HUMOR THAT WORKS #1 - The Definition of Humor If you had to give a definition of the word humor, what would you say? If you’re like many people in my workshops, or myself a few years ago, it’s likely your definition would include words like “laughter,” “funny,” or “ice cream” (if you’re a smarty-pants and think of the Good Humor man). If you said any of those things, you’re certainly not wrong, but your view of humor might be narrow. As it turns out, and as we will be using it in the context of this book, humor is more encompassing than laughter and jokes. Dictionary-wise, humor is defined as: 1 a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement . The definition doesn’t mention anything specific about laughter or jokes. It says comic (which implies funny), and amusement (which implies fun), but doesn’t outright state laughter, or jokes, or clowning, or being-that-guy- no-one-takes-seriously-because-he-always-tries-to-be-funny-but-fails. All of those things are included in humor (except the last one), but it’s also much more. Humor is anything that causes amusement—anything that “helps pass the time more pleasantly2.” 1 Sources can be found on page 271. For this one, see Definition of Humor. 2 See Definition of Amusement. 2