I chose not to let any AI app anywhere near my writing. I do use Microsoft Word, so I am constantly fighting off Copilot's offers to help. Thanks but accurately: butt out.
I 'm not here to condemn writers who use AI in ways that I choose not to or to debate the issue. I am horrified by the idea that there are folks out there who throw a few ideas into an AI app and ask it to write an essay, a short story, a novel. That's a major concern but not today's topic.
Today I am here to investigation an issue. Can AI make me laugh?
This topic was actually suggested to me by an AI app. I won't say which one for fear of retribution--you know when they take over and make us all use em dashes--but let's just say it was one that was willing to chat with me for free. (Misplaced footnote: em dashes are considered a sure sign of AI authorship by some.)
Having decided I needed to know more about AI, I picked a random paragraph from a novella I was working on and fed it to the bot. I asked for an edit. It changed two articles, changes I did not agree with and ignored. But then the ever-helpful chatbot asked if I would like it to make the paragraph more suspenseful or funnier. Why not? I selected funnier.
The results weren't horrible. But they weren't funny. Then again the paragraph I gave them was not a laugh riot to begin with. I moved on. Or so I thought.
At 3am this morning when I found myself unable to sleep but not awake enough to do real work, I decided I hadn't given the chatbot a fair shot to show me what it could do.
I set the bot free and asked it to write something funny on four topics.
*Going back to school at 57
*Becoming an orphan at 25
*Traveling constantly on business
*Moving to New York in the 1980s
The bot tried. It applied some of the basic conventions of comedy to produce hackneyed results. My opinion was that when incorporating what it considered humorous elements, the bot forgot style.
I thought I'd help it out by giving it three styles to emulate: Dave Barry, David Sedaris, and Andy Borowitz. Of course, it issued a disclaimer that it could not imitate their style. Then it listed the characteristics of each style and wrote accordingly. Let's just Dave, David, and Andy could have done better.
In an effort to understand my bot buddy, I next asked for the rules of comedy. After reminding me that there are no rules, only guidelines, it created a comprehensive list.
As I read the list, I could see that the bot took the entries seriously. Especially the rule of three. I can sympathize. I too love the rule of three and have to fight the urge to overuse it. The bot did not fight the urge.
If I might digress for a moment, I once read a review of Tina Fey's "Bossy Pants"'in a major political journal. The reviewer who was not familiar with the idea of a comedic triple, noted with some disdain that the author tended to make lists of three where the first two items were the same and the third was the same but somehow different. (I offer as a sample one of my favorites not from Tina Fey but from my nephews: Larry Bird, Big Bird, Sheryl Crow.) Shortly after that Tina Fey observed on "Thirty Rock" that her character did tend to make lists where the first two were the same and the third one was different. I always wondered if she was responding to the review.
Anyway, the bot described its work as playful, but it didn't impress me that way. To me, playful requires a person, a personality, behind the writing. I've known people who long to be funny but just aren't. As an example, a dear friend loved the Carnegie Hall joke. You know. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. But when she told it, her punchline was: it's really hard. You have to practice a lot.
I am of the opinion that funny people are born not made. Environment can help them hone their skills. Practicing their skills with other funny people can enhance those skills. Understanding guidelines can improve them.
Improve? Yes, but when I think of the funny people I know, I don't believe anyone told them the rules. Excuse me, guidelines. They may never have heard of the rules. I think they are somehow embedded in their DNA.
And that is why I do not believe that AI can produce any groundbreaking humor. It's all derivative. Maybe someday that will change. Dave Barry, David Sedaris, and Andy Borowitz have all made me laugh out loud. During my experiment the bot did not. I don't think I smiled.
I'll leave it at that. I don't like to say too much - the bot is listening and I don't want to offend it. Besides, I could be wrong.
© Jane Kelly 2026
