Do you think most humor has an element of truth?

[bobcat]

This is an interesting topic. I don't know about the truth being a part of a joke. If anything, you expect the truth, and the joke uncovers or reveals something else (punchline). That is where the humor comes in, I think, through the unexpected.

Will Rogers said "I have always noticed that people will never laugh at anything that is not based on truth".
Maybe that's the key that makes it relatable.

In the gilded halls of philosophy though, it is said that behind everything, there is only one truth, and that is that there is no truth, only what we believe.
Maybe that's the real joke because there is truth in it.

 

[seadoug]

Not always. I watch a lot of Whose Line is It Anyway? reruns and while some of their improvs have an element of truth, many others, sometimes the funniest ones, are wild exaggerations or impossible scenarios.

But some humor writing has an element of truth. 30 Rock is one of my favorite shows and it had a LOT of truth to it. Mean Girls, likewise, has a lot of high school truth in it.

That's the thing about humour - it can be found everywhere. From the mundane to the outer space. Good example: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) 2.7 | Adventure, Comedy, Family

I read a few Sam Shepherd plays recently and that guy is FUNNY, but I don't think every audience member would be able to pick up on the humor in his writing. They might only see the darkness. Two of them I started both began just AWFULLY, horrid people doing terrible things, but also FUNNY, like so bad as to border on absurdism.

And yet, if you have met some terrible people in your life, as I have, there is so much truth in his writing that you sit there thinking, "Yeah, I could see someone really doing that."

Not to hijack the thread, but I LOVE 30 Rock. I've seen many episodes several times and I watched it last month aboard a plane even though I had seen the episodes on a previous flight last September. There is always so much there to unpack. Tina Fey is brilliant.

 

[VintageBetter]

Not to hijack the thread, but I LOVE 30 Rock. I've seen many episodes several times and I watched it last month aboard a plane even though I had seen the episodes on a previous flight last September. There is always so much there to unpack. Tina Fey is brilliant.

Tina Fey is brilliant. Read her book "Bossypants". There's menstruation mentions in there, but other than that, I would hope many men will laugh at it.