Sense of humour

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The Elves seemed to have favoured irony and tongue-in-cheek wordplay as opposed to the slapstick Hobbits prefered. Dwarves were heavily into prop-comics.

Actually, Elves often seem to be joking around. In the Hobbit they laugh at and mock the silly Dwarves and Bilbo ('watch out or he''ll eat all the cookies'). Another example of Elvish humour is when Bilbo wants the Rivendell folk to judge his song and pick put which lines are his and which ones are Aragorn's:

Originally Posted by FotR

...They're as different as peas and apples [said Bilbo]
'Maybe. To sheep other sheep no doubt appear different,' laughed Lindir. 'Or to shepheards. But Mortals have not been our study. We have other business.'

I'd guess Elves really felt that Hobbits and such were rather dull and that their simple and direct sense of humour was below them, sort of like how most adults view the jokes of little children.