Meta-humor is humor about humor. The subject matter is humor itself. Humor repetition is the first type, it’s the one in the front, it leads the way and is the foremost. ATYPICAL repetition as seen here may be humor but it’s not meta-humor. Only the repetition of humor (as in a running joke told again and again) rises to the level of meta-humor.

Why Funny Is Funny outlines seven types of meta-humor. Three of these are discussed here. Beyond humor repetition are two more types: meta-jokes and then anti-humor.

In meta-jokes, an ordinary humor form (including the range of normally expected punchlines) serves as the sense element. The nonsense is a new twist outside the range of what that humor form normally contains. For example, many people have walked into a bar and immediately suffered a concussion. This is a simple meta-humor joke based on homonyms bar and bar. In the standard joke form, the word ‘bar’ only means a gathering spot for drinking alcohol. Another meta-joke built from the same original joke form:

A horse and an engineer walk into a bar.
It’s extremely crowded due to a large number of earlier jokes.

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In the anti-joke, the typical joke setup question is instead answered straight.

Q. Why do bankers carry black umbrellas?
A. In case it rains.

Anti-joke humor is tricky to unpack. The expectation after the setup question is some kind of punchline, and this expectation becomes the sense element. Under these circumstances, the straightforward literal reply serves as the nonsense element. In order for the humor in an anti-joke to be detectable, it’s essential that the setup be seen as a prelude to a joke. Those less sensitive to humor in general have less of a chance of finding anti-jokes funny.

The all-time number one anti-joke has been told so frequently that the humor in it has faded to nothing. Because these days everyone knows the punchline, it now fails completely as an anti-joke.

Q. Why did the chicken cross the road?
A. To get to the other side.

Return to the third broad category Culture

Return to the fifth Humor Culture category Catchphrases

Continue to the first major Humor Culture category Wordplay