Disposition cues are signals that humor is happening. Many kinds of things can act as humor hints.

• General environment: You anticipate humor in a comedy club but not in a hardware store
• History or Reputation: a professor’s lecture is more likely to be funny if they’ve been so before
• Calendar: Halloween costumes and Santa hats are humorous in season, other times not so much
• Cultural introductions: “What do you call a…” / “Knock, Knock” / “What’s the difference between…”
• Social cues: real or artificial audience laughter
• Facial expressions: a wink, or a tongue placed in cheek
• Voice: a cough, or changes in vocal patterns, inflections or tone

Disposition cues can be provided well in advance of the humor kernel reveal, or alongside, or even well after.

Humor with minimal disposition signals is called Dry Humor. Deadpan is a related comedic styling in which an ironic ‘straight face’ is maintained in the presence of hilarity.

Overdoing disposition cues leads to humor that is ‘forced’. This could also be called ‘trying too hard’.

Return to Context

Continue to the second Humor Context component Exposition