Do Personality Types Have Different Styles Of Humor? | 10 Min Type Advice | S02:E06

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  Brisket Bear (INFP) 2022-05-10

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  My understanding is how we like to have fun has to do with our child function, but we also like to see our dominant world view (our driver function) validated and/or challenged.
  As an INFP with Si child, I think my preferred humor is about the conflict between Si and Se. For example, I like to write jokes that are a new spin on tradition. But since I spend so much time in Fi, a lot of my jokes are drawn from real or mock situations where I suspect a problem is based on others being low Fi, but it’s really me being low Fe, or using my eighth function (Ti) incorrectly.
  I would not be at all surprised if someone very familiar with type could be shown a list of the jokes written by, or selected as funny by a person, and guess their type with accuracy. Would be amazing if Joel and Antonia could make something like the FIRM model for humor.
  The same could probably be done with words of wisdom quotations. For example, Jack Nicholson, and ESTP says, “Everyone gets their chance. Be ready.” Seems a Se dom statement. He also knocks Ne/Ni users when playing an ESTP in a film where he jokes, “people who speak in metaphors should (insert inappropriate metaphor).”
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  Hannu 2022-05-08

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  Presumed ISTP here. I’ve always enjoyed slapstick and other forms of visual comedy. I relate this to my co-pilot SE. I also love Monty Python and its absurdity that were mentioned on the podcast. It might be that humor dealing with social things is more difficult for me to grasp (low FE).
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  Brian Kelly 2022-05-06

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  Absolutely there is a difference. Sensors like the observational type of humor. Thinkers like more witty, word plays and situations that shows how much smarter they are as thinkers than anyone else (compared to the goofy among us) because they think ahead. Intuitive likes flips from reality into abstract thinking and the world of unreality and quasi-plausible situations that either work our or don’t. Feelers like heart warming jokes with surprise endings. This is an interesting topic. In grad school, I was part of a research studying looking at joke telling ability as a measure of cognitive complexity in children. We interviewed 100’s of kids in an elementary school. We asked the two questions (1) what makes you laugh and (2) can you tell me something funny and did audio recordigns. Jokes did not appear until upper elementary because you have to have enough cognitive ability to see the slant on reality in a joke or story then tell it with the right pacing and mannerisms and with good timing to land on the funny punch line or the resolution to the story. It differed by the boys and girls. The boys used bathroom humor beginning in 4th or 5th grade. The girls told funny stories or cute one liners in 4th or 5th grade also. Jokes adults could laugh at began around 6th and 7th grade. We did not interview any high school students. I subscribe to the Drybar comedy app on iPhone. It’s basically clean humor on demand. Some of the comedians are hilarious and other leave me cold. I think it has to do with the comedic ability but the ones that ultra sarcastic or too critical turn me cold as an ENFJ. The relationship and observational humor comedians that usually talk about their kids or funny sitations that happened to them in life crack me up and tickle my funny bone. I love a hearty gut laugh on goofy things like this. Just my 2 cents.
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  James 2022-05-06

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  I’m an INTJ and I think it’s more so nurture not nature that leads to the trends. Unlike Joseph the INTJ, I like toilet humor, certain comedies like Kung Pow, History of the world, Space Balls, Monty Python and dark humor like sarcasm t-shirts, puns, witty humor like parodies in songs (Weird Al) etc.

  I don’t really enjoy stupid humor like Jackass, or World’s funniest home movies, or seeing people getting hurt.

  I wonder if this is more Enneagram related since that is based more so on Nurture not nature….
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  Cindy 2022-05-06

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  I am an INFJ. My preferred humor is dry, clever wit. I don’t find physical/slapstick humor funny at all. My husband is an INTP. He has a similar preference to me in what he finds funny. We both love referential humor, as Antonia referred to it. We both like Monty Python. We both like Parks and Rec, though Ron Swanson is generally our favorite in that… again, kind of back to the more dry sense of humor. I find it interesting that Joel referred to his INFJ mother as liking “Beth Moore” kind of humor. I too was brought up in a similar culture and am an INFJ. While that style of humor is familiar to me and can maybe elicit a smile, I don’t find it truly funny. Generational, maybe? I am probably in the same age range as Joel and Antonia, so his mom would probably be roughly the same age as mine, and she, who I think was an ISTJ, found that kind of humor hilarious. My dad, probably an ENTP, was an amazing joke teller, and his humor tended more toward the dry, clever side.
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  Bobby Young 2022-05-06

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  Maybe this is equally about what certain types DON’T find funny.

  For example: I have noticed that ENFJ and INFJ types don’t seem to find humor in clips where people get hurt (getting racked by a bike, face planting against the ground, etc.) or jokes made at someone’s expense (pointing out flaws/insecurities of a person or group other than one’s own self or own group). Perhaps it is because this diametriaclly opposes nature of the Driver/Co-polot functions of Harmony & Perspectives. Being that these types tend to easily relate with others, whilst also understanding that in the moment, someone is suffering, the humor is over-ridden.

  However, the same types would likely find humor in jokes that poke fun at absurd situations which portend to disharmony or logical pattern recognitions leading to a punchline.
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  Julie 2022-05-05

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  INFJ here – I have a very dry sense of humor, and love imagined scenarios that take things too far and get absurd (such as the movies don’t look up or the spy who dumped me). I also love goofy humor like the classic sitcoms- new girl, friends, parks and rec, the office
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  Erin 2022-04-15

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  I have been wondering about this humor question for some time. Thanks, INTJ, for asking it!

  My thoughts leaned more toward the functions that aren’t in our “car,” and that therefore might catch us by surprise (in that reversal-of-expectations way that creates humor).

  For me, an INFJ, I find randomness very funny: something that just comes out of left field and makes no sense. For my husband, an ESFJ, what’s funny is an imagined scenario taken to and beyond its logical conclusion.

  This is a sample size of 2, which I recognize. But to me, my humor sounds pretty Ne, and his sounds pretty Ni.

  I think it’s just too hard to look at what shows someone finds funny. Which bits in particular do they find funny? It might be different jokes for different folks! I loved Kung Pow, the comedy movie, when I was younger, and still recall lines often, but it wasn’t the absurdity that I found funny (like Antonia might, generally speaking). For me it was the bonkers translation jokes and photoshopped-in whales going down waterfalls. That kills me.

  Anyway, thanks again! This was a fun one.

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