I don't know why, but for some reason humor is very important to me. I watch it, I pay attention to it, I judge it, I even try to do it myself. (note: that was not a joke.) If you think about it, humor in society is incredibly important. There is not a person alive who doesn't like to laugh - and please don't mention anyone with bronchial afflictions... I see that one coming. Anyway, there's not a person who doesn't like to laugh, and if you can make them laugh, they'll think well of you. It's a very simple fact that's hard to refute, so the importance of humor is evident, to say the least. What I'm going to try to do with this html file is explain my theories of about humor. Everything on this file is from my head, unless credited otherwise.

Since humor is obviously so important, it's only natural for each person to train themself to an adequate degree in this skill. Now, like any other degree of attainable skill, there is an average amount that people will most likely have, and there are the exceptions going higher and lower. For example, lets say that the scale of humor capacity goes from 0 - 1,000 (One thousand being the funniest person alive, and zero being... me.) If the average degree of humor is 300, then someone with a humor of 450 is pretty funny, and someone with a humor of 280 is slightly behind in the game.

You may have already wondered, "Why is 300 out of 1,000 average? Wouldn't 500 be a better example of the average?" The answer is absolutely not. Generally speaking, the world's population is not very funny, and to say that the funniest person alive is only twice as funny as the average person just doesn't do justice to the great comics out there. So yeah, I guess I have to offend a few people to get my point across.

Now, as well as rating a person's capacity for humor, this 0-1,000 scale can also determine a person's ability and likelihood to say something funny. An average person with a 300 out of 1,000, will think of any average joke that score will allow, as well as anything below it. I like to refer to any joke that takes an average amount of humor or lower as stock humor. It's nothing special. Anyone can think of it, but the person awarded with the joke is whoever says it out loud first. A good example of this is the average-humor response to the question, "Who are you gonna call?" If you have any degree of humor close to average or higher, you should think "Ghostbusters." People with average or below average humor will say it out loud as soon as they think of it. They see it as a golden opportunity to get laughter. However, a person with above average humor will still think of saying it, but will know better than to say it out loud.

Okay I'll admit, I've been a little broad about the skill involved in humor. It takes more than knowing what to say for it to be funny. I've studied this, and have broken down what it takes to express humor successfully into four elements: content, delivery, medium, and audience. But let me make this clear before I describe each element in further detail. When I refer to a "joke", I don't mean a memorized fictional event intended to arouse humor, I mean anything said or done to arouse humor. It can be a retort, a story, even a look on one's face.

Content
It's knowing what to say. Earlier I wrote that it takes more than knowing what to say for something to be funny, but I'd have to say that it's the most important of all the elements. Success in this category can often outweigh failure in others. This element takes a good amount of intelligence to be good at, unless of course you're just repeating someone else. As much as I'd like to give a good example of the content of a joke outweighing the other elements, I can't. Instead I'll give an example of the obvious importance of content with an actual event.
I was at a restaurant with 2 of my friends and was also seated with 5 other people they they knew but I did not. Realizing the importance of humor while making a first impression, I told a joke when the chance came around. My friend had just mentioned how we'd had a minor confrontation with some idiots out in the parking lot, and he asked me to explain the situation. I told them that these teenagers had driven by while we were walking to our car. They sped by, and a passenger in the car yelled "Dick!" (meaning the term for a penis). I then turned to one of my friends and said, "Well, Donald, you sure are a popular guy."
That, by the way was supposed to be the punch-line. After telling the story in the restaurant, my undivided attention was met with confusion and silence. Perhaps you've already figured out where my joke went wrong. The joke was supposed to be that I thought the punks in the car were calling my friend by the nickname of his birth name. However, "Dick" is NOT short for Donald. It's short for Richard. I still kick myself over that horrible mishap... If content fails, the whole joke fails.

Delivery
That's right! It's not just knowing what to say, it's knowing how to say it! Delivery is the second most important element of successful humor. Mastery of this skill is attained by proper use of pitch and volume changes in the voice, movement of the body (hand gestures, etc.), as well as the use of other voices. Timing is also a key factor in good delivery. Delivery is what makes a decent joke a hilarious joke.

Medium
This element refers to where the joke is being told. Your audience's reaction will vary based on where they hear the joke. Examples of different media include spoken humor, jokes written as text on the internet, and a few more I can't think of right now. Since certain messages are harder to convey from different media, it is important to construct your joke with this in mind. For example, a certain joke that works great in person might not work at all as text because the delivery necessary for the joke to be successful will not be present.

Audience
Last and least, but still important nonetheless is the audience. Who you're telling the joke to does play a big part in whether or not it will be successful, but thankfully it's pretty easy to tell what will and will not work with an audience. For example, a group of nuns probably won't find much humor in any clever musing about a man from Nantucket.

( NOT DONE YET )