Forty-Five Ways to Make People Laugh
Now I offer a list in which the techniques are numbered and assembled in alphabetical order. Enumerating the techniques is useful when we want to use them to deconstruct a humorous text. It is a list writers have used for thousands of years.
And here’s why satire matters!
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Absurdity -
Accident -
Allusion -
‘When pastors take sports analogies too far…’ -
Before/After -
“The initial tests have been quite encouraging. It’s powered 100% by overblown political bombast and partisan hyperbole.” -
“How about one more round of ‘God Bless America’ before we bring out the naked broads.” -
Caricature -
Before/After -
Catalogue -
‘Tell us the story of Moses again — I like the chase scene!’ -
Abstract portrait art. -
Comparison -
By-Law: When politicians can’t do something legally, they go by law. -
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Eccentricity Chase Scene -
“Hey, Doug! Great Party!” -
“Aren’t you exaggerating a bit?” -
‘You didn’t breathe on your way up here did you?’ -
“The joke is on us. We thought we had you covered for every kind of accident.” -
“Hey. Stop that. You’re creeping us out.” -
Ignorance -
Imitate me, formerly ‘Think’. -
‘Wow, you must be good. I never met another impersonator with a fifth-degree sequin belt.’ -
Infantilism -
Insults -
Irony -
“So it’s true…bears do shit in the woods.” -
“Polly wants to blog about crackers.” -
“Well, this might explain all of the recent punctuation errors.” -
‘I don’t get it.’ -
Parody -
Puns -
Repartee -
“Yes I do know I’m your best friend. You’ve only told me about fifty times!” -
Computer thinks: ‘I’m sure it’s got a mind of it’s own!’ -
Ridicule -
‘How are the new relaxation techniques going?’ -
Sarcasm -
“We don’t suppress cartoonists in this country. C’mon, draw whatever you want!” -
Scale, Size -
“Ha! I love slapstick comedy.” -
‘What was that?!’ ‘A ‘Mach’-ing bird.’ -
Stereotypes -
Lawyer’s cut. -
Unmasking
Why Satire Matters: These are the 10 oldest jokes in human history
— and they prove that people have been laughing about their animals and sex lives for 4,000 years
- A joke about a haircut, Ancient Greece, 300-400 AD.
- One about a donkey, Ancient Greece, 300-400 AD.
- An ancient “your mom” joke, Ancient Rome, between 63 BC to 14 AD.
- A sex joke, Ancient Egypt, 30 BC.
- A joke which is also a riddle, Ancient Greece, 429 BC.
- A pun on a name, Ancient Greece, 800 BC.
- A joke about an old married couple, Unknown, 1100 BC.
- A joke about livestock, Sumeria, 1200 BC.
- Another sex joke, Ancient Egypt, 1600 BC.
- A fart joke, Sumeria, 1900 BC.