According to (former) Onion Editor-In-Chief Scott Dikkers
- Irony – Intended meaning is opposite of literal meaning
- Character – Comedic character acting on personality traits
- Relatable – Common experiences that audiences can relate to
- Shock – Surprising jokes typically involving sex, drugs, gross-out humor, swearing
- Reference/Parody – Mimic a familiar character, trope or cliche in an unfamiliar way
- Hyperbole – Exaggeration to absurd extremes
- Wordplay – Puns, rhymes, double entendres, etc.
- Analogy – Comparing two disparate things
- Madcap – Crazy, wacky, silly, nonsensical
- Meta-humor – Jokes about jokes, or about the idea of comedy
- Misplaced Focus – Attention is focused on the wrong thing
Do you have a favorite "kind" of joke or is it more about the execution? Do you have a least favorite kind?
Do you agree with this theory of comedy or are there more types of joke?
People always forget about physical humor.
Take this famous scene of Sideshow Bob walking into a bunch of rakes:
There's nothing particularly ironic about Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes unless you're trying to argue that a rake hitting someone in the face instead of being used to rake leaves counts as irony.
Sideshow Bob's reaction towards getting hit in the face by a rake could count, but that's not the main thing that makes it funny, which is Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.
This is probably the closest one that could count, but I feel like actual relatable jokes are different from physical humor. You don't need to literally get hit in the face with a rake to laugh at Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.
There's nothing particularly shocking or edgy about Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes although a lot of Jackass stuff could count as both shock and physical humor.
The entire Simpsons episode is a parody of Cape Fear, but the actual gag of Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes is something completely original.
Having a bunch of rakes and Sideshow Bob repeatedly walking into them could count, but that part of the joke is still different from Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.
No wordplay to be found in Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.
No comparison to be found in Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.
This is a nonsensical setup, but the setup is different from the payoff of Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.
This entire gag of Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes is technically filler because the length of the episode came up short and they had to fill up time, but that really isn't a commentary on humor.
The scene is perfectly focused of Sideshow Bob getting hit in the face with rakes.
I figured rake-stepping type stuff was slapstick and fell under madcap but I guess you're right. Madcap and meta-humor are honestly so broad as to cover most types of humor that you're not sure if they show up on the list or not. Like I was thinking about subversions of other genres. Like a horror jumpscare that turns out to be something harmless. That's meta-humor too.