Unintentional humor is the act of making other people laugh without actually meaning to. There are several different kinds of unintentional humor that arise out of various situations.

Unintended contradiction

It is possible for unintentional humor to arise when two different well-meaning people contribute independent pieces of information, but in combination, they contradict each other. The images on the right are an example of this.

Missteps

A misstep in the (in)appropriate environment is often considered humorous, that is the tension or embarrassment it creates is released by laughter. Examples are misspeaks or falls by a famous individual, catching somebody at an official event with inappropriate manners or embarrassing body noises.

Taking one's creation too seriously

Some books, movies, and other literary works end up being unintentionally funny because they are comically clichéd or overwrought, despite appearing to be earnest and serious efforts by their creators. Examples are "so bad they're good" movies, such as Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction film written and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film features Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and Maila "Vampira" Nurmi...

, and the style of bad writing celebrated by the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a tongue-in-cheek contest that takes place annually and is sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" – that is,...

.

Unintentional humor in popular culture

The TV show Mystery Science Theatre 3000 often watched B-movies and their unintentional funny scenes to provide them with equally amusing commentary. The Flemish tv comedy series Alles Kan Beter

Alles Kan Beter

Alles Kan Beter was a Belgian comedy TV series produced by Flemish production house Woestijnvis between the end of 1997 and 1999, in the Dutch language. The series was directed by Jan Eelen, starring weekly Mark Uytterhoeven, Guy Mortier, Rob Vanoudenhoven, and one guest appearance. All of the cast...

also poked fun at unintentional funny scenes from Flemish television broadcasts. Many Internet reviewers such as The Nostalgia Critic

The Nostalgia Critic

The Nostalgia Critic is a web television series starring Doug Walker as the eponymous reviewer. The series was initially launched on YouTube before moving to an independent site, That Guy with the Glasses, run by production company Channel Awesome...

also feature unintentionally funny films.

Examples

Comics

• The religious fundamentalistic comics of Jack Chick
  Jack Chick
  Jack Thomas Chick is an American publisher, writer, and comic book artist of fundamentalist Christian tracts and comic books...
  
   which often feature moralistic tales that are so far-fetched that they become ridiculous.

Literature

• William McGonagall, poet
• James McIntyre, poet
• Julia A. Moore
  Julia A. Moore
  Julia Ann Moore, the "Sweet Singer of Michigan", born Julia Ann Davis in Plainfield Township, Kent County, Michigan , was an American poet, or more precisely, poetaster...
  
  , poet
• Amanda McKittrick Ros, novelist
• Gloria Tesch, author
• English As She Is Spoke
  English As She Is Spoke
  English as She Is Spoke is the common name of a 19th century book falsely credited to José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, which was intended as a Portuguese-English conversational guide or phrase book, but is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour, as the given English translations...
  
  
• The Eye of Argon
  The Eye of Argon
  The Eye of Argon is a heroic fantasy novella that narrates the adventures of Grignr, a barbarian. It was written in 1970 by Jim Theis and circulated anonymously in science fiction fandom since then...
  
  
• Striking and Picturesque Delineations of the Grand, Beautiful, Wonderful, and Interesting Scenery Around Loch-Earn
• Latawnya, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say "No" to Drugs

Film

• Godfrey Ho
  Godfrey Ho
  Godfrey Ho is a former Hong Kong-based prolific film director and screenwriter, sometimes considered the Ed Wood of Hong Kong cinema. Ho is believed to having directed more than one hundred films, including over 80 movies from 1980 to 1990, but only one film since 1995, apparently retiring from...
  
  
• Edward D. Wood, Jr.
• Uwe Boll
  Uwe Boll
  Uwe Boll is a German director, producer and screenwriter, whose work includes several films adapted from video games. He finances his own films through his Boll KG production company. He is often cited as the worst director of all time.-Early life:...
  
  
• Tommy Wiseau
  Tommy Wiseau
  Tommy Wiseau is a screenwriter, director, producer, executive producer, and actor. He is the founder of the film production company Wiseau Films. Wiseau is best known for his film The Room which has been described as "one of the worst movies ever made" and has gained cult film status...
  
  
• Bruno Mattei
  Bruno Mattei
  Bruno Mattei was an Italian film director, screenwriter and editor who gained a cult following for a wide variety of exploitation films that covered many genres, ranging from women in prison to zombie films...
  
  
• Claudio Fragasso
  Claudio Fragasso
  Claudio Fragasso is an Italian screenwriter and film director of mostly low-budget exploitation films.- Filmmaking history :...
  
  
• Reefer Madness
  Reefer Madness
  Reefer Madness is a well-known 1936 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try "marijuana" — from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness...
  
  
• Plan 9 From Outer Space
  Plan 9 from Outer Space
  Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1959 science fiction film written and directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film features Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson and Maila "Vampira" Nurmi...
  
  
• Many Godzilla
  Godzilla
  is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
  
  and Gamera
  Gamera
  is a giant, flying turtle from a popular series of kaiju films produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company in Japan. Created in 1965 to rival the success of Toho Studios' Godzilla during the daikaiju boom of the mid-to-late 1960s, Gamera has gained fame and notoriety as a Japanese icon in his own...
  
  films from the 1960s and 1970s
• The Room
  The Room (film)
  The Room is a 2003 independent drama film starring Tommy Wiseau, who also wrote, directed, and produced the feature. In addition to Wiseau, the principal cast includes Juliette Danielle, Greg Sestero, Philip Haldiman, Kyle Vogt, Carolyn Minnott, and Robyn Paris...
  
  
• Troll 2
  Troll 2
  Troll 2 is a 1990 horror film directed by Claudio Fragasso and starring Michael Stephenson, George Hardy, Margo Prey, Connie Young , Deborah Reed, and Jason Wright...
  
  
• The Wicker Man (2006 film)
  The Wicker Man (2006 film)
  The Wicker Man is a 2006 American remake of the 1973 British film of the same title. It was written and directed by Neil LaBute, based on a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer, and stars Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn....
  
  

Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

• All your base are belong to us
  All your base are belong to us
  "All your base are belong to us" is a broken English phrase that became an Internet phenomenon or meme in 2000–2002...
  
  
• Mahir Çağrı
  Mahir Çagri
  Mahir Çağrı became an Internet celebrity in 1999. His picture-laden personal homepage, which exclaimed in broken English his love of the accordion, travel, and women was visited by millions and spawned numerous fansites and parodies, one featured on Fox's MadTV...
  
  , who became an Internet meme due to his badly translated site
• "The Star Wars Kid
  Star Wars Kid
  "Star Wars Kid" is an Internet meme involving a video of a high school student from Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada, wielding a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul's lightsaber moves from the Star Wars films....
  
  "
• Ashida Kim, alleged psuedonym of Radford Davis, self proclaimed ninja
  Ninja
  A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
  
   and author of a number of instructional books on the subject. The martial arts community widely regards him as a fraud and charlatan
  Charlatan
  A charlatan is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretense or deception....
  
  .

Locations

Certain place names have an unintentional funny name. Sometimes only in other languages.

• Dildo, Newfoundland and Labrador
  Dildo, Newfoundland and Labrador
  Dildo is a town on the island of Newfoundland, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. It is located on the southeastern Dildo Arm of Trinity Bay about 60 kilometres west of St. John's. South Dildo is a neighbouring unincorporated community...
  
  
• Anus, Yonne
• Fucking, Austria
  Fucking, Austria
  Fucking is an Austrian village in the municipality of Tarsdorf, in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria. The village is north of Salzburg, east of the German border....
  
  
• Nob End
  Nob End
  Nob End is the site of a former waste tip, and now a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Kearsley, Bolton, England.Standing at the confluence of the River Irwell and River Croal it was used around 1850-70 as a tip for alkaline waste from the production of sodium carbonate by the Leblanc...
  
  , England
• Twatt, Orkney
  Twatt, Orkney
  Twatt is a small settlement on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands, Scotland. It was previously the location of a RNAS airfield, HMS Tern, 1940–1949.-Etymology:The settlement name originates from the Old Norse þveit, meaning 'small parcel of land'...
  
  , Scotland
• Wankum
  Wankum
  Wankum is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, GermanyThe town's location, near the A40 autobahn close to the border with The Netherlands, is infamous with British motorists who pass the sign to the Wankum exit shortly after entering Germany and view the name with amusement due to its two syllables...
  
  , Germany
• Titz
  Titz
  Titz is a municipality in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approx. 10 km north-east of Jülich and 20 km south of Mönchengladbach.-Notable persons:...
  
  , Germany
• The Flemish village Reet ("reet" is an old Dutch word for "hole", but in modern Dutch it's a rude nickame for one's buttocks)

Malapropism

Malapropism

A malapropism is an act of misusing or the habitual misuse of similar sounding words, especially with humorous results. An example is Yogi Berra's statement: "Texas has a lot of electrical votes," rather than "electoral votes".-Etymology:...

s

• Bushism
  Bushism
  Bushisms are unconventional words, phrases, pronunciations, malapropisms, and semantic or linguistic errors that have occurred in the public speaking of former President of the United States George W. Bush and, much less notably, of his father, George H. W. Bush. The term has become part of popular...
  
  
• Sananmuunnos
  Sananmuunnos
  Sananmuunnos is a sort of verbal play in the Finnish language, similar to spoonerisms in English.Special to Finnish is a narrow phoneme inventory and vowel harmony. As Finnish is a mora-divided language, it is morae that are exchanged, not syllables...
  
  
• Freudian slip
  Freudian slip
  A Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of some unconscious , subdued, wish, conflict, or train of thought...
  
  
• Goldwynism
• Yogiism
• William Archibald Spooner
  William Archibald Spooner
  William Archibald Spooner was a famous Oxford don whose name is given to the linguistic phenomenon of spoonerism.-Biography:...
  
  , whose speech impediment nicknamed the condition spoonerism
  Spoonerism
  A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
  
  

Music

• Outsider music
  Outsider music
  Outsider music, a term coined by Irwin Chusid in the mid-1990s, are songs and compositions by musicians who are not part of the commercial music industry who write songs that ignore standard musical or lyrical conventions, either because they have no formal training or because they disagree with...
  
   (although after the first laughs disappear many fans genuinely appreciate these musical amateurs)
• Florence Foster Jenkins
  Florence Foster Jenkins
  Florence Foster Jenkins was an American amateur operatic soprano who was known, and ridiculed, for her lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability.-Early years:...
  
  
• The Shaggs
  The Shaggs
  The Shaggs were an American all-female rock group formed in Fremont, New Hampshire in 1968. The band was composed of sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin , Betty Wiggin , Helen Wiggin , and later Rachel Wiggin ....
  
  
• Wing (singer)
  Wing (singer)
  Wing Han Tsang , popularly known simply as Wing, is a New Zealand singer of Hong Kong origin. She is known for her unique, offbeat singing style.-Career:...
  
  
• Eddy Wally
  Eddy Wally
  Eddy Wally is a singer from Zelzate , and is the self-proclaimed "Voice Of Europe".-General information:...
  
  , a Belgian singer who has been ridiculed for his strange behavior, singing style and laughable song lyrics during most of his career, despite being quite successful.

Performing arts

• Robert Coates
  Robert Coates (actor)
  Robert Coates , often called Romeo Coates, was a West Indian-born heir to significantly profitable, sugar-growing slave plantations. As a young adult, he emigrated to England...
  
  , actor
• Christopher Walken
  Christopher Walken
  Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
  
  , actor
• Brian Blessed
  Brian Blessed
  Brian Blessed is an English actor, known for his sonorous voice and "hearty, king-sized portrayals".-Early life:The son of William Blessed, a socialist miner, and Hilda Wall, Blessed was born in the town of Goldthorpe, West Riding of Yorkshire, England...
  
  , actor

Television

• The Borgias
  The Borgias
  The Borgias is a British television drama serial produced by the BBC in 1981, in association with the Second Network of the Italian RAI - TV ....
  
  
• Club X
  Club X
  Club X was a short-lived 1989 Channel 4 arts and music magazine programme that is often cited as an example of TV Hell.- Details :The production and presentation team was largely taken from the earlier Channel 4 success Network 7 and had the same editor Charlie Parsons...
  
  
• The tv commercial for Life Fall which featured the infamous line I've fallen and I can't get up!
• TV Hell
  TV Hell
  TV Hell was a BBC2 theme night broadcast on 31 August 1992, showing a whole evening of archive television clips widely regarded by critics and the public alike as among the worst ever produced in Britain...
  
  , a BBC compilation of ridiculously bad TV shows.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000
  Mystery Science Theater 3000
  Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
  
  , a TV show where bad films were viewed and ridiculed.
• Alles Kan Beter
  Alles Kan Beter
  Alles Kan Beter was a Belgian comedy TV series produced by Flemish production house Woestijnvis between the end of 1997 and 1999, in the Dutch language. The series was directed by Jan Eelen, starring weekly Mark Uytterhoeven, Guy Mortier, Rob Vanoudenhoven, and one guest appearance. All of the cast...
  
  , a Flemish TV show where unintentionally funny scenes from Flemish tv broadcasts were ridiculed and satirized.
• To Catch a Predator
  To Catch a Predator
  To Catch a Predator is an American reality television series that features hidden camera investigations by the television newsmagazine program Dateline NBC. It is devoted to impersonating underage youth and detaining adults who contact them over the Internet for sexual liaisons...
  
  

Other

• Comical Ali
• Figure moe zoku
  Figure moe zoku
  is a Japanese term which refers to "Otaku who collect figurines". Japanese journalist Akihiro Ōtani claimed that this group was composed of potential criminals. Originally, the term wasn't related to lolicon, but instead to agalmatophilia, since the figurines were not alive.-Summary:In Japan, the...
  
  
• Engrish
  Engrish
  refers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
  
  
• Rude Britain
  Rude Britain
  Rude Britain is a 2005 book of British place names with seemingly rude or offensive meanings...
  
  
• The Nostalgia Critic
  The Nostalgia Critic
  The Nostalgia Critic is a web television series starring Doug Walker as the eponymous reviewer. The series was initially launched on YouTube before moving to an independent site, That Guy with the Glasses, run by production company Channel Awesome...
  
  
• The Cinema Snob
• Almost every school teacher encounters unintentionally funny test answers or homework lines during his career.

Types

• Inherently funny word
  Inherently funny word
  Words may be considered inherently funny, for reasons ranging from onomatopoeia to phonosemantics. Such words have been used by a range of influential comedians, including W. C...
  
  
• Oxymoron
  Oxymoron
  An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms...
  
  
• Spoonerism
  Spoonerism
  A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants, vowels, or morphemes are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner , Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency...
  
  
• Camp
  Camp (style)
  Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
  
  
• Blooper
  Blooper
  A blooper, also known as an outtake or boner is a short sequence of a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms of misspoken words...