Anti-humor and anti-jokes (also known as unjokes) are a kind of humor based on the surprise factor of absence of an expected joke or of a punch line in a narration which is set up as a joke. This kind of anticlimax is similar to that of the shaggy dog story In fact, some researchers see the "shaggy dog story" as a type of anti-joke.

An example of anti-humor is "Why did the chicken cross the road?" with the answer, "To get to the other side." Another popular unjoke involves any seemingly humorous setup leading to the non-sequitur "punchline" of "No soap, radio." Another example of anti-humor is "A man walks into a bar. His alcohol dependency is destroying his family."

Another form of anti-humor is poking fun at bad humor by the way of parody. An example is Jim's Journal, a comic strip by Scott Dikkers, co-founder of The Onion, whose four-panel strips end without any sort of punchline. Alternative comedy, among its other aspects, parodies the traditional idea of the joke as a form of humor. Andy Kaufman saw himself as a practitioner of anti-humor. Other comedians known for their anti-humor are Ted Chippington, Neil Hamburger, Corey Mystyshyn and Bill Bailey.

See also

• Anti-art
• Dadaism
• Meta-joke
• Nonsense verse

References