Ambrose Bierce, b. 1842, author of The Devil’s Dictionary. Bierce was irreverent and cynical, but funny. Here are some samples of his wit from The Devil’s Dictionary:

AUSTRALIA, n.
A country lying in the South Sea, whose industrial and commercial development has been unspeakably retarded by an unfortunate dispute among geographers as to whether it is a continent or an island.
BACCHUS, n.
A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk.
CONSERVATIVE, n.
A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
DELUGE, n.
A notable first experiment in baptism which washed away the sins (and sinners) of the world.
EDUCATION, n.
That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
FORK, n.
An instrument used chiefly for the purpose of putting dead animals into the mouth.
GNOSTICS, n.
A sect of philosophers who tried to engineer a fusion between the early Christians and the Platonists. The former would not go into the caucus and the combination failed, greatly to the chagrin of the fusion managers.
HASH, x.
There is no definition for this word — nobody knows what hash is.
INSURANCE, n.
An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.
KLEPTOMANIAC, n.
A rich thief.
LAUGHTER, n.
An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable. Liability to attacks of laughter is one of the characteristics distinguishing man from the animals — these being not only inaccessible to the provocation of his example, but impregnable to the microbes having original jurisdiction in bestowal of the disease. Whether laughter could be imparted to animals by inoculation from the human patient is a question that has not been answered by experimentation
MISFORTUNE, n.
The kind of fortune that never misses.
NEWTONIAN, adj.
Pertaining to a philosophy of the universe invented by Newton, who discovered that an apple will fall to the ground, but was unable to say why. His successors and disciples have advanced so far as to be able to say when.
OPERA, n.
A play representing life in another world, whose inhabitants have no speech but song, no motions but gestures and no postures but attitudes.
PAINTING, n.
The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.
QUOTIENT, n.
A number showing how many times a sum of money belonging to one person is contained in the pocket of another — usually about as many times as it can be got there.
RASH, adj.
Insensible to the value of our advice.
SENATE, n.
A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.
TURKEY, n.
A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating.
UN-AMERICAN, adj.
Wicked, intolerable, heathenish.