Comedic Timing, Timeliness or Timelessness?

I recently listened to a panel on comedic writing. Not the stand up comedy or screenplay type, but the type intended to be read. Now, I am not an expert on this, or any subject for that matter, nor am I particularly funny (on purpose), but something was left out of the discussion that has kind of been on my mind, so I thought I would mention it here. Comedy is one of those things that people can't really put their finger on to define, so they try to lay down 'rules' to help understand it. The rule I have…