Humor

Habitual (character demonstrating) storytelling

when telling a story about someone, the story seems to hit home farther and thus be funnier when you talk about someone in the present, as a sort of habitual part of their character, rather than talk about them in the past tense

• ex. "My mom is so funny, she sends me entire articles in Whatsapp rather than just linking the url" vs "My mom is so funny, she sent me an entire article in Whatsapp rather than just linking the url"

This is funnier because it better demonstrates the character of someone, and paints a more clear picture in the person's mind about what sort of other things this person does.

• It's similar to the "What is a Pomelo?" question , in the sense that giving a habitual description of that person allows the person to make assumptions and answer a lot of questions in their mind about "what is this person like?"

Joke telling

Punchline jokes are the hardest type of joke to land. If you are telling any other sort of joke, as long as people trust you will make them laugh, they will laugh. With punchline jokes, it actually has to be funny, because a punchline has to be understood. If you get to the punchline and it is not understood or not funny, you won't get laughs.