anti-humor
{{short description|Style of comedy that is deliberately awkward or experimental}}
{{distinguish|Deadpan humor}}
Anti-humor or anti-comedy is a type of alternative humor 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.Warren A. Shibles, [http://facstaff.uww.edu/shiblesw/humorbook/ Humor Reference Guide: A Comprehensive Classification and Analysis] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928195929/http://facstaff.uww.edu/shiblesw/humorbook/ |date=September 28, 2007 }} (Hardcover) 1998 {{ISBN|0-8093-2097-5}} In fact, some researchers see the "shaggy dog story" as a type of anti-joke.John Henderson, "Writing Down Rome: Satire, Comedy, and Other Offences in Latin Poetry" (1999) {{ISBN|0-19-815077-6}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uAllRLeoXqYC&pg=PA218&dq=%22anti-joke%22+-wikipedia&sig=lNZmQidTk0cuuoKISaT6HWdjbxQ p. 218] Anti-humor is described as a form of irony or reversal of expectations that may provoke an emotion opposite to humor, such as fear,{{Cite journal |last=Nachman |first=Steven R. |date=1982 |title=Anti-Humor: Why the Grand Sorcerer Wags His Penis |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3696960 |journal=Ethos |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=117–135 |doi=10.1525/eth.1982.10.2.02a00020 |jstor=3696960 |issn=0091-2131}} pain, embarrassment, disgust, awkwardness, or discomfort.{{Cite journal |last=Lewis |first=Paul |date=1986 |title=Painful Laughter: The Collapse of Humor in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41205641 |journal=Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-) |issue=5 |pages=141–150 |jstor=41205641 |issn=0271-9274}}
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.Andrew Stott (2005) "Comedy", {{ISBN|0-415-29933-0}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFmEDTxID1YC&pg=PA119&dq=%22anti-joke%22+-wikipedia&sig=vRjt7tgsE3WQmuLOaf4lj8CYH4A p. 119] 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.{{Cite web |last=Seibold |first=Witney |date=2024-01-25 |title=How Andy Kaufman's Alter Ego Almost Took Down Taxi |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/1499905/taxi-andy-kaufman-alter-ego-tony-clifton/ |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=SlashFilm |language=en-US}} Norm Macdonald was another comedian sometimes associated with performing anti-humor, although he objected to the characterization.{{cite web | url = http://twitchy.com/2014/05/12/norm-macdonald-worthless-anti-comedy-is-for-the-weak-and-cowardly/ | title = Norm Macdonald: 'Worthless' anti-comedy 'is for the weak and cowardly' | date = May 12, 2014 | publisher = Twitchy Entertainment | access-date = January 20, 2015 | last1 = Jamitis | first1 = Jim }}{{cite web | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/magazine/norm-macdonald-still-in-search-of-the-perfect-joke.html | title = Norm Macdonald, Still in Search of the Perfect Joke | date = August 31, 2018 | work = The New York Times | access-date = August 30, 2018}}
See also
- {{annotated link|Anti-art}}
- {{annotated link|Dada}}
- {{annotated link|Dad joke}}
- {{annotated link|Self-referential humor|Meta-joke}}
- {{annotated link|Nonsense verse}}
- {{annotated link|Surreal humour}}
- {{annotated link|The Aristocrats}}
- {{annotated link|Koan}}
- {{annotated link|No soap radio}}
- {{annotated link|Non sequitur (literary device)|Non sequitur}}