What is Funny?

You really want to know what’s funny? How about some dumb-ass blogger trying to write an article entitled “What is Funny?!”

Funny is such a subjective term. How is anyone going to write about how to be funny? It’s almost like trying to definitively answer, “Who is God?” or “What is Love?”

As a comedian of 25 years, a comedy writer for Jay Leno and The Tonight Show, comedy instructor, and founder of The Stand Up Comedy Clinic (a comedy workshop in Los Angeles), the question is posed to me literally every single day. So I thought I’d get serious about it for a minute and try to come up with a possible answer.

Please remember, this is just my theory and by no means a definitive answer. So keep the nasty comments to yourself. I’m still searching too! In other words, shut your conch!

You could ask that question in many different ways—“What is funny?” “What is funny?” “What is Funny?” Or even “What’s so funny, bitch?!”—and still come up with a blank stare. I’m not going to proclaim that I know what’s funny to everyone. Funny is very subjective. What is funny to one person is not necessarily going to be funny to another. In a nutshell, we’re just guessing. The audience is the judge.

Here’s what I can do: I can analyze funny. In fact, let’s do it together. According to the dictionary, the number one definition of “funny” is “to cause laughter or amusement.” Most people can agree on that. I was going to say “all people can agree on that,” but people will find any reason not to agree—just watch the U.S. Congress.

So, for the purpose of this article, let’s all agree on the definition of “funny”: that it causes laughter or amusement. In this case, since we are looking for laughs, let’s focus on laughter.

How do we find funny? Since we know that funny equals laughter, we can start by looking at the science of laughter. When we do, we discover that, according to experts on human behavior, the number one element that triggers human laughter is surprise.

Now, by answering that, do you have any idea how far we’ve come in solving our initial question? It’s almost algebraic. It’s almost an “if-then” statement:

What is funny? Something that causes laughter.
What causes laughter? Surprise.
If A = B and B = C, then A = C.
If funny = laughter and surprise = laughter, then funny = surprise! Got it?

Some people say that you can’t teach stand-up comedy—or, for that matter, teach somebody how to be funny. While I do believe you are born with talent and you develop skill, I also know that if you have a reasonable amount of intelligence and a command of the English language, you can learn the structures of how to manipulate words to take something seemingly mundane and turn it into something funny.

I teach a comedy class in Los Angeles, and I’ve had tremendous results teaching average but amazing people how to do this. How, you ask?

All it takes is a little surprise.

Sid Caesar said, “Comedy is a story with a curlicue.” If you tell me a story and give it a surprise ending, you have just written your first joke. For example, comedian Tim Bedore used to open with this joke:

“I come from a large family: four moms, five dads.”

He just took something mundane—a cliché of everyday life—and changed the ending. It’s a curlicue. It’s unexpected. Hence, it’s a surprise. Is it funny? Let’s go back to the formula:

If laughter = funny, and surprise = laughter, then surprise = funny.

Let’s take a common scenario: going to the grocery store. When you check out, what does the clerk always say?

“Did you find everything you were looking for?”

How do you usually respond? By saying, “Yes.” Even if you didn’t find everything, you just don’t want to deal with it. But what if you answered in a unique and surprising way?

Example 1:
Clerk: Did you find everything you were looking for?
Me: (Looking at the items on the conveyor) Well, I found some wine and some candles, but I couldn’t find a soulmate. You had Mahi-Mahi, but I’m not into twins."

Example 2:
Clerk: Did you find everything you were looking for?
Me: Well, I found the wine and the candles, but I couldn’t find my soulmate. So instead, I got Cheez Whiz!

Now you’ve created something clever and unique. It will get a laugh every time at the grocery store, and since it’s impossible to hate someone who makes you laugh, the next time you go into that store, they’re going to have everything you’re looking for!

This is one way to create laughter. This method creates surprise by saying something unexpected using a comedy formula called Double Entendre. It’s French, and the literal translation is: “Two meanings.”

In my comedy courses, I’ve broken down ten major comedy formulas used in contemporary comedy today. These formulas are used, literally, by all comedians working today. The bottom line is: if they make you laugh, they are using one of these formulas.

When you learn these formulas and how to properly apply them, you can effectively create surprise. And as we learned earlier, surprise is the number one element that triggers human laughter.

That’s it for now! Stay tuned for my next article: “Who Is God—Or Is God Love?”

Jerry Corley’s Stand Up Comedy Clinic is an 8-week comedy class based in Los Angeles. Jerry teaches the fundamentals of comedy and humor writing and works hand-in-hand with students to help them create their own 5-7 minute stand-up act, which they perform in a Los Angeles comedy club.