This paper undertakes a sustained examination of the dynamics and aesthetics of different rhetorical registers and the corresponding functions of humour that emerge from them. It focuses on three distinct figures-- US President Donald Trump, the Chinese novelist Mo Yan and the American non-fiction writer David Sedaris-- whose works and public expressions exemplify divergent modes of humour across political, literary and autobiographical contexts. By situating these figures within established theories of humour, the paper compares how humour operates within different registers and the boundaries between satire and excess.