I have already written about how Randall Munroe ruined most web comics for me, but apparently I am in the minority since there hasn’t been a significant transformation of web comics or comics in general. It makes me wonder why I find it funny–particularly since I don’t always recognize (or perhaps just not appreciate) other types of humor. Different people have different styles of humor and may appreciate various comedic situations to varying degrees. This brings to mind Margo Leadbetter:
Nobody tried to explain to Margo why “it” was funny which is just as well since, despite her genuine desire to understand, an explanation would not have helped. But when the screen hit the statue (not an idiom) she got “it” (which was a related but different “it” amusing the others).
Getting back to why I find Munroe so hilarious, it may be that I am a suitable audience for the content. This appeared on the xkcd website for more than a decade:
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).1
I am too old (and too big) to be a child, not mature enough to be an adult, and studied Japanese Literature and Computer Science (separately) in college so the content isn’t immediately unsuitable for one such as myself. There is a website that explains each xkcd comic, but reading the explanations of why it is funny typically just doesn’t do it for me. Reading Randall Monroe amuses me without anyone explaining to me why it is funny. Perhaps that is enough.