A humor typology to identify humor styles used in sitcoms

The sitcom genre is one of the most enduringly popular, yet we still know surprising little about their specific elements. This study aimed to develop a typology of humor techniques that best describe the components comprising the sitcom genre. New original techniques were added to applicable techniques from previous schemes to propose a sitcom-specific humor typology. This typology was tested with another coder for inter-coder reliability, and it was revealed the typology is theoretically sound, practically easy, and reliable. The typology was then used to code four well-known US sitcoms, with the finding that the techniques used aligned with the two most prominent theories of humor – superiority and incongruity.