What Is Funny?

I suppose what we all find funny is subjective and differs from person to person but I don't find well-worn jokes funny or "I say I say I say" jokes. I also don't like statements which misrepresent an affliction. One example is "I am Schizophrenic: both of us". Schizophrenia is not about having a split personality where you are a Jekyll and Hyde character. It is about hearing voices, experiencing delusions and hallucinations or one can have Catatonic Schizophrenia or Hebrephrenic Schizophrenia or Simple Schizophrena, but the only split is a split from reality. However, if you were going to make a joke about Schizophrenia, you should say "I am not a Schizophrenic: I hear voices telling me I am not" because it is accurate.

I don't find jokes about Tourettes funny. Not that I don't find the subject funny in itself, but all the jokes I have heard about it are unoriginal. An example is "What do we want? A cure for Tourettes. When do we want it? Cunt".. Now I don't find that remotely funny at all, and it is unoriginal, because loads of people tell it on Facebook in posters. Another joke I don't find funny is that "Most of our political jokes get elected". Well, they maybe jokes but they don't make me laugh, and neither does that joke.

What I find funny varies, I suppose I like off the cuff humour. That makes me laugh. I like daft thoughts, adlibs, puns, original humour or timely humour like when something happens. An example of timely humour is someone gets busted for drugs and the song "Ebenezeer Goode is being played on a CD at the time they are being busted, or Rainy Days Women No 12 and 35" by Bob Dylan, or "Cocaine" or "I got high" by Afroman.

I find Fawlty Towers, One Foot in the Grave, the Young Ones and OFAH funny. I rarely tell a joke because I have a rubbish memory for them. I have a bit of an odd sense of humour.. but if having a normal sense of humour is laughing at "I say I say I say" jokes then I am pleased it is odd! I find lampooning famous people funny to an extent as well. Viz makes me laugh! I am surprised they have never done a Jeremy Kyle send-up! I have 26 Annuals of it dating back to the mid-1980's. I am not a big fan of comedians. Stewart Lee is quite good.. but I can't think of many others I have been in stitches laughing at..

In life you can be offensive and funny at the same time. It is possible to pull it off. I have seen certain people do it. However, simply slagging someone off isn't witty or clever or inventive. If I walked up to someone and called them a Tw*t or a Shithouse, I am not being witty or clever or inventive, I am just insulting them. If I did it in an inventive or ingenious way, then fair enough.

Why often people like Jeremy Clarkson and others like that are hailed as having devastating, rapier wits, or even being comic geniuses is beyond me, because that is all they basically do. I laughed at one Top Gear situation when they drove through the deep South of the USA with "I am Gay" and "Hilary For President" written on their cars and other similar messages, and received death threats and honks and one-fingered salutes but I wouldn't say anybody on there is a comic genius!

However, people seem to mistake wit for loudness. This is seen notably in working-men's clubs or even pubs. People try to be the Alpha man or woman in those type of situations. People seem to think that the louder you are, the funnier you are. I disagree. Wit is about being quick, clever, inventive, and funny. It isn't about shouting or shouting someone down, or insulting someone. That isn't clever or inventive. If I walk up to someone and call them a knobhead or shithouse, I am not witty. I am just insulting them. That isn't clever or original. Anybody can do that.