These are badges/buttons:
"Circular reasoning works because circular reasoning fails because...." [arranged in an infinity sign]
I will not yell at Edmund Pevensie, "Who died and made you king?"
It bugs me when I can't remember the entomology of a word
Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies
Coffee-based lifeform
B-flat, D-flat, and F walked into a bar. The bartender said, "We don't serve minors." So D-flat left, and B-flat and F had an open fifth between them.
Perky zombie! It's a lovely day for BRAINS!
Contains almost 100% recycled organic biomass
Contains 100% recycled stellar debris
I make milk. What's your superpower?
I was into cryonics before it was cool
I'm not pompous, I'm pedantic. There's a difference. Let me explain it to you....
Red (written in blue) is the new blue (written in red).
Humor is partly about pain and partly about silliness. I'm not saying the list above is completely pain-free, but the pain element is pretty attenuated on the whole and I would say absent in some of them.
Also, do you have a theory about why only some pain is funny?
Does anyone know whether puns are considered painful in other cultures?
Reading the recent list of rationality quotes arranged by karma underlines the popularity of funniness, and being funny should probably be included in the pursuit of awesomeness.
My best guesses about characteristics of humor: If there's a word which makes the line funny, put it at the end. Phyllis Diller recommends that the word should end with a hard consonant (t or k).
If you can make a surprising statement extremely concise, there's a reasonable chance it will be funny especially if it includes an insult about an acceptable target.
Quasi-quote from Jim Davis, author of Garfield: "If I can't think of anything funny, I have one of the characters hit another." Any other principles of humor and/or methods for cultivating the ability to be funny?
ETA: The most recent thing that struck me as very funny-- how does it fit into the theories?