But a Jape

“Never mind, I was mistaken. He’s only a Funny-once-but-never-again Guy.”

– what people will say when I fail to make them laugh again

Growing up, I was the kinda “funny guy” who could regularly make people laugh when casually hanging out. I often wasn’t even *trying* to be funny, just something about my cadence and choice of words was inherently humorous to some people. In my adulthood, I decided to become a “professionally funny guy,” i.e. a comedian/comedy writer/webcomic creator, which requires a different skillset for “preparing” humor as opposed to just spontaneously invoking it.

Like I said, I often wasn’t trying to be funny when people would laugh in my casual interactions, so sometimes I didn’t even know *why* people considered my conversation funny – I was typically just expressing an amusing observation or giving a snappy response. So if I had to be consistently funny, I couldn’t just recreate the circumstances that made people laugh in these situations (like when you fail to recount a funny story and have to end it with, “I guess you had to be there”). The ability to recreate funny casual situations, I’ve found, is more helpful for writing stories and establishing character dynamics, as opposed to developing, say, a stand-up routine or four panel gag comic.

So that’s the two types of “funny guy” I’m familiar with, but apparently there’s a *third* type of funny guy wherein their friend tells a bunch of strangers, “James is the funniest guy I know! In fact, one of his comics got on the front page of Reddit once!” and then, to prove their friend’s statement, this third kinda funny guy *immediately says something hilarious,* causing everyone present to laugh and confirm, “Yes, I agree! Your friend certainly is a very funny person!”

At least, I assume this third type of funny guy exists. I have never met this guy myself, but others might have, considering they will immediately prompt every alleged “funny guy” they meet to “say something funny!”

– James