Is dry humour good?

humour without spit

humorously sarcastic or mocking; "dry humor"; "an ironic remark often conveys an intended meaning obliquely"; "an ironic novel"; "an ironical smile"; "with a wry Scottish wit"

it's a good thing

Reply 2

thatguy

OP

um... still not quite sure...

Reply 3

i think its basically saying something sarky or clever and keeping a straight face while everyone pisses them selves

Reply 4

billyboy

its meant to be typically british-tongue in cheek, sarcastic, slightly taking the michael surreptitiously.

Reply 5

SuperhansFavouriteAlsatian

If dry humour is good, then I'm a paradox.

Reply 6

killerbee

i think its basically saying something sarky or clever and keeping a straight face while everyone pisses them selves

Gimbo. Er, Bingo!

Reply 7

drawmeamonkey

1

someone told me i had the dryest sense of humour of anyone she'd ever met, and she was a stand up comedienne

its all about the sarcasm

Reply 8

Danny the Geezer

21

Yes. Im a master of it.

Reply 9

Trousers

11

Think Will Self. Dry humour is people delivering jokes without drawing attention to how funny they are. And never using exclamation marks.

Reply 10

zhivago

2

It's the best kind of humour.

Reply 11

Stick Man

11

Ooh, I think I might do that. Except often I genuinely don't realise why everyone's laughing at me.

Reply 12

zhivago

2

mdm708

Ooh, I think I might do that. Except often I genuinely don't realise why everyone's laughing at me.

Hmmm...I don't think you can really "do" it. It's more of an in-built thing...

Reply 13

good humour doesn't involve making a fool of yourself so people laugh at you
unfortunately its the only type i can do

Reply 14

Will Self; Angus Deayton; Stephen Fry; Woody Allen; Dylan Moran; Mark Lamarr; Paul Merton (true, at least, of his 'Have I Got News For You' persona); and so they proliferate.

A sophisticated wit can be as flattering to the recipient as to the purveyor. Although the traditional tenets of comedy may well lend themselves to the delivery of 'dry' or ironic sentiment, that its humour would persist in the absence of such artifice enunciates the cerebral, as opposed to visceral, nature of the observation. To those who esteem intellect, this might render it greater potential as an art form; the combination of comedic fundaments such as timing, delivery and so forth with a ready intellect and keen observational faculty being one that few can attest.

At the risk of being lambasted for repetitiousness, I am unequivocal: 'dry' humour really is the best kind.

Reply 15

Kard

It's good if it's off the cuff, but some people on the internet do it too often they just make themselves look like bitter losers who play too many online games.

Reply 16

killerbee

good humour doesn't involve making a fool of yourself so people laugh at you
unfortunately its the only type i can do

There is, however, a discernible art to 'playing the fool'; or at least appearing to do so such that it makes no odds.

Reply 17

mark lamarr aint quite dry - you can see him trying not to laugh

also it is easy to take the piss out of people which is all that he does

Reply 18

Kard

It's good if it's off the cuff, but some people on the internet do it too often they just make themselves look like bitter losers who play too many online games.

Ah, yes; internet forums: where everyone enjoys the luxury of being able to consult their 'Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations' at length before enacting a response.

Reply 19