This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2447.
Is your sense of humor offbeat?
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One of the best ways to connect in English is over a shared sense of humor.
Today, learn phrases to describe comedy so you can start a conversation about this today.
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Hey, Aubrey, how are you?
Hi, Michelle. I am great.
How are you? I'm good, thanks.
Guys, Lindsay will be back next week, but Aubrey and I are excited to record together today.
A. So Aubrey, what is the funniest thing you've seen or you've heard recently?
Is it a comedian, maybe a funny story?
Oh, we discovered something called Don't Tell Comedy.
It's all over the United States.
Now, I guess you can find it in most cities where it's sort of like the secret underground standup comedy, and you never know where it's going to be.
It's in just like random venues that might be in a clothing store or a gym, and they just throw up chairs and have like great comedians.
So it's fun that it's kind of underground and the comedians are always really great.
So we have been going to these don't tell comedy shows.
It's pretty fun. Cool.
That's awesome. So yeah, one comedian that I really love is Jim Gaffigan.
He's so funny. He is hilarious.
I recently was listening to him and he was just cracking me up, like laugh out loud funny.
So today we are going to talk about how to describe things that are funny so this is going to be a fun light -hearted episode we've talked about how I always say I feel funny with that's kind of my catchphrase apparently Aubrey I always say I feel funny instead of I feel strange right yes that's funny because it's interesting that doesn't have anything to do with actually being like laughing funny that's more like I feel strange I feel weird about right right um so we've kind of touched on this topic a little bit before in the past but a while ago and we want to revisit it today because it's such
a huge connection topic so we want to make sure that we're giving this all the attention that it deserves so so for example um as far as connection goes I have some new neighbors and we recently discovered that a whole group of us are Seinfeld fans we think Seinfeld is so funny and this connected us already because then we we were saying references from the show and making jokes.
So this is just huge because people love to laugh, right, Aubrey?
Yes, absolutely. This happened to me recently.
We discovered that some friends of ours are also big fans of the show Arrested Development.
I don't know if you watch that, Michelle, but we were all quoting it and laughing about past episodes.
When you find you have this in common, it is such a huge way to connect.
Yes. So this is going to be really huge for connection here today.
So we're going to talk about how you can talk about a show or a standup comedian.
So we're going to talk about different vocabulary you can, we can use all dealing with humor.
So the first one is I actually said this, um, I was talking about Jim Gaffigan laugh out loud, funny, or just laugh out loud.
Right? So you could say I was laughing out loud.
Um, but you can describe someone or something as being laugh out loud funny.
So I could say, I think Jim Gaffigan is laugh out loud funny.
I used this recently.
I was describing there's a show on HBO called Righteous Gemstones.
Wait, you watch that?
I love it. So my God, we have to talk.
Okay. I'll talk to you later about this is going to be that connection moment for us.
I haven't met anybody else who watches it and we'd really, I'm obsessed and I laugh out loud.
so often that I miss a lot of lines.
So I have to watch the episodes twice because I was laughing over so many of the lines.
I'm so excited. Yeah.
Guys, when you find something funny, when you find something you really enjoy, it's so exciting to talk to somebody about it.
Yes. Right. This is such a...
So now Michelle and I are going to of course connect about it.
I'm going to have to call you later.
The writing and the characters, right?
Because we have this this in common that we both have. Yes.
Oh my gosh. And it is laugh out loud funny.
It is definitely laugh out loud funny.
Also extremely dirty.
It is very inappropriate.
Not for kids. Not for children and maybe not for, you know, other sensibilities.
Right. I don't mind.
I don't mind some inappropriate television.
Oh my. Okay. I'm so excited.
Anyway. So there we go.
We already connected.
Another word is witty.
Right. That you can describe someone or something as witty.
witty witty is kind of like smart almost like clever right yes exactly this is the highest compliment for someone to call me witty because I do you know I'll have some like funny little one -liners or like make little jokes and if someone's like you're really witty I'm like thank you yeah so you could say my friend is so witty he doesn't seem like he's making a joke but everyone laugh anyway.
So it's not like dad jokes.
They're not puns, right?
It's more like something clever if you're witty.
And then we also use the noun wit.
Someone has wit, right?
A dry wit is often those, or dry humor.
That's our next phrase here.
There are a lot of television shows that are very dry humor, especially British television is known to have dry humor.
Yeah. So you could say something Some Brits are known for their dry sense of humor.
This makes me think of people like Hugh Grant and Colin Firth where they just...
Ricky Gervais has a very dry humor.
I love Ricky Gervais.
He's hilarious. It's so funny, but it is pretty dry.
Sometimes it takes you a second to get it.
It's not the kind of jokes that you would tell to a kid.
Often it's not very obvious.
It's kind of also, I think, of shows like The Office um, where, you know, they just, it's, it's a lot of the timing.
It's like the awkward timing.
And so it's very dry and it's not for everybody.
A lot dry humor. Some people love it.
Some people are like, I don't know.
They're not really into it.
Arrested development is like poster child of dry humor, right?
A lot of you, you're not going to laugh out loud, but you might chuckle.
There's Right. Aubrey, who is the funniest person you know?
I think my neighbor.
I have a neighbor who his parents are from Mexico, but he was born and raised in the States in a border town.
And he everything he says is just so funny.
A lot of dry humor, a lot of inappropriate humor, to be honest. But I am guaranteed to just be laughing whenever I'm hanging out with him.
What about you? Who's the funniest person, you know?
know me right yes you it's you thank you you're welcome um who is the funniest person I know I should have thought of that when I asked you the question um I think it's hard to think because you probably know a lot of people that are funny and that's not something we compare very often right we're like all of these people I know are funny who's the funniest I haven't thought about that yeah well you know there are sometimes there's funny combos of people so like my husband and his friend they're really funny together um so i i i would say they're they're pretty funny just when but i i can't think
of like the funniest person i know right this that's a good point that a lot of combos are funny both on like tv and movies sometimes couples are more funny as a combo right yeah or like a buddy comedy movies like will ferrell and colin it's will ferrell and Colin Farrell?
No, no, Mark Wahlberg.
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are such a funny comedy pair in a lot of movies that they've been in.
Daddy's Home, those are so funny.
And they're funny by themselves, but as a pair, hilarious.
Steve Martin and Martin Short.
Yeah, there are all these comedy teams, right?
And it's the same thing in real life, right?
A couple or two friends might be especially funny because they sort of build off of each other, play off of each other and what they say.
Yeah, exactly. Imagine this.
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Okay, Aubrey, what is the next word that deals with comedy?
Okay, offbeat. This is a really interesting adjective to describe a type of comedy.
It sort of means like unexpected, a little bit different than the average joke you might hear.
so you could say something like I like offbeat comedians but my family likes pretty basic humor so we don't agree on comedy too much yeah that's always interesting if you like dry humor or offbeat humor and then most of the people you know like just you know slapstick is another type of comedy these kind of more obvious jokes dad jokes puns then you might not be able to really connect about the types of comedians or the types of TV shows you find funny.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So but and like we were talking about the Righteous Gemstones show, like we could use the word blue.
Aubrey, you ever hear that word to talk about?
No, I haven't used blue means like inappropriate humor.
Yeah, like dirty or inappropriate, interesting, be sexual jokes, things like that.
So I like blue humor, then I've never heard it called that.
But I like inappropriate humor.
it makes me laugh. I mean, it's interesting because there's always a line.
We say there's like a line that you cross and before the line, it's just funny.
And then sometimes there's a line I'm like, Oh, they went too far.
Yeah. That happens a lot.
And that's the comedian's job, right?
Um, but you know, this could get into, we could do a whole other episode on, you know, cancel culture and how then sometimes comedians can get into trouble because of this line.
Yeah. Yeah, where they're across the line and they don't know really where the line is.
And they're maybe, you know, so it's interesting.
But yeah, for example, you could say he was funny at first, but then his jokes got a little too blue for my taste.
I wonder if this is sort of a like a trendy slang on the East Coast that hasn't reached the West Coast yet.
I feel like that happens sometimes.
So I'm curious now if I'm going to start hearing comedy referred to as blue.
Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
So I think that we are going to go into our role play now to show how this could fit together.
Are you ready, Aubrey?
Yeah, let's do it. Okay.
So here we just went to a stand up show and we are talking about it.
Okay. Wow, that was so funny.
I loved the opener.
He was a little blue.
I don't really like that humor.
Yeah, he was offbeat, but his delivery was excellent.
I thought the second guy was laugh out loud funny.
Yeah, I loved him. He had such a witty way of telling jokes.
Yes, a lot of dry humor.
Definitely. So fun.
Yeah. So we used a lot of this good vocab here.
The one I wasn't familiar with, I said he was a little blue, which would mean a little inappropriate.
And this will happen.
A lot of people don't like the humor that others would call, you know, that you might be called inappropriate.
Whereas others, that's what they think is really funny.
Right, right. Exactly.
So, let's go through this.
So, I said it was really funny, and you said, eh, he was a little blue.
That's inappropriate.
And then you said, yeah, he was offbeat, but his delivery was excellent.
So, you're saying, like, yeah, it's different than the average comedian, for sure, but, like, you loved it.
The delivery is up, and that's, like, how the jokes are told.
Sometimes the a physical comic timing facial expressions yeah um and then you said i thought the second guy was laugh out loud funny so just how it sounds who made you laugh we use another similar expression side splitting if you hear this like that is side splitting which is the same as laugh out loud funny that means you're actually laughing yes exactly and then i said or you said he had such such a witty way of telling jokes, right?
So he had smart, he was very clever.
Yeah. And then you said, yes, a lot of dry humor, right?
So not that slapstick, obvious stuff, but just kind of quieter, toned down, but very funny.
Right? Sometimes you have to think about it a little bit and then, oh, I get it.
There's the double meaning there, some double entendre.
Yes. So guys, this is again, a huge for connection.
I cannot stress this enough because I think laughter is such a wonderful thing and people just love to laugh.
And so when you can connect with someone over a laughter, I think it really bonds you very quickly to that person.
So when I'm watching something funny, I would say it's kind of my happy place, which reminds me guys, check out All Ears of English.
This episode we did was called Find Your Happy Place in this episode.
And we talked all about the expression happy place.
So go and listen to that.
Nice. It's similar for me.
That's my happy place.
I love comedies. But even if you have friends that they don't listen to comedy podcasts or that's not the TV shows they usually go in for, they still have a type of humor, right?
There will be certain jokes or certain types of humor that they enjoy.
So today we're sharing phrases for all of these different types of humor.
You can connect with someone even if you have sort of different tastes when it comes to humor.
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, very good point, Aubrey.
And thank you guys for listening to this episode.
Give these a try. And yeah, let us know who you think is funny.
And so we will talk to to you guys on the next episode.
Awesome. See you next time.
All right. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.
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