Humor

A lot of people have no sense of humor. They are well-read, but they have no sense of the absurd. They analyze it, they ponder it, they reflect on it. They don't laugh. A laugh is the only appropriate reaction to something funny.

If I tell you this joke..

After losing a breaststroke swimming competition, the blonde complained to the judges, "The others were all using their arms".

Sign that you get the joke - you laugh.
Sign that you don't get the joke - Your comments are about a) cheating in sports b) women in sports c) swimming competitions d) Judges biased for/against blondes e) philosophy of winning/losing.

If I don't label my writing as Humor, I tend to get comments from people who think I'm writing my views, not making up stories to get a laugh. I can't decide if that means I am not funny enough, or some people don't get that it is supposed to be funny.

I find this a big difference in Indian society v/s the West. Having lived in both places, I can see that some forms of conversational humor are not recognized as such over here (by some).

Check out the comments on Commenting (Or Not). See if you can spot the difference in the commenters - the ones who took it literally are the ones giving out advice on commenting/writing.