What is funny?

If someone doesn't share the same sense of humor as you, do they simply have no sense? I think most people want to dismiss others has having no sense of humor when it doesn't jive with theirs. I got to thinking about this because of a letter Stan Miller wrote to the Deseret News today. Stan called two of my favorite comics Lio and F Minus "pretty amateur." Immediately I wanted to write a letter to the editor saying, "You sir have the humor of a snail!" While I didn't write that I did in fact write a letter simply to put my two cents in. I can easily disregard Stan as a rube that wouldn't know humor if it came up to him and said "Hi, I'm Humor."

It's easy because I don't know him. But what about someone you know and like? Generally the people you hang out with share a similar humor. At least the people I hang with do. If they don't get my jokes, they aren't long on the list of people I like to talk to. So when you have the anomalistic event when they "don't find that funny" how do you take that? If I found the material truly funny yet my friend didn't find it so, it's almost a betrayal. "You faked your way into being my friend you LIAR!" They laughed before when I laughed, why not now? Then it becomes a mental exercise to figure out why they might not find it funny. But I simply end up with I just don't get them. Or could it be that I don't know what's funny? Nahhh.