adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a good/funny joke
▪ I heard a really good joke the other day.
a strange/funny noise
▪ What’s that funny noise?
a strange/funny/odd smell
▪ What’s that funny smell?
funny bone
funny farm
funny money
funny papers
in a funny/strange etc kind of way
▪ In a funny kind of way, the bullying made me a stronger person.
smell funny/strange
▪ This place smells funny sometimes.
strange/odd/peculiar/funny
▪ The sweets had a rather peculiar taste.
taste funny/odd/strange
▪ These fruit drinks taste a bit funny until you get used to them.
the funny/serious side
▪ Luckily, when I explained the situation, he saw the funny side of it.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪ I always says its longer than Hamlet and not as funny.
▪ Even better, audiences could now see his reactions, which were sometimes as funny as the words that caused them.
▪ He's certainly as funny as Pratchett, and a good deal madder.
▪ What Amis has also acknowledged as a writer is that nice things aren't necessarily as funny as nasty things.
▪ In the ninth century as later, baldness struck some people as funny.
▪ Few bookings were as funny as Bruce's Hamlet wig.
▪ The first film was very good but I don't think it was nearly as funny as this one.
▪ In any event, they were certainly about as funny as a speech by Herbert Morrison to a Labour conference.
even
▪ The pictures others carry of you - it's not even funny.
▪ There is still scope for this funny old game to become even funnier.
▪ He could make it sad or gay, or even funny.
▪ Here are some reasons: Mishearing can cause misunderstandings which may be embarrassing or even funny but certainly not reassuring.
▪ The famous wrestling scene was very well-choreographed and even funny.
▪ They're gross, offensive, and they're not even funny.
▪ And some of the dialogue like the Madonna stuff, would be even funnier.
hilariously
▪ The result, although dark and satirical, is a joy to watch - hilariously funny and unremittingly scabrous.
▪ This hilariously funny collection of political satire is one of the best Private Eye annuals to date.
how
▪ Dear Feedback, it is up to the listener to decide how funny things are and not loutish Mr Baker.
▪ We invented something called the roar-o-meter to measure how funny something was.
▪ None the less, volunteers were asked to rate them according to how funny they found them.
▪ Everybody wants to shake his hand, have a picture taken with him, tell him how funny he is.
▪ I'd forgotten how funny it is; from now on I shall be using it in casual conversation more often.
▪ I remember thinking how funny he looked because he wore a sort of little beanie hat.
▪ I was thinking how funny it would be if I had switched the smoked salmon for ham.
pretty
▪ This film may be a shocker, but as well as being very sexy it's also pretty funny at times.
▪ The girls think this is pretty funny.
quite
▪ Although it sounds quite funny picking up children and carrying them can be tricky when you can hardly walk.
▪ In fact, Walking and Talking is quite funny.
▪ It would be quite funny if it weren't for the thousands of people who are dying.
▪ But most of the cast are quite funny, as is the script.
▪ It's quite funny, actually.
▪ When Lee, the director, is being satirical and outrageous, the movie is quite funny.
▪ We take it quite seriously, people laugh at it and that makes it quite funny.
▪ He told some quite funny stories.
really
▪ It made me feel really funny seeing that.
▪ That was really funny and he looked suspiciously close to laughter.
▪ It's not really funny, and you've probably heard it anyway.
▪ Ayckbourn develops the situation with his customary ingenuity, but I found it too morally disturbing to be really funny.
so
▪ That's why she's so funny.
▪ Kids like his songs because they are so funny.
▪ The Spartans did not think the episode so funny.
▪ He is so funny with his physical comedy.
▪ But I mud say, never in my short life have I witnessed anything so funny.
▪ I smuggled a copy out when I left because I thought it was so funny.
▪ Keith can not figure out why Potter looks so funny.
▪ To see you as a domestic adviser is so funny!
very
▪ He could be very funny indeed.
▪ I think all this is very funny.
▪ I enjoyed your play, and I thought that Sir John Falstaff was very funny.
▪ Ha, ha, ha. Very funny.
▪ For some reason, he found what she had just said very funny.
▪ Ha-ha-ha, said Matty. Very funny.
▪ It's not hard to see why even when clean, Kamrok's verses are very funny.
▪ He was a very funny man.
wickedly
▪ Last July, in peak form, pirouetting on his toes and gesticulating wildly, he was wickedly funny and amazingly indiscreet.
■ NOUN
bone
▪ The function of the funny bone is to make you cry.
▪ George Burns' sense of timing and captivating smile touched the hearts and funny bones of more than three generations.
▪ Chasing him, she banged her funny bone on the doorpost.
business
▪ It's a funny business, comedy.
▪ So the bargaining takes on a nouveau comic tone, and we all become role players in the funny business.
▪ Now, Riley, if you take my advice you could become something big in the funny business.
face
▪ Life has a way of giving a comic a funny face which ultimately starts to pay for itself.
▪ Carrey wants to expand beyond funny faces, the way Steve Martin and Robin Williams did.
▪ Do you think Bach made funny faces and giggled when he wrote that?
▪ He enjoyed being talked to and loved funny faces.
▪ Rachel was getting bored now that Billy had used up all his funny faces.
▪ I want to make funny faces.
▪ She made a funny face, gave a snorting sort of laugh.
▪ She had a wonderful sense of humor and would shriek with laughter when her daddy made funny faces and squeaky noises.
feeling
▪ But there was some funny feeling.
▪ I had a funny feeling it was the same for him - disgusting.
▪ I've got a funny feeling he's not going to roll over for me.
▪ It was a funny feeling to meet some one like that and feel that way.
film
▪ Mel Brooks won an Academy Award for this uproariously funny film, which also marked his debut as a director.
joke
▪ Both laughed delightedly, as if I had cracked some very funny joke.
▪ Tom told a clean, mildly funny joke, and Marge laughed hilariously.
look
▪ I thought, in my anxious state, that the orderly gave me a funny look as he left me there.
▪ Robbie gave her a funny look, as though she were a little peculiar for jumping into his illogical fragment of thought.
▪ This time we were getting a few funny looks from other customers.
▪ Billie had a funny look on her face.
man
▪ Luckily for comedy-lovers Middlesbrough Town Hall has added an extra date for these two marvellously funny men tonight.
▪ Instead, the funny man who purportedly lives here is nowhere to be found.
▪ Mind you, when you look around at today's funny men and women, they are all pretty middle class.
▪ He was a very funny man.
▪ The funny man who had found her on a distant planet and had treated her as a human being.
▪ Lozano was a wry, funny man.
▪ Mark Little is a funny man.
money
▪ It was inconceivable that they would ever take stock, or any funny money.
side
▪ He was one of those people who always saw the funny side of everything, Jack Gannet thought morosely.
▪ But it did have its funny side.
▪ Fortunately they saw the funny side.
▪ Actually, Simon took it all rather well and saw the funny side of things.
▪ It did have its funny side as well.
▪ Luckily, when I explained the situation, he saw the funny side of it.
▪ Shanti has always been able to see the funny side of a situation.
story
▪ I had no doubts about his musicianship, his talent or his ability to tell a funny story funnily.
▪ Perhaps Old Abe has some funny story to tell appropriate to the occasion.
▪ He'd give us funny stories - the Colonel coming in the front door while Luke left through the back.
▪ He had told a funny story that had made her laugh.
▪ Tonk and his Friends Pupils will love this funny story of a young robot called Tonk.
▪ Now she has illustrated a second, equally funny story about the time the maiden Belinda is captured by a wicked knight.
▪ He told some quite funny stories.
▪ But he was loads of fun to his peers, always ready with a quip or funny story.
thing
▪ The funny thing was this happened yards from where I had had a very bad motorcycle crash ten years before.
▪ The funny thing, continues Black, is that Walt Whitman used to work on this street.
▪ It's a funny thing, but they do.
▪ That, I thought, was the funniest thing I had ever heard.
▪ It is one of the funniest things to see.
▪ Born to be customers, the back row had thought it was the funniest thing they had heard all day.
▪ Dear Feedback, it is up to the listener to decide how funny things are and not loutish Mr Baker.
▪ A funny thing, the truth.
things
▪ It's done funny things to my head.
▪ The indeterminist claim is not, therefore, just that various funny things happen at a sub-atomic level.
▪ What funny things people did: she remembered Felix and Madame Tarasova shoeless.
▪ A lot of money can do a lot of funny things to people, not all of which are funny.
▪ When he does so, funny things happen.
▪ However, funny things do happen on the peripheries of the lame story, particularly from the talented supporting cast.
▪ It is one of the funniest things to see.
▪ Snow and ice do funny things.
way
▪ In a funny way he wished that Elaine would open her eyes, but she was blind drunk and slept.
▪ To me he was little more than a jolly stranger with a funny way of talking.
▪ But she was breathing very heavily and jerking her legs in a funny way, as if something hurt her.
▪ Max has a very funny way of telling you that you should try a different approach.
▪ You've got a funny way of going on, I must say.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
darkly funny/humorous/comic
▪ The show is a darkly comic look at medicine, money and morality.
▪ Social Blunders, which follows the romantic misadventures of 33-year-old Sam Callahan, is a darkly comic romp through heartache.
not remotely interested/funny/possible etc
▪ Life-ways are opened up which are not remotely possible, even in analogous terms, to any other species.
sb doesn't do nice/funny/sensible etc
wise/wily/funny/weird etc old bird
▪ I hadn't noticed what a weird old bird Ned was, either.
▪ Just so. Funny old bird.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "Your keys aren't here." "That's funny - I'm sure I left them on the table."
▪ Come on, sit on my lap and I'll tell you a funny story.
▪ Did you like 'Notting Hill'? I thought it was hilariously funny.
▪ He can be pretty funny when he's had a few drinks.
▪ I always thought that was a funny place to have a house.
▪ It's funny that he managed to hit the ball because he never hits it in practice.
▪ It was the funniest story I'd ever heard.
▪ The goat was chasing Mark round and round the field - it was so funny.
▪ There's a funny smell coming from Pete's room.
▪ There's something funny going on here.
▪ You'll like Alan - he's really funny.
▪ You look really funny in that hat..
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A funny girl, he said, and the loveliest teeth he'd ever seen on anybody.
▪ Such incidents were not always so funny at the time, though, in retrospect we always had a good laugh.
▪ The funniest one was the horse.
▪ This penetrating study of a drunken drop-out, yearning for oblivion, is both ridiculously funny and painfully sad.
▪ You couldn't make up stuff that was funnier, or sadder.