Comedy is a very strange thing. Some of us find one thing funny and yet many others of us won't think that it is funny at all. I guess when we speak of comedy we have to include taste. We can define comedy in several ways:
1. A drama with a happy ending, this is usually what is known as romantic comedy.
2. A ludicrous or farcical event or series of events.
3. Humorous entertainment.
There are other definitions, but I just gave the few general descriptions that most of us are familiar with. Since everyone has different taste, here is a definition for that word:
1. It is something that one knows from experience.
2. Appreciate or enjoy.

If we combine these two terms we get something that we learned to laugh at. I guess that is close enough. Sometimes we will go to a movie and laugh so hard that we will be falling out of our seats and yet, some of the other movie patrons will not even be laughing at all. A good example of this was when I saw "Dumb And Dumber". There were some scenes in that movie that I laughed at so hard, I could hardly breathe, and yet I felt myself getting the evil eye from one person who thought that I should have been quiet, but you see, I have LEARNED to laugh at stupid things, I just can't help it, that is my acquired TASTE. I can look at a movie, like a romantic comedy and not even smile, yet people around me will be in stitches. I remember another movie named "There Is Something About Mary", that effected me much the same way as "Dumb and Dumber". Maybe I shouldn't go to see these movies in public. You see, I have what is know as a true funny bone. Show me someone falling into a hole or stepping into a puddle and I just can't help but laugh.

Jim Carey
Photo Published under the GNU Free Documentation License,

Here is my problem. I find humor in things that I really shouldn't sometimes. An example of this was when a co-worker dropped a cigarette and it rolled under a desk. He bent down to get it and when he was getting up he hit his head on the desk's leaf which had been pulled out. I don't know why, but I found this extremely funny and was laughing so hard I could hardly talk, but I managed to say to him, "see, smoking is bad for your health". He did not appreciate that folks. Yes it is true, situations that one shouldn't laugh at, happen from time to time. I was at a party when an extremely heavy co-worker had a chair completely disintegrate under him. It was one of those chairs that had arms that looked like a hollow box attached to it. As he got up, it struck me very funny because he had an arm of the chair that had slid up to his shoulder and he was holding on to another piece of the chair. It was completely out of place, but I laughed so hard I almost threw up. Talk about inappropriate, that was it folks. I just couldn't help myself. This does prove one thing however, comedy is where you find it. The old time comedian Jack Benny could crack people up with just a certain look. He was a true ninja master of comedy.

Anytime you turn on the tv, if you have cable or satellite, you can find all sorts of comedians plying their trade. I find most of them very unfunny. I don't think that saying things for shock value is funny, such as the myriad of sexual comments that are made. Hey if they are funny I would laugh, I wouldn't be able to help myself, but they aren't. Very few comedians are masters of the art. Some like George Carlin, who does tell some pretty off color stories by the way, can be very funny, but give that same material to most comedians and they couldn't pull it off. It is just something about the delivery. There are different kinds of comedy. There is the stand up comedian that we just spoke of, there are the comedians who do sight gags and then there are those that seem to try and combine both.

When we talk about sight gag comedians we are talking about such greats as Laurel and Hardy and The Three Stooges. Oh you don't think that the Three Stooges were great? My answer to that is, just look at how many times their films have been run on tv. If they weren't popular, this would have never happened. Laurel and Hardy consisted of a team of two people, that is obvious. We had the dumb guy who knew he was dumb and the other dumb guy who thought that he was smart. Oliver Hardy always had the hair brained schemes and used Stan Laurel to try and carry them out, with disastrous results. If you want to see one of their really funny films you have to see "Block-Heads". Oliver goes out of his World War I trench to attack, but finds the war has ended. No one tells Stanley and he stays there for years until he tries to shoot down a passenger plane flying over. This is truly a funny film. The Three Stooges would do anything for a laugh, like hit each other with hammers, run a saw under one of their noses or shoot nails at each other. The amazing thing is that not one kid that I knew of, ever tried any of these dangerous things, they all knew it was just fun and not real. These old time vaudeville performers just knew how to make people laugh.

As far as the standup and sight gag comedians go, I guess that one of the funniest ones around today is Jim Carey. He doesn't seem to be very good in serious roles, but I think that a lot of that is due to the fact that he picks weird movies to appear in. When he does a comedy film, it is usually hilarious. We already mentioned "Dumb and Dumber", but he also made movies like "Liar Liar" and "Bruce Almighty" where he combined funny lines with funny stunts. Before we had Jim, we had a guy named Peter Sellers who was also of the same ilk. Sellers could say some really funny things and was known for his very funny stunts. He was the star of the Pink Panther movies. When those movies came out, they really had me roaring with laughter. There is that scene where George Sanders hands Inspector Clouseau(Sellers) a warped pool cue and he uses it. Then there was another scene where Sellers has to flee a nudist colony with Elke Sommers without his clothes and they hop into his car and start driving. He is worried because he has no clothes on and she says don't worry no one can see you in the car, as a tourist bus is next to them and every one is leaning out the windows pointing down as they look into the car. That is some pretty funny stuff folks. There are also comics, not the human type, which are know as funnies and cartoons.

Cartoon
Source: Image Is Believed To Be In Public Domain
No larger graphic available

The last part of humor are jokes. There are probably millions of them on the internet. One man's funny joke is another's boring story. Jokes are truly a mater of taste. There was a study conducted in 2002 to determine what was the world's funniest joke. No I am not joking. Jokes were submitted from all over the world. It turned out that men preferred more aggressive jokes than women. The experiment was conducted in Britain. Drum Roll Please, here is the first place joke:

A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: "Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: "OK, now what?"

And here is the second place joke:

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner, they retire for the night, and go to sleep.
Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up and tell me what you see."
"I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" replies Watson.
"And what do you deduce from that?"
Watson ponders for a minute.
"Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe. What does it tell you, Holmes?"
Holmes is silent for a moment. "Watson, you idiot!" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!"