Inherently funny word

Some influential comedians have long regarded certain words in the English language as being inherently funny and have used these to enhance the humour of their comic routines.

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 achieves a comic effect: it may have a claim to be itself an inherently funny word.)

As a generalization, words deemed inherently funny for their sound (rather than meaning or potential misinterpretation) often have a tendency to either vaguely resemble a baby's babbling or to have very strongly defined syllables.

Some words, such as aardvark, badger, kumquat, rutabaga, and bassoon refer to unusual items for some people, which adds to their surprise, strangeness or humour potential. Conversely, other words gain humour by being completely ordinary, such as spoon, cow, or potato. Others acquire "naughty" humour by being or being similar to sexual terms (knickers, Phuket, mastication, titter...etc.).

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 Dutch 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.

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 references to the concept

• In Neil Simon's play 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."
  • An episode of King of the Hill has Bobby tell this to his father, Hank.
• Krusty the Klown paralyzes his vocal cords when he tries to cram in too many "Comedy Ks" on The Simpsons.
• Monty Python's "Woody and Tinny Words" sketch features extensive play on the sounds of English words for their inherent humour.
• Another Monty Python sketch, "Are You Embarrassed Easily?", includes a humorous list of words: shoe, megaphone, grunties and Wankel rotary engine.
• Dave Barry's book Dave Barry Talks Back (Barry 1991) reprints a column on linguistic humour. He contrasts the phrase "Richard Nixon wearing a necktie" with "Richard Nixon wearing a neck weasel", and concludes that weasel is a very funny word.
• In the Simpsons episode "Homie 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." Even though Seattle is obviously placed in the list by accident (or possibly as a test), Homer finds it hysterical. Alternately, this could be considered a humorous Triple.
• George Carlin talks about kumquats and succotash in his older routines.
• In the Dilbert comic strip dated 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 comedies The Cocoanuts (featuring their "Why a Duck" routine) and Duck Soup, the latter 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." [1]
• "Turtle, by the way, is a very funny word." —Roger Ebert, review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Radio Comedy Round the Horne came up with the inherently funny word "Gruntfuttock"
• Comedian Ron White, in routines such as "They Call Me 'Tater Salad'", emphasizes the "c" in "public" to draw laughter from the audience, in addition to the use of the word "tater".
• The popular Internet meme Badger Badger Badger has caused some people to laugh anytime they hear the words Badger, mushroom or snake.

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.

It is part of the mythology of actors and writers that the consonant plosives (so called because they start suddenly or "explosively"); that is: p, b, t, d, k, and g are the funniest sounds in the english language – particularly when found in short words since these "create the greatest tension" (tension being a key to comedy). Shorter words are held to "create tension" because separating words from the normal flow of speech is very difficult cognitively, and it's more difficult to discern whether a short word has ended or not. Now look again at that list of funniest words. Duck is not only admirably short but both starts and ends in a plosive, and the other plosives are legion.

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?

Sources

• Barry, Dave (1991), Dave Barry Talks Back, 1st edn., New York: Crown. ISBN 0–517–58546–4.

• The Power of the Plosive, Tips & Tactics, 1st Quarter 1999, The Naming Newsletter, Rivkin and Associates [2]

See also

• Comic timing
• Spoonerism
• Malapropism

External links

• "Funny letters"
• "Funny words"
• Fruits with inherently funny names
• Monty Python "Woody and Tinny Words" sketch transcript
• Theories on humor
• Substituting "pants" for words in Star Wars lines
• Substituting "pants" for words in Star Trek lines
• The Funny Things List