Anti-humor is a type of
alternativehumor that is based on the
surprise factor of absence of an expected
joke or of a
punch line in a narration that is set up as a joke. This kind of
anticlimax is similar to that of the
shaggy dog story.[1] In fact, some researchers see the "shaggy dog story" as a type of anti-joke.[2] Anti-humor is described as a form of irony or reversal of expectations that may provoke an emotion opposite to humor, such as fear,[3] pain, embarrassment, disgust, awkwardness, or discomfort.[4]
Examples
The yarn, also called a
shaggy dog story, is a type of anti-humor that involves telling an extremely long joke with an intricate (and sometimes grisly) back story and surreal or repetitive plotline, before ending the story with either a weak
spoonerism, or abruptly stopping with no real punchline at all, or
no soap radio.
The obvious punchline involves narratives that are structured like a traditional joke including a set-up and punchline, but whose punchline is the most obvious to the narrative. Some examples of this would be the
Why did the chicken cross the road? and the "What did the farmer say/do" set of jokes, which include various situations where the joke teller asks the listener what the farmer did in any given situation:
A:What did the farmer say when he lost his tractor?
B:I don't know, what did the farmer say when he lost his tractor?
A:"Where's my tractor?"
A:What did one lawyer say to the other lawyer?
B:I don't know, what did they say?
A:"We're both lawyers!"
In stand-up comedy
Alternative comedy, among its other aspects, parodies the traditional idea of the joke as a form of humor.[5] Anti-humor jokes are also often associated with deliberately bad
stand-up comedians. Stand-up comedian
Andy Kaufman had his own unique brand of anti-humor, quasi-
surrealist acts coupled with
performance art; one of his best-known manifestations of this was his act as the fictional persona of
Tony Clifton, an untalented
lounge lizard entertainer.[6]Norm Macdonald was another comedian sometimes associated with performing anti-humor, although he objected to the characterization.[7][8]