Repeated humor might not be witty, but it can still be funny. One type is the catchphrase: a short, distinct, standalone word or phrase that over time gets repeated in many similar circumstances. Catchphrases don’t have to be humorous but Clash Theory doesn’t much care about them if they aren’t. They’ve been heavily used as cultural calling cards, especially in sitcoms. Many successful comedians have used catchphrases as a way to build a brand.

To succeed as humor, catchphrases need to be said in appropriate circumstances. “Missed it by that much” from the TV show Get Smart always followed some spectacularly humorous screw-up.

Catchphrases used by humor professionals have a lifespan. Each new use, particularly if they are frequent and in highly similar situations, can lead to the audience fracturing along humor culture lines as some experience humor fatigue faster than others.

People who work in retail or who otherwise regularly interact with large numbers of people hear the same kinds of catchphrase-like jokes repeatedly. “It didn’t scan? That means it’s free, right?”. Each new person who makes a joke like this is experiencing it essentially for the first time (and may consider themselves witty accordingly), whereas for the listener it might be time number eight hundred. Similarly, there might be an obvious joke to make about someone with an unusual name, but chances are a person with that name has heard variations of that joke many, many times.

For some the repetition of catchphrases is agony and for others, it’s precisely the repetition of humor that’s itself considered humorous, in an ATYPICAL or FOOLISH or AWKWARD way. For example, a joke might be repeated to annoy someone else as a kind of prank. We’ve now reached the topic of humor about humor, also known as meta-humor.

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Return to the fourth Humor Culture category Wit

Continue to the sixth Humor Culture category Meta-humor