humour
What provokes laughter
Humour is the British spelling of humor, covering all the same meanings: the quality of being amusing or comic, a person's mood or temperament, and the ability to appreciate what's funny.
She has a wicked sense of humour.
The word traces to medieval medicine's four bodily humours—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile—whose balance supposedly determined temperament.
To humour someone is to indulge their wishes or go along with their whims, even if you disagree.
Verbal wit techniques
- punsJokes using sound similarities
- quipsBrief witty remarks
- banterPlayful, teasing exchange
- reparteeQuick, clever conversation
witticism · bon mot · cleverness · drollery · epigram · riposte · one-liner · double entendre
Solo comedic performance
- sitcomEpisodic TV comedy series
- slapstickExaggerated physical humor
- farceAbsurd, laughable situation
- sketchHasty informal drawing
improv · parody · spoof · comedian · punchline · gag · timing · deadpan
Inherent character or arrangement
- moodPrevailing emotional condition
- spiritsLiquor or apparitions
- temperState of mind
- frame of mindOne's current mental attitude
sanguine · choleric · melancholic · phlegmatic · mercurial · sunny · sullen · dour
Liver-made digestive fluid
- phlegmViscous airway secretion
- bloodBody's oxygen carrier
- cholerArchaic term for fury
- medievalOf the Middle Ages
Hippocratic · constitution · balance · imbalance · physiology · melancholy · sanguine · choleric
Playful, mild ridicule
- pranksPlayful mischievous acts
- mischiefPlayful troublesome behavior
- anticsAbsurd, attention-seeking behavior
- sillinessFrivolous, absurd behavior
giggles · jesting · larking · horseplay · tomfoolery · clowning · buffoonery · goofing
Satisfy a craving
- appeaseSatisfy to restore calm
- accommodateProvide for or adjust
- placateLessen someone's anger
- gratifyGive satisfaction to
oblige · mollify · pander · cater to · go along with · give in to · tolerate · acquiesce
wordplay
Verbal wit techniques
repartee · witticism · bon mot · cleverness · drollery · epigram · riposte · one-liner · double entendre · innuendo
stand-up
Solo comedic performance
sketch · improv · parody · spoof · comedian · punchline · gag · timing · deadpan · observational
disposition
Inherent character or arrangement
frame of mind · sanguine · choleric · melancholic · phlegmatic · mercurial · sunny · sullen · dour · morose
bile
Liver-made digestive fluid
medieval · Hippocratic · constitution · balance · imbalance · physiology · melancholy · sanguine · choleric · phlegmatic
teasing
Playful, mild ridicule
- pranksPlayful mischievous acts
- mischiefPlayful troublesome behavior
- anticsAbsurd, attention-seeking behavior
silliness · giggles · jesting · larking · horseplay · tomfoolery · clowning · buffoonery · goofing · hijinks
indulge
Satisfy a craving
- appeaseSatisfy to restore calm
- accommodateProvide for or adjust
- placateLessen someone's anger
gratify · oblige · mollify · pander · cater to · go along with · give in to · tolerate · acquiesce
- old chemistryphlogiston, alchemy, caloric, aqua regia, muriatic acid
humourseriousness
Earnest, weighty demeanor
solemnity · humorlessness · gravity · earnestness · sobriety
humourmelancholy
Subdued, lasting sadness
gloom · despair · misery · sullenness · moroseness
- sense of humorCapacity for amusement
- dark humorComedy about taboo subjects
- dry humorUnderstated, expressionless comedy
- absurdist humorComedy rooted in meaninglessness
- humorous talesAmusing fictional accounts
- bathroom humor
humor, humorous, humorless, humorist, good-humored, ill-humor, humorously, humored, humoring