humorists
Comedic prose crafters
Humorists are people who create humor professionally—writers, cartoonists, comedians, or other entertainers whose work aims to amuse.
The term often suggests wit and cleverness rather than crude comedy: Mark Twain was America's greatest humorist.
A humorist typically works in a gentler register than a satirist, though the categories overlap.
Solo comedic performance
- vaudevillianVariety show performer
- pantomimistSilent gestural performer
- roasterDeep lidded cooking pan
- emceeCeremony host
Professional humor performer
- comicFunny performer or publication
- jokesterHabitual humor-maker
- funnymanProfessional humorist
- jesterRoyal household comedian
clown · buffoon · wit · wag · quipster · gagman · prankster · cutup
Author of short prose
- columnistRecurring newspaper feature writer
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- monologistSolo theatrical speaker
- storytellerOne who recounts tales
chronicler · editorialist · commentator · memoirist · blogger
Wordplay practitioner
- wordsmithSkilled prose artisan
- epigrammatistWriter of clever sayings
- aphoristComposer of pithy truths
- raconteurSkilled storyteller
bon-vivant · wisecracker · conversationalist · anecdotalist · improviser · wordplayer · quipper · droll
One who mocks through wit
- parodistOne who mocks originals
- ironistUser of verbal inversion
- lampoonerOne who mocks through exaggeration
- caricaturistArtist of exaggerated likenesses
mocker · cynic · critic · provocateur · debunker · polemicist · gadfly · iconoclast
stand-up
Solo comedic performance
- vaudevillianVariety show performer
- pantomimistSilent gestural performer
- roasterDeep lidded cooking pan
comedian
Professional humor performer
jester · clown · buffoon · wit · wag · quipster · gagman · prankster · cutup · joker
essayist
Author of short prose
- columnistRecurring newspaper feature writer
- playwrightAuthor of stage dramas
- monologistSolo theatrical speaker
storyteller · chronicler · editorialist · commentator · memoirist · blogger
punster
Wordplay practitioner
- wordsmithSkilled prose artisan
- epigrammatistWriter of clever sayings
- aphoristComposer of pithy truths
raconteur · bon-vivant · wisecracker · conversationalist · anecdotalist · improviser · wordplayer · quipper · droll · farceur
satirist
One who mocks through wit
- parodistOne who mocks originals
- ironistUser of verbal inversion
- lampoonerOne who mocks through exaggeration
caricaturist · mocker · cynic · critic · provocateur · debunker · polemicist · gadfly · iconoclast · spoofer
- comedycomedy, jokes, puns, sarcasm, stand-up
- humorjoke, jokes, joking, comedy, comic
- comedy writingjoke, jokes, comedy, satire, parody
- humoristswits, satirists, comics, comedians, jokers
- Literary Groupswriting group, writers group, poetry circle, writing circle, writers workshop
- writersauthor, novelist, writer, poet, journalist
humoriststragedians
Actors in serious drama
elegists · lamenters · eulogists · moralists · polemicists
humoristspessimists
Those assuming negative outcomes
doomsayers · killjoys · sourpusses · wet blankets · party poopers