As mentioned earlier, the repetition used in the villanelle is often considered ideal for light verse. The same is true of the triolet. Repetition can be used to intensify the mood of a work, and if that work is funny to begin with, repeating a good line or two might make the audience enjoy it more.

This technique is often used by entertainers in various fields where a line gets a laugh, so they bring it back later in the show. It doesn’t even have to be funny in and of itself, so long as the audience gets the joke and the repetition. In their famous Carnegie Hall concert The Weavers kept repeating a line from “Greensleeves.” It became funny in context, or in this case, by being out of context.

As with all of these suggestions, there is also another side. Just because you repeat something doesn’t make it funny, and you can repeat something to the point where it becomes boring.