Inherently funny word
Some influential comedians have long regarded certain words in the English language as being inherently funny, and have used them to enhance the humour of their comic routines. Not all people agree, and some people believe that this is an invalid concept.
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, is itself an inherently funny word.
Examples of references to the concept
- In Neil Simon's 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."
- Monty Python's "Woody and Tinny Words" sketch features extensive play on the sounds of English words for their inherent humour.
- Dave Barry's "Dave Barry Talks Back" has a column on linguistic humour. He contrasts the phrase "Richard Nixon wearing a necktie" with "Richard Nixon wearing a neckweasel", and concludes that weasel is a very funny word.
- In the Simpsons episode "Homer the Clown", written by John Swartzwelder, Krusty the Klown tells Homer during a lesson at his clown college: "Memorize these funny place names: Walla Walla, Keokuk, Cucamonga, Seattle."
- George Carlin talks about kumquats and succotash in his older routines.
- In the Dilbert comic strip dated from December 21, 1989, 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.
- Many have conjectured that the word "Duck" is the funniest word in the English language. This was popularized by the Marx Brothers comedy Duck Soup, considered by some to be the funniest movie ever made. This 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."
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.
Examples of inherently funny words
In the English language, many of these words have the letters C and K in them and contain the vowel sounds \oo\, \aw\, and \ah\.
For example:
- aardvark
- badger (the comedic writer Dave Barry frequently uses badger in this manner, and has written an essay on how usage makes any joke funnier) (see also badger badger badger)
- balloon
- bassoon
- cack
- cow (proposed by Gary Larson)
- duck (proposed by the Marx Brothers)
- gruntfuttock (one of several meaningless neologisms whose intrinsic comedy was exploited by the radio show Round the Horne)
- kumquat
- noodle
- pock
- potato
- rutabaga
- snigger
- snorkel
- sock
- tapioca
Note also that the words aardvark, badger, flibbertigibbet, kumquat, rutabaga, and bassoon refer to unusual items for some people, which adds to their surprise/strangeness/humour potential.
Yiddish and German, words often seem funny to 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 the Dutch language 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.
Another category of words considered funny are those that resemble taboo words or invite taboo mispronunciations, such as fuchsia.
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.
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?
See also
