What is "dry" sense of humour?

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What is dry sense of humour.. I hear this thing about dry sense of humour, and had someone say I had a dry sense of humour before.

But I think of my sense of humour as ironic. Example - for comedy I like most the work of Sacha Baron Cohen because I appreciate the irony behind the characters he comes up with.

So, what's really an example of dry humour?

I think I have a dry sense of humour but to be honest I couldn't explain what it means, it's just something that people say. Maybe it's the opposite of a wet sense of humour. If there is such a thing.

Example:

The most obvious example I can think of is Jack Dee.

I think dry humour is often seen as sarcastic with a deadpan delivery.

I believe people feel this way about me, a combination of being too blunt and reactive to situations. I can't tell a joke well if my life was on the line.

Last edited by neilson_wheels on 02 Aug 2013, 2:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Best to avoid a damp sense of humour.

Well, you know, by contrast, the opposite extreme is the clown in the middle of the room who loudly cracks colorful jokes and entertains people actively and really makes it look like he wants to be funny.
At least that's how I'd explain it.

Consider it a compliment. Dry humor is of the rather subtle, intelligent kind.

It all depends on the delivery.

So even if you have an ironic sense of humor or goofy sense of humor, it comes across as dry because you probably have the traditional aspie lack of expression when you're being funny

I think the above explanations are accurate.

Sometimes my deadpan delivery is so deadpan people think I'm serious.

Love the idea of a wet sense of humour

I think this has happened to me where I've said something that could be taken serious if it was said with the wrong tone of voice, but I thought my tone of voice was sarcastic and it maybe it actually wasn't because I got taken seriously.

I had always thought I was very expressive in terms of facial expression and tone of voice but maybe it's not the case and I should try to ask someone if it is or not.

So I wonder if maybe it's possible I hear my own tone of voice differently, or don't notice my own facial expression.

Last edited by savvyidentity on 02 Aug 2013, 3:56 pm, edited 4 times in total.

When I saw 'Return of the Pink Panther' with my cousins at age 12, it was a terrible movie. It was not funny, not funny, not funny. It was like a skit that might have been funny for five minutes extended to two hours.

There was one part which struck me as funny. Inspector Clouseau was having a drink in a hotel room with a lady. He spills a bunch of ice and comments, "This hotel is deteriorating rapidly," seemingly unaware that he's the main cause of the deterioration!

Yeah, I often hear people say someone they know has a dry sense of humour and I never quite know what it actually means. But from my ability to read body language I figured it was coming out with funny things in speech without intentionally making others laugh, but not at inappropriate times.

Like the other day at work one of the elderly residents lost his false teeth, and I asked what one of the workers was looking for and she said, ''he's lost his nashers again''. I wasn't expecting her to say that, and it made me laugh, which then made her laugh too. I would call this woman a person with a dry sense of humour.

I think of a dry sense if humor as being more subtle and ironic as well as being delivered with a straight face and normal tone. Like you might not realize the person was joking until you think about what they said. British humor tends to be dry. It's the opposite of broad humor, where there is slapstick, an obvious pause for a laugh, and maybe even a laugh track.

some people say i have sense of humour when im angry. like when the bus i was waiting to drive was nearly half an hour late and after it came in and the bloke got off apologising to me that he was late and then went, a woman came up to me ranting why it was late as though it was my fault, and i got angry and yelled something like 'its not my fault, the old herbert who was driving it before me came in late, what could i do?' and it made one of the other bus drivers laugh when i said old herbert ('herbert' is an old-fashioned british slang name they sometimes call idiot). i didnt think it was funny but when i got home i thought about it and thought yes thats why he laughed, but still dont think its funny myself.

its why sometimes my husband likes winding me up and making me angry, he thinks i suddenly develop sense of humour when im angry, although i dont find me funny.

I think that about covers it.

"Dry" is humor delivered without a colorful, "funny" delivery or broad smile; something said so unobtrusively, that if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't notice a joke had been told.