What are the 7 types of humor?

Answer 1

I learned in school that there are 7 categories of humor and all other can merely be categorized into these main types.

I can only remember 5 of them, unfortunately:

1. Shock/Surprise

sub:slapstick

2. Exaggeration

sub: farce, understatement

3.Satire/Parody

sub:sarcasm

4.Irony

5.It's funny cuz it's true

I wish I could remember the last two. I'm thinking maybe it's wordplay?

There are several ways to categorize humor, however. Those listed above concentrate on style (or whatever you'd like to call it). Some like to categorize by source of joke. for example, dark humor(source=horrible situation), self-deprecating(source= self), bathroom (source=bodily functions), and jokes at others expense (source=other people obviously).

There is also delivery to take into account. Dry humor and slapstick are classic examples.

You can find a great article on these here

http://www.match.com/magazine/article/12400/The-10-Different-Types-Of-Humor/

I'm still inclined to think that they can all be boiled down to the original 7 categories, however.

-Alisha 4/18/2012

there are at least 12 types of humor:

sarcasm

pun

exaggeration

understatement

irony

satire

unexpected

farce

dark

screwball

slapstick

parody

-previous entry