I've come up with some pretty funny stuff on the fly. I think people do have to work at it, but I think it's also very possible justto remember the random stuff you say and think up every day then riff on it.
I think of myself as being a relatively funny guy, but it feels like around 90% of it is very dependent on the context or the shared history of the people I'm being funny with. Context-free-funny, or at least funny witha light enough context that you can set it up as you go, seems to be quite an admirable goal.
People who quote Monty Python or Bill Cosby out of context are less funny than they imagine they're being.
Busting on a former running back's mathematical reasoning...not that funny.
:)
I know, but I couldn't find a way to give him a pass (other than skipping the whole thing I guess) without sounding utterly condescending. And I still wanted to post it, because it's a tad bit subtle. Also, he sounded like a bit of an ass in the first bit("why, these Colts are almost as good as I was back in the day!") so I felt justified.
And yeah, not funny, mildly interesting. To me.
As a fiction writer, I consider myself lucky enough to create the context. As a CSR at an insurance agency, I consider myself unlucky in that I don't have much space to create the context to explain something fairly complicated.