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What is Antihumor?

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Antihumor is when an audience expects a joke but in place of a punchline is given a serious or absurd statement. In some cases, the surprise of the missing punchline is funny in itself. Antihumor is also associated with deliberately bad standup comics whose jokes are so bad that it's almost funny. The following is a well known example of antihumor:
Why did the chicken cross the road?
To get to the other side.

Tony Clifton

Tony Clifton is a fictional standup comedian created by the influential comedy Andy Kaufman in the 1970s. Clifton has been played by a variety of comedians in costume who traditionally don't reveal their true identity. He is obnoxious, abusive to the audience, sings terribly and tells bad jokes, so bad they're potentially funny somehow.
I just came back from the northeast
Let me tell you something
It was so cold there that
I thought of something funny
You know all the buildings are so cold they have to have heaters
What if they put air conditioners in the buildings instead
Then it would be colder
~ Tony Clifton, Midnight Special, 1981
Overview: Antihumor
Type
Storytelling
Definition
A set up to a joke that ends with a serious or absurd statement in place of a punchline.
Related Concepts
Next: Humor

Storytelling

This is the complete list of articles we have written about storytelling.
Analogy
Archetypes
Artistic License
Atmosphere
Character Development
Callback
Character Flaws
Cliche
Dry Humor
Design Fiction
Improv
Deux Ex Machina
Kairos
Direct Language
Literary Device
Literature
Figurative Language
Macguffin
Hypothetical Question
Metaphor
Mood
Improvisation
Myth
Inside Jokes
Plot
Jumping The Shark
Quibble
Rhetorical Device
Sarcasm
Lost The Plot
Satire
Message Framing
Tone Of Text
Understatement
Metaphysical Conceit
Verbal Irony
Want To Believe
Mood
Wit
Narrative Thread
Worldbuilding
Non Sequitur
Peak-End Rule
Personification
Red Herring
Rhetorical Question
Rule Of Three
Slice Of Life
Suspension Of Disbelief
Tagline
Looking Glass
Word Of Mouth
More ...
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