History Main / NoSenseOfHumor

* The narrator of ''Literature/TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNightTime'' has an AmbiguousDisorder (the blurb says Asperger's, the book doesn't), and explains there will be no jokes in the book because he doesn't understand them. He can understand the ''concept'' of a pun, if it's explained to him, but if he tries to keep multiple meanings in his head at the same time, it's like trying to follow multiple conversations.
* Don Tillman, the protagonist of ''Literature/TheRosieProject'' doesn't make or understand many jokes due to his AmbiguousDisorder.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Professor X and Magneto are frequently flanderized as no-nonsense extremists. Creator/JamesMacAvoy's performance is the first attempt to move away from this, although one might simply assume that as he gets older, he will get more serious. Also, Creator/IanMcKellen gave Magneto a deadpan, cynical sense of humor which was expanded on by Creator/MichaelFassbender.

'''ComicBook/{{Batman}}:''' [[{{TheComicallySerious}} A sense of humor]].

* ''Manga/{{Haikyuu}}'': Kageyama, due to being a [[NoSocialSkills socially awkward]] [[LiteralMinded literal thinker]]. [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/f1023665c610702fe907f2ccc72dc40f/a05013e83c67fd6e-5c/s1280x1920/de063a0e1330d432a1b0b2d7e767ce5b17f40ffd.jpg Example?]]

* Daniel's caseworker Mrs. Sellner in ''Film/MrsDoubtfire''. To elaborate on his talent for "doing voices" (as a VO actor), Daniel unleashes one of Creator/RobinWilliams' trademark [[HarpoDoesSomethingFunny rapid-fire strings of comical impressions and impersonations]] that would have most audiences at least tittering, if not bursting laughter. [[ToughRoom Mrs. Sellner doesn't even crack a smile]]:

* Daniel's caseworker Mrs. Sellner in ''Film/MrsDoubtfire''. To elaborate on his talent for "doing voices" (as a VO actor), Daniel unleashes one of Creator/RobinWilliams' trademark [[HarpoDoesSomethingFunny rapid-fire strings of comical impressions and impersonations]] that would have most audiences at least tittering, if not bursting laughter. [[ToughCrowd Mrs. Sellner doesn't even crack a smile]]:

** Constable Odo from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is a practical GrumpyBear who rarely even smiles, and anyone with a ''bad'' sense of humor (espescially Quark) tends to make him angry. On the other hand, Odo couldn't resist taking a moment with Quark to screw with Bashir and O'Brien after an incident in which they, Sisko, and Dax were shrunk to G. I. Joe size.[[note]]After the phlebotinum which caused it was reversed, Odo and Quark pranked the pair by standing on a step in the bar to call into question whether they were restored to their ''full'' height, prompting them to rush to the infirmary to verify.[[/note]] He's also a ''very'' DeadpanSnarker (emphasis on the ''deadpan'').

%% Trope was declared Administrivia/NoRealLifExamplesPlease via crowner by the Real Life Maintenance thread: %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=3qo8m6jm

[[folder:Real Life]]
* An JustForFun/{{egregious}}ly cliché [[StrawmanPolitical blanket accusation]] of detractors of BlackComedy. It will usually be coupled with some ranting about political correctness and a bit of ParodyRetcon sprinkled in.
** Also a common technique among abusers, who verbally taunt, harass, and degrade their targets and then, when feelings are hurt and/or they are called to account for their behavior, defend themselves with "You can't take a joke." In other words, they take a case of DudeNotFunny and deliberately try to turn it into this trope. See the JustJokingJustification Page for more about it.
* Germans are often stereotyped as being this. In reality, GermanHumour is a bit more complicated; Germans definitely do have a sense of humour, and enjoy comedy, but their ideas about what is funny and what isn't can vary greatly from those of English speakers. Adding to the confusion is the tendency of German people to smile at a joke instead of laugh, making foreigners think that they didn't get it and are just being polite.
** And German people think the English have no humor, or at least this special "English Humour"...
** This trope was parodied by UN Ambassador [[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/391553/july-11-2011/tip-wag---john-lennon---german-humor Hans Beinholtz]] whose sense of humour was... dry, to say the least.
** In Greece, if someone tells a joke that completely fails to amuse, people are likely to comment "That's an English joke."
* [[NunsNRosaries Nuns]] can fall under this, depending on the nun.
* An executive for WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, Eddie Selzer, once overheard a group of writers laughing at jokes being thought up for a specific Looney Tunes. He stormed in and asked what all the laughing had to do with the making of animated cartoons.
** He was well-known for having the sense of humor of an under-ripe potato. They used to use him as a sort of barometer for the quality of their ideas; if he liked it, they were off the mark. Selzer was, in fact, the specific genesis of the cartoon "WesternAnimation/BullyForBugs", when he barged into a brainstorming session between Creator/ChuckJones and Michael Maltese and declared, sans all provocation, that bullfights weren't funny, and there were to be no cartoons about them. They made the cartoon anyway, the argument being that Selzer had, in Chuck's words, "never been right about anything yet." Selzer's edict that "camels aren't funny" inspired Creator/FrizFreleng to disprove him by making "Sahara Hare". And although he loudly (and indelicately) declared that there was nothing funny about [[WesternAnimation/PepeLePew a skunk speaking French]], Selzer proudly accepted the Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 1949 -- for "WesternAnimation/ForScentimentalReasons", a Pepé Le Pew cartoon.
** Similarly, at MGM Creator/TexAvery was forced to work for executive producer Fred Quimby, who, according to the book "Tex Avery: King of Cartoons", never understood any cartoon Avery made. Even though everyone else, including the audience, considered them to be hilarious. He even warned Avery not to make "WesternAnimation/BlitzWolf", in which Hitler was ridiculed, "because we don't know who will win the war in the end."
* Creator/TheMarxBrothers: Groucho Marx always claimed that actress Margaret Dumont, who was always the ButtMonkey of his insults, never seemed to understand his jokes. Recent research has found out that this was simply an urban legend.
* The Islamic tyrant Ruhollah Khomeini is famous for this, one even claiming "[[{{Jerkass}} There is no room for play in Islam, there are no jokes, there is no fun, there is no humour]]." Which is rather odd, considering that there are quite a few hadiths about Muhammed himself cracking [[http://islamgreatreligion.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/prophet-muhammad-pbuh-sense-of-humor/ jokes]].
* Attila the Hun is reputed to have had no sense of humour. Allegedly an envoy from the Eastern Roman empire who met with Attila once at dinner described it as follows: "By mixing up the languages of the Italians with those of the Huns and Goths, [an entertainer] fascinated everyone and made them break out into uncontrollable laughter, all that is except Attila. He remained impassive, without any change of expression, and neither by word or gesture did he seem to share in the merriment...." The impression left was that Attila lacked a sense of humor and cared about nothing but power.
* A common misconception of Creator/AynRand is that she had no comprehension of humor, despite [[DeadpanSnarker a talent for devastatingly on-target satire]]. She was sometimes LateToThePunchline, perhaps as a result of early trauma, and part of it could have been that she was a native Russian-speaker operating in an English-speaking environment; plays on words and things like that may have just sailed right past her. She was prone to quips however and sometimes demonstrated a biting sardonic wit. For instance, whilst being pestered by a fly on a talk show, she commented "Perhaps it's protesting."
* Isaac Newton is widely reputed to have had no sense of humour.
* Legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans reportedly had this problem, much to Miles Davis's amusement. Apparently Miles had so much fun with Evans that on one occasion he told Evans that he'd have to have sex with all the members of Miles's band before he could join, and waited fifteen minutes before telling Evans it was a joke.
* The late Music/{{Prince}}, among other eccentricities, often didn't have much of a sense of humor. In particular, he refused to give Music/WeirdAlYankovic permission to parody his songs, when in the music business, having Al parody you is usually considered an honor, and a sign that you've "made it".
* At the 2005 Academy Awards, host Creator/ChrisRock joked that Creator/JudeLaw was in "every movie" released that year, remarking "Who ''is'' this guy?" and implying that Law was a low-rent Creator/TomCruise. Creator/SeanPenn later responded with dead seriousness, "In answer to our host's question, Jude Law is one of our finest young actors." After this, it became a bit of a RunningGag for people to poke fun at Penn's apparent lack of humor. ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' did an entire sketch about this called "Sean Penn's Celebrity Roast", in which Penn [[ComicallyMissingThePoint completely misses the point]] of the roast and acts annoyed at the comedians making fun of their fellow celebrities.
* This is an unfortunate stereotype of autistic people. It varies from person to person, but generally speaking, being autistic makes it harder to perceive sarcasm, and autistic people tend to take things literally. Not only that, but autistic people tend to have difficulty reading neurotypical social cues. This means that when someone cracks a joke, an autistic person may fail to fake a laugh or smile whereas a non-autistic person may at least make an attempt to politely chuckle at a joke, even if it isn't funny.
* Anyone with a dry sense of humor or who has a reputation of being serious probably can relate to the pain of a joke falling flat because nobody can tell if he/she is joking or not.
* Jean Doumanian, who oversaw the disastrous sixth season of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', was said to have absolutely no understanding of comedy. According to one account, she would watch a Marx Brothers film and root for Margaret Dumont.
[[/folder]]

A character with No Sense of Humor is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin incapable of enjoying jokes, comedy, or humor]] of any sort. Maybe the character is TheStoic, or an [[TheSpock otherworldly being with no notion of comedy]], [[LiteralMinded a literal thinker, or the victim of a traumatizing accident -- whatever it is, this person is unwilling (or ''unable'') to respond to humor, [[CannotTellAJoke tell jokes]], or even recognize when something is funny at all.

A character with No Sense of Humor is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin incapable of enjoying jokes, comedy, or humor]] of any sort. Maybe the character is TheStoic, or an [[TheSpock otherworldly being with no notion of comedy]], or the victim of a traumatizing accident -- whatever it is, this person is unwilling (or ''unable'') to respond to humor, [[CannotTellAJoke tell jokes]], or even recognize when something is funny at all.

A character with No Sense of Humor is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin incapable of enjoying jokes, comedy, or humor]] of any sort. Maybe the character is TheStoic turned UpToEleven, or an [[TheSpock otherworldly being with no notion of comedy]], or the victim of a traumatizing accident -- whatever it is, this person is unwilling (or ''unable'') to respond to humor, [[CannotTellAJoke tell jokes]], or even recognize when something is funny at all.

** And Eddie Valiant, due to his brother being murdered by a toon. [[spoiler:That toon happens to be Judge Doom.]]

* An JustForFun/{{egregious}}ly cliché [[StrawmanPolitical blanket accusation]] of detractors of BlackComedy. It will usually be coupled with some ranting about PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad and a bit of ParodyRetcon sprinkled in.

'''ComicBook/{{Batman}}:''' A sense of humor.

** Teal'c almost never tells a joke or laughs (unless you count his occasional plays on Earth idioms), with one [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka6tvlewO3c exception.]] It turns out the Jaffa sense of humor just doesn't translate through cultures well.

* No-nonsense badass soldier Giroro of ''Manga/SgtFrog'', especially in the Dub.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** Brother-sergeant Priad doesn't understand that someone's joking even when it seems obvious, like when Petrok says that he's already killed four or five annying equerries.

'''Franchise/{{Batman}}:''' A sense of humor.

* Franchise/{{Batman}} himself sometimes falls under this trope, DependingOnTheWriter.
** Surprisingly enough, the original version of ComicBook/TheJoker. In his first appearance, he was a permanently smiling psychotic gangster with ''no sense of humor whatsoever''. In his first fight with Batman, Bats is actually the one making puns, while Joker is screaming [[IllKillYou "I am going to kill you!"]]

* Comicbook/MoonKnight, also DependingOnTheWriter. Rather apt given that he's an {{Expy}} for Franchise/{{Batman}}.
* ComicBook/XMen: Professor X and Magneto are frequently flanderized as no-nonsense extremists. Creator/JamesMacAvoy's performance is the first attempt to move away from this, although one might simply assume that as he gets older, he will get more serious. Also, Creator/IanMcKellen gave Magneto a deadpan, cynical sense of humor which was expanded on by Creator/MichaelFassbender.

* This is an unfortunate misconception of those with autism spectrum disorder. It varies from person to person, but in general autism makes it more difficult for one to perceive sarcasm and those with autism tend to take things literally. Not only that, but those with autism tend to have a difficulty reading social cues. This means that when someone cracks a joke, a person with autism may fail to fake a laugh or smile whereas a person without autism may at least make an attempt to politely chuckle at a joke, even if it isn't funny.

->'''Geordi:''' Data... I made that joke ''seven years'' ago.\\
'''Data:''' I know! I just got it!
-->-- ''Film/StarTrekGenerations''

* ComicBook/XMen: Professor X and Magneto are frequently flanderized as no-nonsense extremists. James Macavoy's performance is the first attempt to move away from this, although one might simply assume that as he gets older, he will get more serious. Also, Creator/IanMcKellen gave Magneto a deadpan, cynical sense of humor which was expanded on by Michael Fassbender.

* ''Film/BladeTrinity'': Blade considers Hannibal King a constant annoyance due to King's sense of humor. In the comic books, King is a much more serious character; in fact more serious than Blade is in the comics. King's portrayal as a nonstop joke machine in the movie could be due to casting.

* Temporarily happens to Cartman in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "How to Eat With Your Butt". Cartman "blows a funny fuse" after a particularly hilarious prank leads to a couple with butts for faces showing up in town, and he becomes unable to laugh at anything.

* Juubei Kakei from ''Manga/GetBackers''.

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/data_no_humor2.png]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Rex Banner never laughs. When he tries to do so, in "Homer vs. the Eighth Amendment" (due to him finding the idea of a beer baron operating under his nose without getting caught "laughable"), he fails miserably.

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[[quoteright:250:[[Series/TheMuppetShow https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sam_the_eagle_3276.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:This beak was [[StealthPun not made for smiling.]]]]