who know how to make people laugh because I know that it is difficult to do, and once you have told a joke, in this digital age it is out there, and nothing is funny as hearing or seeing a joke or event in a live environment for the first time.

Having said that I can watch some sequences in films and TV over and over again and still enjoy them and find them funny.

My Observations On And Incursions Into Humor

I have said that I can't really do humour but I did write a piece on comedy and my observations on it, and I will try not to repeat myself here.

In a recent microfiction Vocal Top Story, I took an everyday situation for most of us and added a sort of punchline that people found amusing. I had not intended it as a funny piece but it turned out that it was and could have almost been a stand-up routine.

This is similar to Eddie Izzard's take on software updates which I included in this old story which I wrote after a horrendous Windows Update.

These are examples of how everyday occurrences can be turned into humor (I keep having issues with using the American spelling and Grammarly redlining the word humour which in itself is humourous, or is that humorous?)

Often it's said that humour is close to tragedy and if you think of someone slipping on a banana skin and falling over that is initially funny but the victim could be hurt or even worse.

Then you get dark humour that is actually funny but may have a fatal finale. I find the opening to Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" hilarious, but the way it moves from two people planning a robbery and exchanging cuddly words to a foul-mouthed vicious hold-up is brilliantly funny.

The way Nandor deals with Toby the Werewolf in "What We Do In The Shadows" is sort of dark but funny. I won't tell you what happens but I find this incredibly funny every time that I watch this.

There are times when supposedly dark humour crosses the line into sick. I had an argument with a Facebook poster who posted jokes that made fun of rape victims and The Holocaust, he tried to justify the jokes as dark humour but I told him they were sick and he should remove them. I won't share the disgusting jokes but the poster and the jokes are gone.

i don't know whether this Buster Keaton clip is funny or just incredibly clever, remember there was no CGI then and it is very impressive.

This is similar to the Del Boy Bar scene in "Only Fools and Horses" which definitely is funny.

Oscar Wilde was a master of language and this Monty Python sketch where Wilde, Whistler, George Bernard Shaw and Bertie (Jones) a.k.a. Edward VII trade insults is a brilliant example of the comedy of language. I hope everyone can see this, but if it is blocked in your area search "Monty Python Oscar Wilde" on YouTube.

Conclusion

This is just a very random wander through humour and comedy and I have not even touched on comedy in music so I will leave you with this one which is purportedly about birds but I don't think it is, "Dolli Parten's Tits" by Mclean and Mclean, again if you can't see it in your area search for it on YouTube.