dry humor

'Dry humour' is humour delivered with a flat, deadpan tone — no obvious laughter cues, no exaggerated facial expressions, often with sarcasm or understatement. British, Scandinavian and Australian comedy lean dry. If your teen says someone has a dry sense of humour, they mean the person is funny in an understated, deadpan way. Harmless observational vocabulary; a positive descriptor in most contexts.

'Dry humour' (also 'dry humor' in American spelling) is a comedy style characterised by flat, deadpan delivery, understatement and often sarcasm or irony — with no exaggerated cues that something is meant as a joke. British, Scandinavian and Australian comedy traditions lean toward this style. Register: neutral-to-positive, semi-formal. In formal writing acceptable as-is. A common learner mistake is to confuse it with humourlessness; dry humour is genuinely funny but requires the audience to recognise the joke without performative cues.