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!
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. 
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.