Encyclopedia Britannica describes humor as “A type of stimulation that tends to elicit the laughter reflex.” While no culture is unfamiliar with humor, people from different cultures (and sometimes even within the same one) can have different ideas of what is funny.
Bored Panda's interviewee, meme enthusiast Gerda, said she has surely noticed this fact in her life. For example, when it comes to memes, if she wants to send them to people in her life, she always has to adhere to their sense of humor. Granted, she understands that such an observation isn't something profound, yet, it still felt worth mentioning.
So, basically, there are quite a few different types of humor, which can be categorized in several ways. For instance, some differentiate between 9 different types, starting with physical humor – which includes everything from clowns to mimes or just a simple “someone falling over” shtick.
Then, there’s self-deprecating humor, where a person makes fun of themselves. It’s quite popular among stand-up comedians and in online memes.
The third type of humor is the surreal kind, or, in some cases, absurdist comedy. It revolves around rather nonsensical themes and bizarre juxtapositions – basically, it’s all about silliness.
What follows is improvisational humor, which, as its name suggests, is comedy without a plan, something that’s made up on the spot. After that comes wordplay humor, where, again, as the name implies, laughter is expected to be caused by witty language twisting. One of the best examples of such humor is puns, or so-called dad jokes.
The 6th category would be topical humor. Think of Saturday Night Live (or any other similar sketch comedy show), where jokes are almost all based on current events or trends. This type of humor requires the comedian not only to have a great sense of humor but also to have a thorough understanding of what’s happening (from elections to pop culture) and have the ability to transform it into effective humor.
From time to time, Saturday Night Live gets criticized for not being funny, while other times, their sketches, like the “Bridesmaid Speech” from October 2024, blow up on the internet, as many people find them amusing.
Our interviewee, Gerda, has said, "I don't really follow Saturday Night Live sketches myself, but if encounter them on social media I use, like TikTok or Instagram. I watch them and have to admit that some of them can be pretty funny. Others, not so much, but maybe that's just not my sense of humor."
So, basically, while maybe not every single one of their sketches is comedic gold, some are very good examples of funny topical humor.
The next type of humor is bodily humor—yes, it’s about bodily functions. After this follows dark humor. This usually involves dark, depressing themes, but is packaged in a kind of comical wrapper.
And the last one we’re going to discuss today is observational comedy—when a person makes fun of aspects of everyday life. Again, this one is loved by stand-up comedians and memes, as it usually touches on relatively relatable topics, allowing many people to understand the essence of a joke.
Gerda revealed that she is among the people who love relatable memes: "I like humor that relates to my life, it makes me feel seen and makes life situations a little bit funnier."
We’re pretty sure that on today’s list, you can find quite a few examples of the latter type of humor. As we said, online jokes feed on observational comedy, and since the list is made up of exactly those, such a possibility is likely.
If not, they probably fall under one of the other categories. So, we urge you to check out the list and decide how you would categorize these memes! And, of course, do not forget to give them some upvotes!
