Dictionary

funny ha-ha en · ADJ

Meanings

1. (informal, not-comparable) Humorous, as opposed to strange (the other meaning of funny).
   • 1938, Stevie Smith, Over The Frontier Is it in essence so extremely funny-ha-ha that it will bear this so frequent repetition?
   • 2005, C++ Cookbook First of all, they have funny syntax (not funny ha-ha, funny strange).
   • 2003, Lesley Chamberlain, The Secret Artist: A Close Reading of Sigmund Freud Freud loves mistakes because they open up so much scope for humor, and he watches how what first strikes us as “funny ha ha” shades into “funny peculiar.”
   • Funny is now occasionally ambiguous, as a slang expression fashionable a decade ago shows: “Do you mean funny''' ‘ha-ha’ or funny ‘peculiar’?” 1945, Robert J. Menner, Multiple Meaning and Change of Meaning in English, in Language, Vol. 21, No. 2
   • They might be men: they certainly were funny (funny-peculiar not funny-ha ha). 1952, Madison Bently, review of Statement on Race, in The American Journal of Psychology, Vol. 65, No. 1
   • 1936, Ian Hay, The Housemaster What do you mean, funny? Funny peculiar or funny ha-ha?
   • 2004, W. R. Adams, Rairarubia In the morning, she couldn’t remember much, only that the dream left her feeling kind of funny inside. Not funny ha-ha, but funny weird-like.
2. (informal, not-comparable) Humorous, as opposed to serious or nonfunny.
   • 2003, Steven Cooper, With You in Spirit She laughs, not a funny ha-ha laugh but rather a tiny self-inflicted chuckle of disgust.
   • 1971, Harold Robbins, The Betsy But it wasn’t a funny ha-ha smile. It was the kind of smile you have when you find a friend.
   • 2005, Jan Carole, Anatomy of Pain I laugh when talking about this; it is not the funny ha-ha kind of laugh, but the uncomfortable kind.
   • 1999, Anna Fienberg, Borrowed Light Mostly he makes jokes about Mum’s cooking. Not the funny ha-ha jokes, more the sneery, condescending snipes that leave an uncomfortable silence, while you decide whose side you should be on.

Forms

Coordinates

funny peculiar

Synonyms

ha-ha funny