I’ve recently heard a few episodes of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast and it made me think about what kind of things I find funny, entertaining, or just captivating to listen to. He is a manic, dark, paranoid storyteller. The humor for him comes from the darkness, or the way I like to think of it is he is the “tunnel” and his funny is the “light at end of the tunnel”.

As much as the next guy, I enjoy the occasional genius of a happy clown (or as they are more commonly know “joke guys”). These comedians are after the hard punchline: the twist at the end of a well-timed poem. My favorites in this category are Steven Wright, Mitch Hedberg, and even Demetri Martin. To me, brilliant joke guys are masters of absurdity.

But like I said, my favorite type of comedy is dark personal story telling. I think Jim Jefferies is a good example of that. Here’s him talking about depression being a luxury of the rich:

Another example of a guy I find funny, even when I’m not laughing, is the aforementioned Marc Maron. Here’s him actually doing something that resembles a more traditional “joke”, but for the best of Marc you really have to listen to the long interviews on his podcast, or from what I understand, go see him live.