Unintentional humor

Unintentional humor (or unintentional humour) is the act of making other people laugh without actually meaning to. There are several different kinds of unintentional humor that arise out of various situations.

A no smoking sign at Baker Street tube station, surrounded by icons of Sherlock Holmes smoking a pipe, which adorn the station.

Unintentionally funny combination of "Way In" and "No Entry"

Unintended contradiction

It is possible for unintentional humor to arise when two different well-meaning people contribute independent pieces of information, but in combination, they contradict each other. The images on the right are an example of this.

Missteps

A misstep in the (in)appropriate environment is often considered humorous, that is the tension or embarrassment it creates is released by laughter. Examples are misspeaks or falls by a famous individual, catching somebody at an official event with inappropriate manners or embarrassing body noises.

Taking one's creation too seriously

Some books, movies, and other literary works end up being unintentionally funny because they are comically clichéd or overwrought, despite appearing to be earnest and serious efforts by their creators. Examples are "so bad they're good" movies, such as Plan 9 from Outer Space, and the style of bad writing celebrated by the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest.

Unintentional humor in popular culture

The TV show Mystery Science Theatre 3000 often watched B-movies and their unintentional funny scenes to provide them with equally amusing commentary. The Flemish tv comedy series Alles Kan Beter also poked fun at unintentional funny scenes from Flemish television broadcasts. Many Internet reviewers such as The Nostalgia Critic also feature unintentionally funny films.

See also

Examples

Comics

• The religious fundamentalistic comics of Jack Chick which often feature moralistic tales that are so far-fetched that they become ridiculous.

Literature

• William McGonagall, poet
• James McIntyre, poet
• Julia A. Moore, poet
• Amanda McKittrick Ros, novelist
• Gloria Tesch, author
• English As She Is Spoke
• The Eye of Argon
• Striking and Picturesque Delineations of the Grand, Beautiful, Wonderful, and Interesting Scenery Around Loch-Earn
• Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say "No" to Drugs

Film

• Godfrey Ho
• Edward D. Wood, Jr.
• Uwe Boll
• Tommy Wiseau
• Bruno Mattei
• Claudio Fragasso
• Reefer Madness
• Plan 9 From Outer Space
• Many Godzilla and Gamera films from the 1960s and 1970s
• The Room
• Troll 2
• The Wicker Man (2006 film)

Internet

• All your base are belong to us
• Mahir Çağrı, who became an Internet meme due to his badly translated site
• "The Star Wars Kid"
• Ashida Kim, alleged psuedonym of Radford Davis, self proclaimed ninja and author of a number of instructional books on the subject. The martial arts community widely regards him as a fraud and charlatan.

Locations

Certain place names have an unintentional funny name. Sometimes only in other languages.

• Dildo, Newfoundland and Labrador
• Intercourse, Pennsylvania
• Anus, Yonne
• Fucking, Austria
• Nob End, England
• Twatt, Orkney, Scotland
• Wankum, Germany
• Titz, Germany
• The Flemish village Reet ("reet" is an old Dutch word for "hole", but in modern Dutch it's a rude nickame for one's buttocks)

Malapropisms

• Bushism
• Sananmuunnos
• Freudian slip
• Goldwynism
• Yogiism
• William Archibald Spooner, whose speech impediment nicknamed the condition spoonerism

Music

• Outsider music (although after the first laughs disappear many fans genuinely appreciate these musical amateurs)
• Florence Foster Jenkins
• The Shaggs
• Wing (singer)
• Eddy Wally, a Belgian singer who has been ridiculed for his strange behavior, singing style and laughable song lyrics during most of his career, despite being quite successful.

Performing arts

• Robert Coates, actor
• Christopher Walken, actor
• Brian Blessed, actor

Television

• The Borgias
• Club X
• The tv commercial for Life Fall which featured the infamous line I've fallen and I can't get up!
• TV Hell, a BBC compilation of ridiculously bad TV shows.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000, a TV show where bad films were viewed and ridiculed.
• Alles Kan Beter, a Flemish TV show where unintentionally funny scenes from Flemish tv broadcasts were ridiculed and satirized.
• To Catch a Predator

Other

• Comical Ali
• Figure moe zoku
• Engrish
• Rude Britain
• The Nostalgia Critic
• The Cinema Snob
• Almost every school teacher encounters unintentionally funny test answers or homework lines during his career.

Types

• Inherently funny word
• Oxymoron
• Spoonerism
• Camp
• Blooper

Other

• Irony