Anti-humor

Not to be confused with Deadpan humor.

Anti-humor or anti-comedy is a type of alternative humor that is based on the surprise factor of absence of an expected joke or of a punch line in a narration that is set up as a joke. This kind of anticlimax is similar to that of the shaggy dog story.[1] In fact, some researchers see the "shaggy dog story" as a type of anti-joke.[2] Anti-humor is described as a form of irony or reversal of expectations that may provoke an emotion opposite to humor, such as fear,[3] pain, embarrassment, disgust, awkwardness, or discomfort.[4]

  1. ^ Warren A. Shibles, Humor Reference Guide: A Comprehensive Classification and Analysis Archived September 28, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (Hardcover) 1998 ISBN 0-8093-2097-5
  2. ^ John Henderson, "Writing Down Rome: Satire, Comedy, and Other Offences in Latin Poetry" (1999) ISBN 0-19-815077-6, p. 218
  3. ^ Nachman, Steven R. (1982). "Anti-Humor: Why the Grand Sorcerer Wags His Penis". Ethos. 10 (2): 117–135. doi:10.1525/eth.1982.10.2.02a00020. ISSN 0091-2131. JSTOR 3696960.
  4. ^ Lewis, Paul (1986). "Painful Laughter: The Collapse of Humor in Woody Allen's "Stardust Memories"". Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981-) (5): 141–150. ISSN 0271-9274. JSTOR 41205641.