The Cycle of Humor

Konner Macias
Jul 27, 2017 · 5 min read

Hey sorry was in the shower.

Think back to what was funny growing up. I mean, as a baby, we died laughing at our parents doing peek-a-boo. We then transitioned into humor that was purely physical, maybe a dorky friend tripping and spilling their chocolate milk, as we entered elementary school. As we kept progressing through life, our sense of humor changed a lot, and now I wish to attempt to understand why my sense of humor ended up coming full circle. Here goes.

For me, after the elementary school phase, I began to acquire a simple taste of stand up and popular television humor. Right around high school time, whether it was watching Kevin Hart’s routine on Netflix or falling in love with That’s 70s show humor, my perception of what was funny was changing. I guess around the time of puberty, jokes that had a sexual nature became really funny to me, as I can now understand the context of the joke.

Towards the middle point in high school, stand up became a drag. I felt as though the comedians lost the ability to truly be intimate and make inside jokes, one of the greatest forms of comedy around friends. So, I began switching to the internet and found some channels where the Youtubers could be as quirky as they wanted. In particular, I, for some reason, loved the series Jake and Amir by CollegeHumor which produced nearly 400 four minute long episodes. Yah…I burned through all of those from beginning to end. I learned to love even the bad episodes as the characters nearly became personal friends over the course of watching for so many hours. It’s not as bad as it sounds, but as I grew attached to the characters, inside jokes were subtly thrown in which made me love it more and more. This transition was most likely a product of trying to reach a new point of personal humor.

Soon after, personal humor got a little boring, maybe because the quality of content was decreasing, and I switched to dry humor. I had one friend in high school who was the master of this comedy so I no longer needed the internet or a TV to get those extra laughs. Dry humor is basically having a comedic delivery, without any facial expression or change in emotion. Noticing the lag in someone’s reaction to the joke is the best feeling as you notice their brain trying to comprehend what was said against your expression. These traditionally witty, blunt jokes were most likely accredited to a desire to notice how humans balance between comprehending auditorily vs visually. Or perhaps I was just some sick freak, that loved watching people struggling to understand something, still trying to figure that out.

Then, my Reddit era came into play towards the end of high school. Reddit, for those who don’t know, is the 7th most popular website in the US, and is full of different pages called “subreddits” each with a particular interest to discuss or learn about. For example, there is a subreddit for people who love professional basketball called “r/NBA”. With Reddit, came the memes. Before I begin, I would just like to clarify that I do not enjoy writing about or explaining memes.

First, there was “r/Funny” which is the most basic subreddit full of random funny pictures or minor memes. As I began to explore more of what Reddit had to offer, I stumbled upon more humor specific pages. In a way, I was trying to find my niche, seeing what now excites me in the realm of comedy. Transitioning from “r/YouTubeHaiku”, which was full of very funny 30 seconds YouTube video links, to “r/Tinder”, where I can look at hilariously absurd Tinder conversations, I began to dive deeper in the inter-web. Then I came across “r/me_irl”. Oh boy, what a time.

This subreddit was purely just self-deprecation jokes. I loved it. The ability to make fun of yourself and show humility were amazing traits to me. As long you were confident with yourself in the end, it’s fine being the butt of the joke. What made it special was that it didn’t purposely attack others like most jokes do. This was no “yo momma joke”, as it was closer to “my momma so ___ …”. Unfortunately, for some, this type of humor took a turn for the worst, as it just furthered people’s depression. Soon posts became nearly about wanting to kill themselves, and at this point I knew I had gone too far.

Out of the darkness of these self deprecating jokes, burst out a new page called “r/wholesomememes” which turned every jokingly suicidal punchline upside down. This type of humor where you force others to think one way, then completely change the punchline last second became my favorite form of comedy. The page countered “welp, I guess I should just give up on life” with “never give up, life is a beautiful thing” and nearly began to start an online revolution of positivity. With the page applauding others for “working hard” or “doing their best”, the statement, “I’m proud of you”, even became funny to me now. So wait, now I’m laughing at people saying normal things, like “good luck” ??? Something was up. I was laughing at a basic English phrase.

I realized, I had reached a new shade of humor which nearly found laughter from the most basic of objects, or phrases. Even facial expressions nearly cracked me up. I had literally gone full circle, back to where nearly “peek-a-boo” was comedy gold.

It took the stress of midterms for me to regain “normal” humor, as I didn’t have time to be on Reddit all the time. Now, I am back to simple inside jokes or references to old jokes with friends, though many times they have no idea what I am talking about. If I had to categorize why my Reddit phase happened, I believe it was the product of rising popularity of memes from my age group, and my desire to discover my own comedic niche, something that would make me unique. Perhaps, I am still searching for it. I’m excited to see how my sense of humor will change in the future or if something like stand up comedy will ever regain preference in my mind. Anyways, the water’s boiling, gtg.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade