History Main / AntiHumor

-->Did you hear the one about the,\\
Person who went walking out,\\

'''Joker:''' It's the police, ma'am. You're son's been hit by a drunk driver. He's dead.

** [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2178#comic this]] strip strips away all but the essentials, and demonstrates exactly how it's done.
** [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=3437 SMBC apparently loves "man walks into a bar" un-jokes.]]

* On occasion, ''Webcomic/DysfunctionalFamilyCircus'' veered into this, both when the posts made fun of the visual element(s) in the picture instead, or instead took the obvious joke and made the other way.

Anti-Humor is the practice of removing the expected punchline or joke from a familiar humorous situation and replacing it with something non-humorous and serious. The laugh is supposed to come from [[SubvertedTrope subverting]] the audience's expectations and [[CringeComedy making them uncomfortable]]; hence the name. Many comics get into anti-comedy -- appropriately -- after repeatedly bombing on-stage (see Andy Kaufman, Groucho Marx, Andrew Dice Clay). After awhile, they simply cease to give a crap about appeasing their audience and will intentionally troll people [[TheGadfly for their own amusement.]] As a result, anti-humour more closely resembles performance art than stand-up.

->'''Q:''' Why are T-Rexes unable to clap their hands?\\

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' has a RunningGag where each of the main characters sample a marijuana-legalization activist's weed and trip out appropriately. First Michael tries it and hallucinates getting attacked by a swarm of aliens. Then Trevor has a taste and gets attacked by clowns. Then when it's finally Franklin's turn to smoke the hash...nothing happens. He just makes a remark on how weak it is.

* The ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' parody in the "Saturday Morning Funpit" episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' includes the expected chase sequence between the heroes and the MonsterOfTheWeek. Shaggy-Fry and Scooby-Bender enter the stock ScoobyDoobyDoors hallway, run into a door and then...nothing. There's a shot of the empty hall for a {{Beat}}, and then we cut to the next scene of the chase.

-->'''Danny''': A man walks into a bar - his alcoholism is tearing this family apart.

-->'''Mr. Praline''': ''[placing the parrot's cage on the counter]'' It's dead, that's what's wrong with it.\\
'''Shopkeeper''': ''[looks at the parrot]'' So it is. 'Ere's your money back and a couple of holiday vouchers.\\

'''Mr. Praline''': ''[looking completely flabbergasted]'' Well, you can't say Thatcher hasn't changed some things.

** Similarly, his bit at the Creator/ComedyCentral [[TheRoast Roast]] of Creator/BobSaget - mostly bombed with the audience (until he started violating DontExplainTheJoke), but the other comedians were dying.

-->Now I'll tell you a joke, but it's a bit hard to understand, so I warn you - you should laugh after word "shovel". A fly with a shovel flies by.\\

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

--> '''Queen Victoria''': I may have the body of a feeble woman, but I have the mind of someone that really wants that bird.

* ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries'' - "Season 0 Abridged 2" does this with the series' memetic ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney line.

-->'''The Narrator''': There's a suicidal one-eyed green monkey sitting on my table and smashing newborn squirrels with a kitchen hammer. Therefore I believe the question is pretty obvious: [[NonSequitur do you like cabbage soup?]]\\
'''Ask That Guy''': Yes, I LOVE cabbage soup. With a little parsley and the right spices, it's actually one of my favourite dishes. Thank you for asking. God bless you.

--> "What do you call a guy with cheese on his face? ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Mc63WEOik The cheese face!"]]''

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' Bill began singing "Puff the Magic Dragon". Hank, embarrassed and annoyed says "Bill, do you know what that song is about? It's about a dragon. We're grown men." The anti-humor is a subversion of the expected punchline, where you expect Hank to repeat the urban legend that the song is about marijuana. Instead, Hank correctly identifies the subject of the song (it is about a little boy and a dragon)[[note]]Hank does, however, miss the point that the song is also about how children grow up and stop believing in things like dragons.[[/note]].

* There's a ''lot'' of this in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'';
** Homer throws Mr. Burns off a balcony into a crowd of people. Burns is promptly crowd surfed before being shoved into an idling taxi. Homer thinks this looks like fun, jumps off the balcony, and ... is crowd surfed as well, suffering no [[{{Slapstick}} injury of any kind]].
** Homer says "A ''think tank'', eh?", and we [[ImagineSpot see into his imagination...]] which shows a perfectly accurate portrayal of a think tank.

** Homer squirts way too much lighter fluid onto a barbeque, to the point it becomes an OverlyLongGag. He sets it alight... and it works perfectly. This is a CallBack to an early episode where he does the same, [[GrillingPyrotechnics resulting in a huge mushroom cloud over the city]].
** Barney Gumble drinking a beer after a lengthy stint of sobriety in the series is played up as a massive relapse, and then he simply says "Hey, you're right. I thought it'd get me drinking again, but it didn't."
** Rainier Wolfcastle doing stand-up comedy for his new movie, "[=McBain=]: Let's Get Silly".
--->'''[=McBain=]:''' Did you ever notice how men always leave the toilet seat up? ''[[{{Beat}} (beat)]]'' That's the joke.

-->'''Danny''': A man walks into a bar - [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome his alcoholism is tearing this family apart]].

--->'''Danny:''' A man walks into a bar. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome His alcohol dependency is tearing this family apart]].\\

* Perhaps the best-known joke in the English language is the ChickenJoke: "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side!" [[ParodyDisplacement Few people realize it now, but it was created as a subversion of older iterations of the joke]]. Because the original versions are now long forgotten, the anti-humor is less obvious, to the point that it can be seen as simply [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny unfunny]].