MetaChat - What are your comedy triggers?

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08 March 2006

What are your comedy triggers? →[More:] What's guaranteed to make you giggle? Here are some of mine:

*Animals attached to people. You know, like in the movies when a squirrel jumps out of a tree and attacks someone? That's hilarious. And if the attached animal is blatantly fake, even better.

*Drunken, old, rich women. Patsy from AbFab, Lucille Bluth, even Maya Rudolph's Donatella Versace. I wouldn't mind getting old if I could also be rich and drunk.

*The off camera "meow." When someone drops/throws something and you hear that annoyed cat sound--kills me every time. Especially when the presence of a cat has not been established.

*The word cooter. Also, vadge.

post by: jrossi4r at: 11:08 | 28 comments

I love it when people get hit in the head with things, like that scene in the Simpsons when Burns get walloped by Bart (I think?) when on a swingset.

I also, like it when people fall down.

posted by richat 08 March | 11:22

Anything absurdist. A prime example is Monty Python's How Not to Be Seen. I love that skit...and the Pope and Michaelangelo. That's a good one too.

Rossi's favs make me laugh as well.

posted by LunaticFringe 08 March | 11:23

Clever wordplay.

I love it when Bugs Bunny flummoxes an opponent by batting his eyelashes and kissing him.

Ridiculous physical comedy, like John Cleese's.

Depictions of people with a total lack of self-awareness. We were just talking about this while watching "Waiting for Guffman" -- the essence of all Christopher Guest humor is that he creates characters who are totally unaware of what dorks/idiots/morons they are, and lets us laugh at them. This is refreshing, because in real life, you can't laugh at those people. You have to work with them and be civil.

posted by Miko 08 March | 11:25

Ninjas, Monkeys, Pirates, and Robots (aka the four basic food groups of Internet "humor") are right out. Clever wordplay and double entendres make me laugh, as well as anything that breaks preconceptions (remember that rapping granny? that was funny for the five minutes it took to break my preconception). Subtlety and dryness all the better. Sometimes the harder I have to work for it, the more rewarding the joke.

Actually, I take some of that back. This joke never fails to elicit a giggle. That, and sometimes wimpdork and I will go "Are you threatening me?" back and forth for hours.

posted by Eideteker 08 March | 11:28

Yes, Eid, cornholio made me laugh until I couldn't breathe. I like Cleese too.

But, c'mon, people getting hit in the head? It doesn't get funnier than that. Well, except for people glittering up their cooter.

posted by richat 08 March | 11:33

I love movies with smart, witty, quick dialog. Noises Off, Clue, that sort of thing. I also bust guts regularly over Scrubs and The Office.

British humour.

Also, all of jrossi's. (Except for drunken rich women - in fact, that's one that is the opposite of funny for me. I couldn't stand AbFab.)

posted by mike9322 08 March | 11:34

*shakes fist at miko* You beat me to wordplay!

I should also add crudity and anything that challenges social mores. I love the Bloodhound Gang because their songs are so fun to sing out loud when one wants to freak out the squares. Most anything that a large group of other people find objectionable is hilarious to me.

In addition to subtle, I like obscure. I have a couple of reeeeally in-jokes with my friends and we always crack up because no one else knows what's going on. We even numbered them at one point, like that old joke about the prisoners.

Don't be Jürgen Prochnow!

posted by Eideteker 08 March | 11:34

Sheesh, I am giggling reading the cornholio wiki page.

posted by richat 08 March | 11:35

My favorite stuff is "funny 'cause it's true" and sophisticated Dorothy Parker (et al)-style witticisms and wordplay. Drollness. Understatement. Subtle recastings of situations to reveal the inherent silliness of everyday matters.

Also, me. I crack myself up. Other people don't see it that way, but what do they know? Mecha people make me laugh every day, which I love. Mudpuppie, dodgy geezer, iconomy and jrossi4r make me pee my pants. But in a good way.

posted by taz 08 March | 11:37

I made someone pee her pants (literally) once. It is one of my proudest moments.

posted by mike9322 08 March | 11:40

That is a proud moment, mike93tutu! I don't think I've hit that milestone... unless I can count myself, which I don't believe is allowed.

posted by taz 08 March | 11:44

The word wolverine cracks me up everytime. I blame that old SNL skit with Belushi and Mr. Mike ("I vould like...to feed your feengertips...to de wolverines").

posted by tommasz 08 March | 11:54

What are your comedy triggers?

My horses aren't funny.

I love wordplay (couldn't you guess?). The hair pun thread bunnyfire inadvertantly started was wonderful!

Monty Python was a big influence on me, and improv (physical and verbal) in general is lots of fun. I once tried to shake hands with a friend and missing for half an hour, escalating the physicality until we were launching ourselves across rooms at each other. The people around us were in stitches.

Side question: Do you laugh or clap when something is funny? I quite often clap, something I think I picked up from my theatre days.

posted by me3dia 08 March | 11:56

I love the Bloodhound Gang
Ha! I grew up with one of those guys. Still run into him occasionally. I'm really happy for his success. He's a nice guy, though massively screwed up.

I have to agree with Python and Guest. They slay me. As does minor injury of all kinds. Especially to kids. A young 'un taking a dodgeball to the head makes me howl.

And thanks for the compliment, taz. I'm flattered and would be happy to cover pants cleaning expenses.

On preview: I'm a clapper, me3dia.

posted by jrossi4r 08 March | 12:02

I love smart stupidity - you know, the kind of stupidity it takes effort to come up with. Father Ted is a great example of that kind of humour, or The Far Side.

There's very little that can beat accents done badly. I nearly died when I heard Bill Hicks trying to do a English accent. And of course you have Inspector Clouseau (Sellers version, natch), Pepe lePew, angry comedy Germans, the Swedish chef.

I love Tex Avery cartoons - frantic, bright, loud, insane. I guess it's because everything is so big and over the top - comedy turned up to 11.

posted by dodgygeezer 08 March | 12:04

Actually dissapointment and frustration is pretty damn funny too. Spinal Tap, Fawlty Towers, that cartoon with the singing frog, I'm sure the list is endless.

posted by dodgygeezer 08 March | 12:06

Absurd premises stretched to the breaking point, when done creatively, kill me every time. This is why "Mr. Show" will be on permanent rotation in my DVD player. Also, pop references ala MST3K always get a chuckle from me.

posted by KevinSKomsvold 08 March | 12:07

The singing frog has got to be one of the finest pieces of Western art produced in the 20th century.

I'm serious, too.

posted by Miko 08 March | 12:09

I love smart stupidity - you know, the kind of stupidity it takes effort to come up with. Father Ted is a great example of that kind of humour, or The Far Side.

Both of those never fail to disappoint. The Simpsons too, which is multi-layered and subtle in ways that only repeat viewings reveal, although each episode generally works as a stand-alone.

I also love Spinal Tap.

But don't you find that you'll be in hysterics at something one time and then the next time you see it, you sit there stoney-faced? I used to almost pee myself at 'Men Behaving Badly', but saw a re-run a few months ago and thought it was puerile.

I absolutely hate The Two Ronnies, except for Ronnie Corbett's monologue.

posted by essexjan 08 March | 12:21

yelling "makeup!!!!" as you hit someone with a pillow
/old LaughIn thing

pretty much anyone in drag, even Harvey Korman in that Star Wars Holiday Special

spit takes and especially spit takes with food

people falling down or otherwise embarrassing themselves in public

spiralling ridiculousness, like in that IT Crowd episode where the black guy said whatsherface was dead

Sarah Silverman

Steven Wright

PeeWee Herman-type ridiculousness

...

posted by amberglow 08 March | 12:22

omg! Far Side! (thanks, dodgy) What do we call that kind of humor?

Some of Larsen's stuff has been in my head so long that it pretty much pre-dates everything I own and everyone I know.

Also, I love wimpdork's gorgeous silliness. I know we are going to puff her up so much, she'll be in danger of floating off into the ozone hole to be lost forever, but it's killer.

posted by taz 08 March | 12:23

Clay chickens.
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Wolfdog 08 March | 12:23

I love smart stupidity - you know, the kind of stupidity it takes effort to come up with.

You'd love our president, then.

Actually dissapointment and frustration is pretty damn funny too.

You'd really love our president.

As far as the accents done badly, I get more laughs when I do my Ronald Weisenheimer as a bastardization of Hans and Franz than if I attempt to actually do the governator. There's an art to mimicking mimics, I find. I've gotten praise for my impression of Peter Falk's Bogart (in Murder By Death), and I have more fun doing Dave Chappelle's wretched impression of Samuel L. Jackson than I ever did doing my version of the real thing.

Seconding Steven Wright. See above where I indicated subtlety and dryness?

posted by Eideteker 08 March | 12:25

I just laugh. And laugh and laugh. I am also a clapper, and sometimes I laugh so hard I have to sit down. Even if it's on the floor in the middle of a store.

I like intelligent, absurd, and innocent humor most, though. Love, love wordplay. Offensive and violent humor can get a giggle out of me, but it can make me really uncomfortable when it gets too extreme.

Yeah, "Me too!" for pretty much everything mentioned above. I knew I liked this crowd for a reason.

posted by wimpdork 08 March | 12:39

Even if it's on the floor in the middle of a store.

≡ Click to see image ≡

Not to name any names or anything.

posted by Eideteker 08 March | 12:49

Professional Cardinal Richlieu impersonators.

posted by King of Prontopia 08 March | 14:11

Everything dodgy said.

And smart off-the-wall stuff, like the Carol Burnett Show. Oh man, I miss that one.

I make taz pee. Yay!

posted by mudpuppie 08 March | 14:54

Hey, what happened to my comment? Stupid interthingy.

My favorite stuff is "funny 'cause it's true"
Me too - I think real life is the funniest thing of all in a "you have to laugh or you'll cry" way, but that could just be my warped view of things. My favourite TV shows at present are House and The Glasshouse. Well, for laughing at anyway - my real favourites are Mythbusters and The Amazing Race, but that's for another time.

posted by dg 08 March | 23:07

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