A bit about Deadpan humor

The Office stems from a type of humor known as deadpan or dry humor. According to Wikipedia.com, the definition of dry humor is "a form of comedic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language to contrast with the ridiculousness of the subject matter." The Office is a widely popular show which is found to be so comedic because of the tactic the writers, directors, and essentially everyone on the show uses in order to make it the funny show that it is.

Some examples of deadpan humor are for one, Napoleon Dynamite. This is a classic and popular example of the genre that captured a lot of what makes up d.h.(By the way, 'd.h.' will be my abbreviated use of 'dry humor'.)



Steven Wright is known to be "The King" of d.h. comedy. Now, I'm not familiar with this comedian, but I'm sure that many people are. A quote by him goes: "You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"

Steven Wright

A lot of d.h. jokes are very clever, and they seem to leave people thinking "I've never thought of that before!" The jokes are typically meant to be witty, unlike that of slapstick which will literally leave the joke slapping you in the face. Dry humor can easily get confused with sarcasm, so sometimes the witty jokers have to go out of their way to make sure that the people they are joking with know that they don't mean to be rude, just funny.

If someone is not familiar with d.h., it can be hard for them to tell if the joker using dry humor is actually being serious or if they are just attempting to make the person laugh.

There are many different types of humor, and one that makes people laugh is deadpan, as shown in The Office.

Deadpan comedy in The Office
https://youtu.be/lG54HSGuidQ


Cossuto, Jenna."6 Signs You Have A Dry Sense of Humor." Lifedaily. 16 August 2015. Web. 3 May 2016.

Bromley, Patrick. "10 Deadpan Comedians." About. 30 August 2015. Web. 3 May 2016.

Elles, Brian. "Comedy 101: Deadpan Comedy." The Laugh Button. 1 March 2013. Web. 3 May 2016.

Gould, Rachel. "7 Struggles of Having A Dry Sense of Humor." theElizabethian. 18 June 2015. Web. 3 May 2016.

Wikipedia.com. "Deadpan." Wikipedia. 2 May 2016. Web. 3 May 2016.