Jason: You know, a funny thing happened to me on the way here. I was walking along High Street and slipped on a banana peel. After that, I walked into a bar and ran into an old friend.

Shelley: You know, that’s really not funny.

Jason: That’s a good point. But comedy is an art form that is tricky to perfect. Even many of the greatest comedians spent years working the circuits mastering their material before finding their comedic voice.

Shelley: There’s quite a fine line between funny and hideously awful. Unfortunately most comedians start out by trying so hard to be funny they can’t raise above the awful.

Jason: But the worst is when a formerly funny comic turns family friendly, and thus, not funny. Jeff Foxworthy, Tim Allen, John Leguizamo and Rosie O’Donnell all used to do great stand-up back in the day. Not anymore.

Shelley: Case in point – Bob Saget. The minute he landed a role in “Full House,” he started losing credibility by the joke. His “humor” did little to improve the already dull “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and has since earned him a place as the butt of many jokes.

Jason: Very few of which were funny. You have to be a pretty miserable comedian in order to spoil jokes that make fun of you. But getting back to “Full House,” which was lame, of course, it did feature sidekick Dave Coulier, who was awesome in the ’80s Nickelodeon puppet series “Out of Control,” which along with “You Can’t Do That On Television,” made Nick the channel to watch back in the day.

Shelley: Sidekicks often turn out to be the glue that holds the comedy together. Look at Conan O’Brien. He’s a pretty amusing guy on his own, but “Late Night” has definitely gone downhill since the departure of Andy Richter. Their playful banter was always the high point of the show.

Jason: I didn’t really think much of “Sidekicks” myself. Jonathan Brandis and Chuck Norris don’t make a good comic pair. Although “SeaQuest: DSV” was absolutely hysterical. But while advanced machines usually equal comic gold, other robotic humor doesn’t quite satisfy. Two examples of this are Comedy Central’s “Battlebots” and The National Network’s “Robot Wars.” Unless the robots are trading sarcastic barbs with a dim-witted hero, they are comically useless.

Shelley: Puppets, on the other hand, are an example of non-humans who never fail to entertain. Look at Comedy Central’s newest hit “Crank Yankers,” featuring real crank calls acted out through puppets. And, of course, the Muppets are among the greatest comics of our generation.

Jason: So as the instruments of comedy become more advanced, the level of humor declines. Glorified socks are zany, while technological terrors are as boring and flaccid as Bob Dole. But one thing the former Senator from Kansas might agree with is popular humor is sometimes too crude. Howard Stern was once innovative, but how funny is it to hear a pathetic, sexually frustrated loudmouth hit on half-naked girls half his age?

Shelley: The age-old problem with comedy is what one person finds hilarious, others inevitably find offensive. “Beavis and Butthead” and “Ren and Stimpy,” two early-’90s comedic gems, are unfairly dismissed by some as low class.

Jason: Those shows were funny. Low class humor generally isn’t. Critics have taken shots at shows such as “The Simpsons,” “Saturday Night Live” or “South Park” or films such as “Dumb and Dumber,” “Tommy Boy” or “Austin Powers” for hitting bottom in exchange for some chuckles, but the cleverness of these works have led to their staying power.

Shelley: In the end, the surefire way to make someone laugh is to talk with a foreign accent, which is why British humor is always great. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” wins my award for Most Quotable Lines Which Never Fail to Amuse. Accents also add a whole new level to dialogue – half the fun of movies like “Snatch” is trying to decipher what everyone is saying.

Jason: Well, I agree. But I never got Benny Hill. Ladies running around in underwear should be funny, but I’ve never laughed once.

Shelley: The toughest type of comedy is written humor. Dave Barry is phenomenal, churning out original, quirky columns every week for the past decade or so. But the problem is humor is difficult to translate into print, and many end up coming off as derivative.

Jason: Um, Shelley. I think that might be a sensitive subject for us.

Lantern arts editor Shelley Davis always laughs at “The Muppet Movie” and David Sedaris. E-mail her at [email protected]. Jason Mann, a senior in journalism, always laughs at Douglas Adams and “The Princess Bride.” E-mail him at [email protected]. They would both like to apologize to robots for any offense they might have caused.