How to describe a funny person in English? Free Online English and Vocabulary lesson.

How do you describe someone who's funny in English?

Of course you can say something like:

She's funny.
He's hilarious.

But there lots of different way s that a person can be funny . They may tell funny stories, act silly , say odd things, tell jokes that they 'v e heard, etc. So how do you ex plain exactly how someone is funny ?

Talking about a normal funny person

First, let's learn how to talk about "normal" people who are funny : friends, family members, coworkers, and so on. Here are a few different kinds of funny people:

A goofy person

A goofy person does silly things, like funny dances and dressing in ridiculous costumes. They might make funny mistakes. You can also call this kind of person "a goofball".

A witty person

A witty person is funny for the opposite reason: they say things that are funny and also very smart. Witty people are also quick with their jokes.

A prankster

A prankster is someone who plays practical jokes on people. Practical jokes are tricks that confuse or scare someone for a short time.

A self-deprecating person

A self-deprecating person makes jokes that make themselves look bad. They joke about their own flaws and problems.

You can also talk about what kind of sense of humor a person has.

Dry sense of humor

Someone with a dry sense of humor often says funny things with a serious, calm
expression. They don't smile, laugh, or make silly faces.

Quirky sense of humor

Someone with a quirky sense of humor thinks of things that are funny and strange. They like strange, unpredictable jokes.

Warped sense of humor

Having a warped sense of humor means that you laugh at things that many people are afraid of or offended by. You might think that jokes about death, illness, and tragedy are funny. It might seem like having "a warped sense of humor" is bad, but it's not a really negative expression.

Of course, there are a lot of way s that humor can go wrong. Here are some things that y ou can say about people who try to be funny but fail, or who joke about bad things.

Unfunny humor

Corny jokes

Corny jokes are supposed to be funny, but aren't. They're too silly, too predictable, or too dumb. Puns (jokes that involve two similar-sounding words) are very corny. You can call a person who tells a lot of corny jokes "corny" or "a cornball".

Lame jokes

Lame jokes are ones that just aren't funny. A "lame" joke is worse than a "corny" one. You might still laugh at a corny joke even though you think it's bad, but a lame joke just isn't funny.

Inappropriate humor

Offensive humor

Some jokes are sexual, racist, make fun of people with disabilities, or have other bad content. You can call this "offensive humor". If someone tells a joke that makes you angry or disgusted, you can say "I found that joke offensive."

Toilet humor/A frat boy Humor

"Dirty jokes" are offensive jokes about sex and things that people do in the bathroom ("toilet humor"). Young men especially like offensive humor, it seems. When young men make dirty jokes, laugh about drinking too much, and so on, you can call it "frat boy humor".

A "frat boy" is a young man in a college fraternity. Fraternity members have a reputation for partying a lot and enjoying offensive humor. Some people like to "crack jokes at other people's expense". This means joking about other people's weaknesses, like how they dress, mistakes they make, their financial situation, etc.

So these are some way s to describe people whose humor you don't like.