Real / Fictional is the first humor gauge type.

Two friends in the woods are surprised by a bear.
The first immediately drops his backpack.
He pulls out running shoes and starts putting them on.
The second shouts, "Are you crazy? You can't outrun a bear."
The first says, "I only need to outrun you."

Most everything about standard joke forms signal that the content is completely fictional. A good thing, because the humor in them very frequently would deteriorate if seen as real, largely because of the distractions that a real situation would induce. The real counterpart to ‘joke’ is a humorous anecdote.

Charlie Brown from Charles Schultz’s Peanuts cartoon never kicks the football because Lucy always pulls it away. If someone in reality were to mimic Lucy’s unrelenting sadism, the abuse and permanent lack of apology would most likely distract from the perception of humor. Alternatively, someone seeing this event in the comic could be reminded of a similar real experience and because of this fail to detect humor.

Return to Humor Gauges

Continue to the second Humor Gauge Spontaneous / Prepared