> Good point. It's like when I say something at
>work in a normal, even voice that is intended to
>be funny and everyone looks at me horrified. They
>don't expect it from me, so when I do it everyone
>just stares, thinking whatever I am joking about
>is serious. I'm fond of deadpan humor, but when I
>try it I tend to cause people's hearts to skip
>beats.
>

The problem here is that you have not yet cultivated an image for yourself as a humorous person. Dead pan humor, coming from a person not seen as humorous, ends up looking like non-humor. Bob Newhart is the king of deadpan humor. But it only works for him because people *expect* him to be funny, so they laugh at his deadpan humor jokes. If nobody knew he was funny, they'd probably think he was crazy or something.

So what you need to do is be more like Bob Newhart. Get youre own self-titled TV show (or four) that is billed as a situation comedy. Then everyone will recognize your dead-pan humor for what it is.