17h ago

What is a "good" sense of humor?

21 comments

punching up or punching sideways
not punching down
- Why not punch down? That's where all the short people are.
  
  If they didn’t want to be shit on they should have been taller. Disgusting.

I feel like the term has been bastardised away from what the literal words mean, being able to sense humor. So in that context, a good sense of humor would be a chill person who knows how to find absurdity in a situation rather than taking things seriously.
A fun person, in other words.
As for the more modern use, I would say someone who can make regular conversations and events entertaining, while avoiding low hanging fruit and what I consider lazy jokes, jokes based on discrimination and stereotypes.
Like, it's not cool or nice to make sexist and racist jokes, but on a totally different level, it's lazy joke writing. Wife bad Asian driving black criminal is hack shit that relies on ancient cliches for a punchline, and is generally missing very key parts to approach humor in exchange for getting white dudes in trucks to chuckle and say yeah.
- a chill person who knows how to find absurdity in a situation
  I really like this definition. Being literally able to sense the humour in a situation
- So glad to here someone else say it. Racist and other discriminatory jokes are for uncreative hacks unable to grasp anything close to actual humor. The punchlines are all the same, some stereotype or slur. There are so many better reasons not to make racist jokes, but one reason that I think that should be talked about more is that they are boring, lazy jokes for unfunny unoriginal losers.
  
  It's the main reason I don't care for 80s-00s east coast comics. It's too hard to tell if they're going for shock comedy or are actually as dumb as they're telling us.

I think the answers are going to be highly subjective, but in general, I think any sense of humor is "good" unless it's "punching down" humor or based on racism, sexism, or other stereotypes

A “good” sense of humor is like a good sense of smell. In the same way a good sense of smell allows you to detect scents that others might not notice, a good sense of humor allows you to detect jokes that will make people laugh.
How do you develop a good sense of humor? Same as how you develop everything else: trial and error, practice, and feedback.

I think it’s about both being open and having timing.

when people make people chuckle and smile somewhat regularly during conversation.

Laughing at dad jokes.

I think it means appreciating other people's jokes, even if they're not the sort you'd make yourself. Being open to humour that's at a tangent to yours.

That is up to the person. Even between countries it can vary. Someone once asked me if I ever found a German joke funny. I said "nein".
- That's a drei sense of humor
- Well, just tell us one.
  
  Weren't you listening, he told them nein 😀
- That's so funny it's in zehn.

One which people laugh at

You can't take anything too seriously. The most unhappy people that I know seem to be on a mission to correct the behavior of others.

21 comments