What makes something funny?
A touching post by Kaje Harper got me to thinking about humor and its subjectivity. What some people find cute or funny, others are immediately turned off by. There's someone who complains about my cat thinking it's hilarious, whereas I feel offended on my cat's behalf whenever it happens. (I AM a crazy cat lady, you don't want to go there if you're trying to impress me.) Humiliating or insulting someone else? Also pretty excruciating. So what does that leave us with? Puns? Exaggerations? In-jokes, where the part that's funny is the part where we trust each other to get it without overexplaining? Out and out silliness?
In writing I'm a big fan of the wry callback. It's a trust thing. I trust you to remember I made a remark about this thing 100 pages ago and now I'm bringing it back.
As much as dumb gag gifts don't generally humiliate or insult anyone, I'm bewildered by the number and variety available on Amazon, like this yodeling pickle. I like that it doesn't hurt anyone's feelings, I suppose. But I'm still baffled. Maybe it's the new version of silly pranks that never fooled anyone, the stuff you could order from the back of a comic book, like whoopie cushions or see-behind-you glasses.
What about you, what kind of humor do you like? Are pranks and jokes funny to you, or just uncomfortable?