How funny are you?

Looks aren't everything

need an option for "this feels like a personal attack"

we should close this and poll each ilxor instead

Xxxpost That was my dad's favorite go-to.

"You're pretty funny. Funny LOOKING. But looks aren't everything. And in your case, they're nothing."

I laugh at my own humor more than my wife does, but I often can make her laugh and we both enjoy laughing together when I can pull it off. My usual gambit is tipping the conversational perspective just over the edge and into absurdity. She's more of a comedy desert, but I knew that going into the marriage and I've always been fine with that.

I’m medium funny and I only maintain that standard by constantly posting clunking overworked 7-paragraph comic monologues to somebody’s attic

god here

it's awesome there are people that are just naturally and effortlessly funny, they are treasures.

thanks

My kids laugh at my jokes, my wife rolls her eyes, which is just her way of laughing. Outside of my house I very occasionally elicit a chuckle. Online my sense of humour just does not translate and I have for the most part given up on trying to be funny there.

funny but bomb in real life; awful here, and in text messages (unless you know me well enough irl)

i'm an EXTREMELY solid 3 out of 10

Funny how? Like a clown?

i don't consider myself very funny honestly but i do think i have gotten funnier over the last 5 years. i can make my partner laugh pretty regularly and we joke all the time which wasn't always the case. overall my sense of humor is spacey and weird not really 'witty'.

I’m medium funny and I only maintain that standard by constantly posting clunking overworked 7-paragraph comic monologues to somebody’s attic

Incorrect, you are top three funniest people posting on here. (Faint praise, considering, but I’m being sincere)

I'm only funny in groups, I think I need people to generate material that I can riff or comment on.

I also think there was a possibility that I was a little funny online at some point, but not anymore, it's an atrophied muscle.

My wife and I make each other laugh all the time. Her sense of humor is more absurdist/childlike than mine, which I love.

I try to be funny in my writing (and posting), but it mostly fails.

My sister thinks i'm funny. Many years ago two other people separately called me the most amusing man alive.
Whatever happened to that me?

tbf most amusing man alive isn't necessarily a compliment

option 5 or 6, even if my posts here don’t bear this out. my husband has told me that i should consider comedy or acting but i feel like i am only very funny around ppl i feel close to (also i would rather chew my arm off than ever attempt stand-up comedy). i do have several entries in the finest display names thread, some of which I’m proud of, but i feel like that well has kinda run dry for me

Lol Rob true

feel like i've always joked my way through life but as i get older sometimes have made an effort to focus on other things besides joking, especially at work. sometimes feel like humour has deserted me a bit over the years but again maybe just more consideration for the moment in hand. i've always been a sort of clownish person with friends tho and i guess that's still sort of true.

I can be funny, but it's mostly situational when riffing off of other things. I can't really intentionally be funny.

Though I am very funny looking, as I've been repeatedly informed. So there's that.

xp when I was younger I would have to actively tamp down the reflex of cracking jokes throughout work meetings. only really cured myself of this recently when I ended up being the one running the meetings, and that was for a job I cared about a lot. but like others I've wondered a bit in my 40s if I'm "not funny anymore"

yeah basically same. my current role has been prob my most rewarding, and also most stressful. i've had a lot of autonomy but some authority also, however i have to control a lot of stuff and jokes only occur to me in passing and don't even feel in character in the role. tho it was prob the reverse in the past.

My sense of humor fractured in 2023 and I find myself scramble brained to where I am almost never funny but I used to be.

But really this thread was meant to spur debate about who on ILX was actually funny and it appears I failed

Less humility, more braggadoccio!

I am funny but also not nearly as funny as I think I am.

I'm also much, much funnier in person than I am online. I assure you.

I'm undercover funny, I'm only funny when you're not around

i'm the reason comedy is bad

When I was in the audience at a Radio 4 book programme, Margaret Atwood told me I had a "funny face". But I think she meant funny weird

I think there is a nicer way to say "seek validation" - maybe "make a connection"? Or maybe it's both at the same time.

I can be funny, but it's mostly situational when riffing off of other things. I can't really intentionally be funny.

This! When I was a journalist, an editor who thought I was funny asked me to write a comedy listicle. I found it impossible. I am funny but I am fucking hopeless at jokes. If you looked at a script of something I said that made peple laugh, it would not seem funny. I think my delivery is probably better than my mateiral.

When I was 17-18 I used my cynical, dry humor to make friends because I didn't know how to talk to people otherwise.

In my 20s I learned you didn't have to entertain people for them to like you

I’m not really funny but I’ve gotten better since meeting my spouse, who is so fucking hilarious and should be writing for tv.

It’s a great feeling when I say something that I suspect will get her to howl with laughter and then the howling does indeed ensue

My default setting at work is Class Clown, and my material and timing have gotten better after almost 6 years behind the bar. I shoot for quick-witted but not cruel. So, somewhere between "I am humorous but I seek validation too much" and "I'm pretty funny but I bomb now and then" I think.

At work i realized years ago I should not be myself. It's very stuffy, buttoned-up corporate culture.

One day I was in San Juan on a disastrous work trip with people I just couldn't stand but was trying to find any way to connect with in order to not go insane.

Our company was in process of being renamed and the new name leaked and it was terrible and we were all laughing and finally having levity in the car. Someone in the car said "and we spent a million dollars on that campaign, and we came up with that?"

I quipped "probably spent 900,000 of it on coke". The main dude i was putting heads with all week got a confused look like a 9 year old and said "huh? 900 on coke? I don't get it" and everyone stopped laughing.

Not knowing if he was offended or just a rude, I just replied "i mean they wasted 900k of it...on coke".

Dude is still giving me a blank stare saying "I still don't get it" and I'm wishing I was dead as our project director is one of the people in the car and she isn't laughing anymore either.

Finally, the driver says, loudly "He means of the million dollars, they spent 900,000 dollars on cocaine and only 100000 on renaming tje company".

Guy says "oh...heh", and nobody spoke the rest of the trip...which unfortunately was to dinner and not back to the hotel.

So I no longer try to be funny at work after a mid attempt at a joke drew a deathlike silence

*rube

I'm funny lookin'

It's situational. I know how to make my friends laugh. I'm usually too shy to attempt jokes with strangers.

always down to clown

But really this thread was meant to spur debate about who on ILX was actually funny...

― Abby Gore (Neanderthal), Tuesday, March 3, 2026 3:55 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lagoon, estela, wins, dmac gotta be on the list

90% of my humour stems from in-jokes with my friends or my partner so when it comes to being funny outside of my immediate circle of friends I forget this and end up being just very confusing

I mean, I literally just did the "funny lookin'" joke before realising it had been told and discussed multiple times in the thread already, so that tells you everything

I'm undercover funny, I'm only funny when you're not around

I have a sense of humour, it lives in Canada...

I used to be funnier

I’m still funny… it’s the world that bombs

I have an uneasy relationship with 'funny'... On the internet ok...However, most mainstream UK comedians that i see on TV depress me enough to turn them off instantly, and in personal life I far prefer people who are serious/sincere. For some people I've met, the need to be 'funny' has clearly developed into some kind of compulsive neurosis that makes it difficult to be relaxed around them.

Deep down I'm a serious person, so I go for good-humored and social instead, and like Jordan said I rely on others to bring material to comment on. I can do dead-pan, I can do snarky, I can do self-deprecation, and what we call "second degré" (sarcastic, ironic, not to be taken literally). I will bring smiles much more than laugh-out-loud moments. I mostly try to keep it spontaneous though.

But really this thread was meant to spur debate about who on ILX was actually funny...

― Abby Gore (Neanderthal), Tuesday, March 3, 2026 3:55 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lagoon, estela, wins, dmac gotta be on the list

Batting 1.000

Funny people take life most seriously.

First and foremost I try to amuse myself and if it anyone else finds it funny then that's a bonus.

Humour is only ever been unintentional as I'm a serious person.

I am 10x funnier when women are around than when it’s just dudes. Why would I waste my energy being funny for a bunch of men?

a huge part of UK culture is "you've got to be able to laugh at yourself / not take yourself too seriously" and this stands for a whole load of other stuff which people don't usually like to unpack.

Getting people to laugh is central to how I build rapport, but I can't quite explain how it's done: I can be spontaneously quick-witted in the moment, in a way that people aren't expecting, and I can land a laugh without pre-signalling it. It comes fairly naturally, I'm known for it, and I very much enjoy doing it.

I do feel like I'm getting more extraverted as I get older, and more comfortable camping it up a bit. I also really aim not to make edgy jokes or jokes at anyone's expense. I like jokes that make people feel good.

Getting people to laugh is central to how I build rapport, but I can't quite explain how it's done

This is true for me also I think despite my post upthread. Like I can't go day to day without joking and it is part of me feeling understood or understanding others. I also know in work situations laughing when things are difficult or stressful has tended to feel a strength or something that can help others.

This thread makes me realise I don't really know how others think about humour but it's definitely been a kind of core thing I use but also have sometimes tried to moderate as I've got older.

Funny how? Like a clown?

― fetter, Tuesday, March 3, 2026 12:45 PM (yesterday)

actual lol

The only thing I pat myself on the back about is my tastes, in this case in humor, and I'm relatively quick witted? So that combo gives me a unique angle a lot of the time.

I feel like I'd be great in a writer's room but I'm too lazy or unfocused to do anything in order to build the credentials to actually be invited to one. Alas!

Don't be fooled - despite the above I have really low self esteem

i am one of the annoying "never funny, always wanting to be funny" losers. there's a way in which i even try to make that fact its own inside joek among my friends. still not funny. bombing4life.

which sounds like a terror organization.

"I can tell knock knocks" = nail on head. Great poll options Neando, I feel seen.

I have a wacky sense of humor tho and it's easy to get a laugh outta me. Sometimes i just start giggling at random shit that makes no sense.

Lately I'm all in on the humorless music tho, I feel funny about that.

Other. There was a distinction drawn recently in a discussion of David Foster Wallace: witty vs. funny.

I am not funny (and don't try to be). I don't tell jokes or crave laughs. I do think I can be witty, about 40% of the time.

The other 60% of the time I am just talking how I think. Drive-by quipping, puns, wordplay, allusions, references - all are just how I process the world. Plus a dash of absurdism (take a "what if" thought, give it steroids, and say the result out loud).

To the extent that I hope for reaction it's for a knowing nod or a sideways "nice" or "well-played," more than laughs or for that matter groans.

There can be a disconnect when people who don't know me think am trying to be funny; it's on me to mitigate. I do not read rooms especially well and I will forever need to work on that.

I am big into terrible anti-humor that is only funny to me and have had a script I've wanted to produce at our short play fest which is just two people dressed as clowns coming on stage, standing still and silent, and then farting and walking off-stage after ten minutes .

Surprisingly it's been politely declined.

Neanderthal, you are seen, here; let this be your stage.

I empathize so hard with your "at work, I just should not be myself"

I guess I'll try for an honest answer: I can be pretty funny and quick witted, some of the time. Much moreso in person than online. I was something of a class clown growing up. Being able to make the room laugh was pretty much the only social currency I had, being otherwise an introverted nerd. But also, my best friends were all way funnier than me. So I identified as "the funny guy" while also knowing I was low in the Funny Guy Hierarchy. Boy, did that fuck with my self-esteem.

I don't think I've self-identified as funny for years. It's not really for me to say how funny I am! Still, the Funny Guy comes out of me now and then, on dates and in work meetings. I can't help it.

ive worked as a comedy writer and always felt a disconnect between writing/doing funny stuff and being funny myself. coming up with something that i thought was really funny and that made other people laugh never felt like the act of me, A Funny Person, it felt like snatching something out of the ether, like how some songwriters talk about receiving songs in those terms. getting an audience to laugh never felt connected to personal validation, it felt closer to the satisfying tension/release of hearing a perfectly-crafted pop song or nailing a card trick. like its validating to pull it off and be good at what you were trying to do, but never had the feeling that many comedians talk about of "i need all these people to love & validate me."

ofc i aggressively never put anything personal into my writing, my tastes are firmly in impersonal joke/gag/anything-for-a-laugh territory, so pretty easy to disconnect the funny stuff i was involved with from my image of myself. hearing people refer to me as funny was always kind of a mild shock, like "really? *thinks for a second* oh yeah, i can see why they would say that"

I aim for a relaxed wryness and likely only partially succeed. Honestly others would be the best judge.

Funny enough in the wit, amusing sideways idea, dry surprise way, I guess. Enough to comfortably lubricate most situations, just keeping things moving. But when I think of the genuinely funny fuckers I know... I know I can get a solid shared social laugh but they've got the instinct and timing for the proper breaking down almost hurting laugh if they ringlead a pub table or a crowd. I imagine it's like a Saturday morning footballer watching a pro or semi-pro - you've just got to say damn they can do that and I cannot.

There's a separate-but-related thing about _being able to tell a joke_. The skill of pitching that, either blinding you fast for a one-liner or drawing you into the plain narrative for the punchline... I admire that and do not have it.

I can’t tell a joke to save my life tbh, but I can make terrible puns all day long. they’re less about timing or like actually remembering what the fucking punchline is, they’re more of a problem solving exercise - take two unrelated things and figure out a linguistic connection between them. totally annoy myself doing it, but it’s just the way my brain is wired

I can't tell a joke to save my life either, and for some reason I never, ever remember jokes that I've been told. But a couple of weeks ago, while emerging from sleep, I came up with one. This has never happened before.

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Wilhelmina.
Wilhelmina who?
Wilhelmina could tell ya... but then I'd have to kill ya.

I've been telling corny jokes all my life, but after I had kids and turned 40, by magic, everyone started to laugh at my jokes.

Sometimes I go, How come you weren't laughing before? And that makes folks chuckle harder.

Could've used that joke a few weeks ago, mike, when I was on the Ouachita Trail. People asking, "Are you really going to spend a week in the woods?" and I could've replied, "Wilhelmina could, but I will be staying a night halfway at the Queen Wilhelmina State Park Lodge."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

9 Gods