Humour is such a subjective thing. Some people like satire, others prefer dirty limericks, some deranged folk (of which I am one) can’t get enough of a good pun. There are people who like their comedy literate and high-brow and others who are partial to slapstick. Many of us like both. I’m sure psychologists could put together a fancy study correlating humour preferences to personality type, and expound upon why it is so. And yet, there are some things that are just funny. Inexplicably so.
Here are a few that come to mind.
Nuns. Nuns are hilarious. Flying nuns, boxing nuns, rock and roll nuns, nuns basically doing anything other than praying = funny. And yet I hear the movie Nuns on the Run wasn’t funny at all. Shame that.
People thinking they have a bug on them. OK – hands up everyone who has tickled the ear of a sleeping friend to make them swat at themselves. Or has almost wet their pants watching someone leap about to get some kind of creepy-crawly off their person (or as we like to call it – ‘doing the spider dance”), only to discover it’s a dried up leaf or bit of lint. Yep – me too. Even with my well-documented arachnophobia, I think that’s funny. Not when it happens to me of course. Then it’s JUST MEAN! AND I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WOULD MAKE FUN OF ME WHEN I WAS JUST SO SCARED!! [blows into paper bag]
Sloths. Brilliant animals. Certainly more highly evolved than we humans. Can anyone look at a picture or a video of a sloth without guffawing in delight? Meerkats are another funny animal – although I’d categorise them as more ‘delightful’ than ‘hilarious’. And I have it on good authority that non-Australians find dingoes funny. Well, the word ‘dingo’ anyway. Dingo. Diiingo. Yeah – OK – I guess I can see that being a little chuckleworthy.
German Folk Dancing. Confession here – being a good Bavarian girl, I did German Folk Dancing for many years as a kid. It’s awesome fun, and I love it, but you gotta admit it’s funny. You know – the knee slapping kind, where they wear Lederhosen. *snerk* Lederhosen! (Sorry, Dad, if you’re reading this, but that photo of you as a kid in your little short leather pants on Bondi Beach? Bloody hilarious.)
Smart Cars. OK – smart cars in the city? Clever. Smart, even. (Hey, look what they did there!) Smart cars on the freeway going bzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzzzzzzzzz-zzzzzzz? Funny!
And you know what’s not funny? Clowns. Go figure.
Comment below with what else is just funny with no explanation required.
Well, some nuns are funny. Not the nuns that taught at my primary school though. You obviously have not traumatic memories of strict Catholic schooling to balance the humour-factor.
Sloths. I’m with you 100% there. I love this sloth picture. I would love a pet sloth.
You forgot to mention watching someone bite into something unexpectedly sour, especially when kids do it. Nothing like watching that eye-twitching, face distorting expression when the sourness hits the taste buds.
I think fart jokes are pretty funny. As is anything about poop.
I know, you thought I was respectable until now.
Oh I agree Aunt Becky. THe book “The Little Mole…” that walks around with a poo on his head is quite possibly the funniest picture book ever.
Susan, I escaped the whole giant-scary-nuns aspect of Catholic school. But just typing Giant Scary Nuns has me giggling again.
Well, of course, I think nuns are funny! (thanks for leaving the link for one of my “sisters”….) I think that women of a certain age who say exactly what they think are funny….some great cartoons, like “Maxine” illustrate that. Love comedy sketches…good ones, like the old “Saturday Night Live” sketches, and now, some of the new ones are funny again….good stand-up comics, too….I really think Ellen Degeneres is funny….just love “funny” anything!
I am with you on sloths. I think the scene from Ice Age 2 where Sid the sloth gets kidnapped by a tribe of pygmy sloths and realises they are copying him is one of the funniest things I have seen!
I also always laugh out loud in ‘Two and a Half Men’…
Playing Animal Snap is incredibly funny, even if you are sober. Play with a group sitting around the table. Each person puts their card in front of them, face-up, when it’s their turn. If they match with anyone else in the group, they must make that person’s previously chosen animal noise, before that person can make theirs. Raucous, silly, and … well, funny!
I think it’s funny that you’re writing about nuns and the post ID of this story is 666. Take that you stinking nuns!
[...] Once I visited The Nunnery I was hooked. Reverend Mother of Purl, the knitting nun. Nuns ‘n’ Roses, the rock’n’roll nun. Sr Nun the Wiser, the university graduate. Absolutely priceless as a gift idea for anyone with a Catholic background who can appreciate a good pun or simply someone like Meredith who includes nuns in her list of fundamentally amusing things. [...]