Inherently funny word - Misplaced Pages

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An inherently funny word is a word which native speakers often find to be funny, for reasons ranging from onomatopoeia to sexual innuendo.

Some words, such as aardvark, badger, rutabaga, and bassoon refer to unusual items for some people, which adds to their surprise or humor potential. Conversely, other words gain humor by being completely ordinary, such as spoon, cow, or potato. Others acquire "naughty" humor by being similar to sexual terms or terms which refer to bodily functions, especially excretion, such as knickers, mastication, kumquat, Shih Tzu, titter, et cetera.

As a generalization, words deemed "inherently funny", such as giggle, for their sound (rather than meaning or potential misinterpretation) may often resemble baby's babbling or otherwise may have very strongly-defined syllables.

Yiddish and German words often seem funny to American English speakers, in particular those that begin with the /ʃ/ ("sh") sound, spelled sch- (or sometimes sh- in Yiddish), as in the derisive prefix shm-/schm-: "Oedipus schmoedipus!". Texts in Dutch often seem comical to English-speaking readers, in part because much written Dutch is partially intelligible, but curiously spelled from an English-language point of view.

Comedy

Some influential comedians have long regarded certain words in the English language as being "inherently funny" and have used these to enhance the humor of their comic routines. By propagating the meme that the words used are funny, comedy routines may increase the comedy potential of the words by adding another level of comic association.

The radio panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue includes an occasional round called "Straight Face", in which the panelists take turns to say a single word each. A player is eliminated from the game if anyone in the audience laughs at their word ("even the merest titter"). The winner is the last player standing. The fact that this game works, and that it is possible to predict more or less accurately which words are safe to use and which are unsafe, can be construed as evidence that the phenomenon is real. (The word titter in the instructions for the game achieves a comic effect: it may have a claim to be itself an inherently funny word.)

Funny numbers

Some comedians also maintain that certain numbers are funnier than others, although funny numbers tend to rely on context to set up an expectation of size or exactitude. Numbers that are oddly exact (such as the Car Talk standard prize of a gift certificate for 26 dollars) or of an order of magnitude different from what is expected (such as Dr. Evil's ransom demand for 1 million dollars to avert nuclear destruction in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery) can be amusing. The idea that the answer to the "ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything" is 42 is funny, according to author Douglas Adams, because it is an "ordinary, smallish" number whereas numbers relating to space tend to be extremely large or extremely small and exact to many decimal places. "Weird Al" Yankovic also is known to use the number 27 in many of his songs, videos and other works. When asked why, he said that it was just a funny number.

Additionally, there is a concept in comedy of the "rule of three," which suggests that things in threes are funnier or more satisfying than other numbers of things. Specifically, maximum humor can be attained by creating a structure in which a joke is set up, the set up is reinforced, and the punchline breaks the pattern.

Answering the question "What is funny?"

Determining whether a word is inherently funny, some say, is subjective and based on context. Therefore, there can never be a consensus on the answer of "What is funny?", or many other questions explaining the nature of such an abstract concept.

It is part of the mythology of actors and writers that the consonant plosives (so called because they start suddenly or "explosively"); that is: p, b, t, d, k, and g are the funniest sounds in the English language - particularly when found in short words since these "create the greatest tension" (tension being a key to comedy). Example: Underpants is funny, underwear is not. Shorter words are held to "create tension" because separating words from the normal flow of speech is very difficult cognitively, and it's more difficult to discern whether a short word has ended or not. Now look again at that list of funniest words. Duck is not only admirably short but both starts and ends in a plosive, and the other plosives are legion.

Additionally, the meaning of the word certainly plays a factor. "Duck" is funny in nearly every language, presumably because ducks are seen as a silly animal. Additionally, when taboos are associated with certain words, that can make a word humorous. The ideal funny word, then, would have the proper linguistic characteristics, a humorous meaning, and be well fitting the context of the situation and the character of the speaker.

Unresolved questions about inherently funny words include:

Are there any known physiological or linguistic reasons for why these words are funny?
Are the funny sounds the same in other languages?

Examples of references to the concept

The BBC Radio Four panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue occasionally plays a game in which the contestants have to say random words that do not provoke the (easily provoked) audience to laugh. The words "theodolite" and "plinth" almost always produce laughter.
Cartoonist Gary Larson considers cow to be an inherently funny word.
In Neil Simon's play The Sunshine Boys, a character says: "Words with a k in it are funny. Alka-Seltzer is funny. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. All with a k. Ls are not funny. Ms are not funny."
An episode of King of the Hill has Bobby tell the above quote to his father, Hank.
In an article in the New Yorker published in 1948, H. L. Mencken argues that "k words" are funny: "'K,' for some occult reason, has always appealed to the oafish risibles of the American plain people, and its presence in the names of many ... places has helped to make them joke towns ... for example, Kankakee, Kalamazoo, Hoboken, Hohokus, Yonkers, Squeedunk, Stinktown (the original name of Chicago), and Brooklyn."
The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Outrageous Okona" features Joe Piscopo as a comedian who, in attempting to teach the android Data the concept of humor, refers to words ending in a k as funny.
In Monty Python sketches:
- Monty Python's "Woody and Tinny Words" sketch finds humor in the pure sounds of English words and their inherent "woodiness" (good) or "tinniness" (bad).
- Another Monty Python sketch, "Are You Embarrassed Easily?", includes a humorous list of words: shoe, megaphone, grunties, Wankel rotary engine.
- A third Monty Python sketch details "Words Not to be Used Again", including "B*M", "B*TTY", "P*X", "KN*CKERS", "KN*CKERS", "W**-W**" and the word "SEMPRINI" (actually the surname of a contemporary light orchestral conductor, Alberto Semprini, who was famous for constantly being on the radio).
- The sketch Election Night Special relays the results of elections involving the Sensible Party, Silly Party, Slightly Silly Party, and Very Silly Party. One candidate running for the Silly Party is named Jethro Q. Bunn Whackett Buzzard Stubble and Boot Walrustitty.
- The imaginary exclamations Ni! and Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky f'tang-zoop-boing! Goodem-zoo-owli-zhiv! are used by The Knights who say Ni in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. These became instantly popular and are considered inherently funny, when pronounced in the manner the Knights do.
Dave Barry's 1991 book Dave Barry Talks Back reprints a column on linguistic humor. He contrasts the phrases "Richard Nixon wearing a necktie" with "Richard Nixon wearing a neck weasel", and "Scientists have discovered a 23rd moon orbiting Jupiter" with "Scientists have discovered a giant weasel orbiting Jupiter." He concludes that weasel is a very funny word - "You can improve the humor value of almost any situation by injecting a weasel into it."
In The Simpsons:
- In the episode "Homie the Clown", Krusty the Clown tells Homer during a lesson at his clown college: "Memorize these funny place names: Walla Walla, Keokuk, Cucamonga, Seattle." Homer finds the last example hysterical.
- In another episode, Krusty the Clown paralyzes his vocal cords when he tries to cram in too many "Comedy K's".
Comedian George Carlin talks about kumquats, succotash and guacamole in his older routines.
In the December 21, 1989 Dilbert comic strip, Dilbert uses his computer to determine the funniest words in the world, coming up with chainsaw, weasel, prune, and any reference to Gilligan's Island.
The word duck is sometimes called the funniest word in the English language. This was popularized by the Marx Brothers comedies The Cocoanuts (featuring their "Why a Duck" routine) and Duck Soup. Comedian Joe Penner's famous "Wanna buy a duck?" routine of the 1930s is another example. This effect might have more to do with the actual animal than the English word for it, as in 2002, after conducting a scientific cross-cultural joke experiment known as LaughLab, psychologist Richard Wiseman concluded that ducks are funny in all the studied countries: "If you're going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck."
"Turtle, by the way, is a very funny word." —Roger Ebert, review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The radio comedy Round the Horne came up with the inherently funny word Gruntfuttock.
Comedian Ron White, in routines such as "They Call Me 'Tater Salad'", emphasizes the c in public to draw laughter from the audience, in addition to the use of the word tater.
Spike Milligan's Goon Show scripts often include funny nonsense words, such as spon, ploogie, plinge, lurgi and needle nardle noo.
On Gilmore Girls, Lorelai Gilmore posits that "oy" is the funniest word ever and poodle is also very funny, and creates what she considers a wonderful catchphrase, "Oy with the poodles already."
There is a Usenet newsgroup called alt.spleen, which has its own alt.spleen FAQ, since "spleen" is often thought of as an inherently funny word; The Spleen is also the name of one of the comic superheroes in the film Mystery Men.
In the comic strip Pickles by Brian Crane, the word snood was presented as an inherently funny word.
In his DVD commentaries, Simpsons creator Matt Groening has proclaimed the word underpants to be at least 15% funnier than the word underwear. This idea is based on a theory by Futurama writer Ken Keeler. In the show Futurama, "underpants" is almost always used in lieu of "underwear."
The Darkover game produced by Eon Games simulates the "psychic combat" of the Darkover novels by having the players choose a word or phrase and then repeat it over and over; the first player to laugh loses the psychic combat.
Saturday Night Live writer Bryan Tucker has avowed that "'Monkey' is always go-to" (always elicits a laugh).
Comic book, animation, and live action absurdist superhero The Tick, when required to choose a battle cry, chooses "Spoon!"
In an episode of the sitcom That 70s Show entitled "Eric's Stash", the character Michael Kelso, during a round of pot-smoking, repeatedly says, "You know what’s a funny word? Pickleweasel!"
The skit/song 'Bulbous Bouffant,' performed by The Vestibules and picked up by Dr. Demento, is a routine based entirely off of inherently funny words like galoshes, spatula, and tuberculosis.

References

Barry, Dave (1991), Dave Barry Talks Back, 1st edn., New York: Crown. ISBN 0-517-58546-4.
The Power of the Plosive, Tips & Tactics, 1st Quarter 1999, The Naming Newsletter, Rivkin and Associates
H. L. Mencken, "The Podunk Mystery," The New Yorker, September 25, 1948.

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