Common Humour Patterns of Mostly WEIRD Urban Minnesotans, Ages 22-35, Collected 2018-2019
Comedy patterns that play out in informal social settings, with a focus on patterns that invite active participation from the group beyond simple laughter.
Sounds Funny
- Funny noise, funny noise repeated, funny noise escalated (syllables elongated, substituted, switched around)
- Word sounds unnatural or weird, word gets repeated, funniest parts of the word escalated (syllables elongated, substituted, switched around)
"Bad"
(audience participation in the "badness" is invited)
- Obvious pun
- Clever pun
- Hyperbole
- Intentional Malaphor
Bits
- Physical bit with "chorus" echo, with repeating and variations, as the "Sounds Funny" category, above
- Everyone is doing the same accent
- Someone says something hyberbolic or otherwise absurd, onlookers "play along" as if it were true or maybe say "is that so?"
Reminiscing
- Recounting just the barest details of a funny scene from a television show or movie that most of the group has seen, someone else can chime in with a detail or free-associate to the next scene or another similar scene
- Recounting just the barest details of a funny shared experience, participation through free association is also encouraged
Continuous work in progress until 2020