Ive thought about a similiar thing like this before but more along the lines of - What makes a person funny?
WARNING LONG ANSWER?
The first time that question poped up was when i was in my 8th grade algebra class after school handing in my late work due to a track competition. The teacker asks "So how was the competition?". Me: "Good. We all did pretty good on the Relay. I got 3rd on the 400m. Though we also got sunburnt cause there were no benches". He starts laughing which surprises me because from all the short conversations we had throughtout the year, he had never laughed to anything i had said, i never had an intention of doing so at that moment or past conversations but it seemed that something caused it this time. I walked home wondering about that. Didnt form many conclusions from it so it remained dormant for a while. At the time my humor consisted of jokes by youtube gamers aka Pewdiepie (circa 2015), the occasional comedy special my parents would allow me to watch with them, and my friends humor. To say the least it was not very refined.
A thing to note, or at least that I take into account was that i had yet to reach puberty, actually hitting it the summer before high school started, ill get back to that later. I take this into account because i had yet to reach the stage where i wanted to talk to girls therfore i had little care in what i said or did, basically no care about social status. “Sex, Aggression, and Humour: Responses to Unicycling", a collection of responses given by men and women of different ages to a man unicycling. Basically it semmed that the responses were harsher from men, especially those that were around the age of puberty. Unlike those of women who were more supportive and those of children who were inquisitive of the unicycle. Middle School, i think for all of us who have gone through it was basically where we got to figure out who were personality wise. And with a bunch of kids hitting puberty, there is agression between kids, which is funneled into action (fight), nothing (insecurity/ sadness), verbal (beggining of wits). Violence is seen as not the answer, especially in our society, so its not the foundation for wit, doing nothing could lead to verbal aggression which i think is the foundation since its basically of who can outdo each other. Ex: "I fucked your mom last night". This heightens when it becomes passive agressive which requires more thinking, since bad language is not tolerated in the classroom.
As mentioned before, the summer before highschool i had hit puberty, so with all mentioned above, my humor skills were not that great. I had come to a comclusion over what had made my Algebra teacher laugh, pessimism, though it was still a bit vague about it. There was a introduction camp during summer for the highschool i was going to give us a tour and meet the teachers and our new peers. It was one of those apply and get interviewed highschools, and i came from one of the more "ghetto" middle schools, so i knew nobody. But this is where i ran into my second "clue". We had been assigned a teacher and she had given us an activity, which was for us to write a secret of ours in a peice of paper, crumble it up, throw it somewhere in the room, and pick a ramdom cumbled peice in the floor after that to read to the class. I didnt know what to write so i chatted with the person sitting next to me. "Im not sure what i should write. I have a coke addiction. I think i drink too much coca cola." Made a few people chcukle but didnt have time to disect the whole thing. Finally with the thing in mind, i scribble it into the paper, and waited until the teacher rold us to throw it. After we all had a peice, we went in an order of opening the paper and reading it out loud. There was a small german girl (who i would later be friends with) who was sitting two seats to my right. She had my paper, and i knew this because she had read my secret "I am bisexual". With commenst being "What she say? I didnt hear her". My frst thought when i heard her was "you stupid bitch", i had found out about my sexual preferences over the summer, and i was proud so i wasnt afraid of people knowing, though hesistant. In heindsight, im glad only a few people heard her. With my mood down and with the hormonal changes to my voice, i read my peice of paper "I hate my Dad" with my monotone voice which had the vigor of a crippled looking at a flight of stairs. The room bursts out in laughter. Confusion in my part. This lead me to - Presentation
After the introduction camp ended, i got into deep thought about the presentation of a joke, timing, physical movements, tone of voice, etc. I wasnt trying to be comedian, i just had free time before highschool started so i watched the comedy specials which i hadnt been allowed to watch before.
To end this whole thing: Highschool Funny Guys Summarized
So there were four main guys in my highschool who had humor. There was Mormon Chad or M.C, Small Chad (Small guy) or S.C, Italian Chad (Idk if he was Italian, but he made a lasaña joke once) or I.C, and Prick Chad (i think he was a prick so) or P.C. To start off, Mormon Chad's humor was that which basically steryotyped being "gay" which made me chuckle once, but was basically the kind of humor written by a yaoi author or teen girl. The "hes my boyfriend" kind of thing which may be bias in my analysis, but i think gay jokes can be done right, but fall horribly when done wrong. Prick Chads humor was also more of using memes and such to make jokes, which i termed the Carlos Mencia. Dont get me wrong, he did make me chuckle with his jokes once in a while, and i did try to get to know the guy but he just came off as a prick who made jokes similiar to fornite jokes.
The last two, Italian Chad and Small Chad, they were witty, or at least funny. Italian Chad used more ohysucal movement to exagerate and get a point accrosed which would make joke halerious. He was an asshole sometimes, an opinion not only shared by others too, but his humor was redeeming. Italian Chad had no self depricating humor, something only M.C and S.C used. Which is a flaw since his asshole personality wouldnt do him right when he got critized, the lack of self deprication making his sense of understanding or looking for a common ground less likely. Small Chad, on the other hand was very self depricating, using his stature to his advantage. Very popular with girls. Also very witty with quick remarks and fast paced thinking. A large ego though, need to be the center of attention, and not somone to get in their way.
I guess i write all of this, to say that experince in life have an impact. Italian Chad and Small Chad had divorced parents and family problems, so maybe their home affairs led to fast thinking or the need of quick responses during arguments. I can definitely say that their jokes were much better than those from kids who tented to come from stable families. But this is probably flawed thinking. I do think that just having live experinces increases your ability to have a cache of things to draw from. Comedians have said that their best material came during times when they were still out doing regular jobs and completely unknown. I would suggest you do research on live host shows, since they tend to make jokes (often exagerate) on the spot, aside from the written jokes.
Not sure if i answered the question.