Tuesday, July 22, 2008
"Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." -- E.B. White
I think one of the funniest things I ever saw was a book on my former employer Harley Hahn's shelf titled "On Humor". It was brown, coverless, withered, and stale.In a way, it's fitting: trying to figure out humor is such a depressing topic; I usually just keep it to myself, but, it's on my mind, so it's on my blog :)
What are your opinions or theories on what makes something funny? Why do we sense funniness? What's the purpose? Do only humans understand jokes? If so, could humor just be some useless biological quirk like hiccups? -- a reaction developed by drinking carbonated consciousness too quickly?It just seems strange that of all things to which we would evolve an uncontrollable physical response, the recognition of situational irony would be among them.
Here's a list of observations that were useful to me in coming up with a theory:
- Explaining a joke ruins it
- Some things are only funny because they weren't intended to be
- Irony or juxtaposition can be tragic and humorless. What is the secret ingredient?
- "It's funny cuz it's true"
- A funny situation that happened to your roommate's boss's nephew is not as funny as the situation that happened to you
- Delivery is as much, or more, important than content
- Hearing a joke from someone you don't think has a good sense of humor makes you less likely to think it's funny.
- We don't laugh much by ourselves.
- "You had to be there"
- We laugh at misfortune sometimes, sympathetic to it at others
And just for old tyme yucks, here's the oldest joke in the world (literally).
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3 Comments:
I'd say the main thing is that something has to be both familiar and shocking at the same time. That is, it has to be something the audience has experienced or thought of, but it also has to be racy enough that most people would not say it out loud. An example might be: "You know when you're taking a crap, and you pinch too soon? It's like you're trying to convince your butt to not pinch but you can't control it, and you get that big, solid pinch, right at the thickest part of the crap. You know you're going to have to use a whole roll of toilet paper after one of those." This is something we've all experienced, we can all think back to one of those times, but it's also something most would be embarrassed to talk about. I think that's why jokes tend to be crude, and full of topics such as race, sex, toilet humor, stereotypes etc...topics we generally shy away from in our every day conversations, yet we've all experienced or thought about countless times.
Peter said:
"I think that's why jokes tend to be crude..."
Is that why their called "yucks"? =)
Interesting post. I'll agree with Peter, and go a few steps further: Ultimately all humor is based on irony; it is an expression of our anxiety with a perceived incongruity. Generally, for laughter to be produced there needs be a social dynamic. Laughter is a variety of social conciliation in the face of the uncertainty produced by an ironic circumstance. One of my favorite quotes: "Laughter is an orgasm triggered by the intercourse of sense and nonsense." (Anon) For example, take our relish for taboo humor. Socially-dictated expectations for composure create certain taboos, some which vary cross-culturally. The origin of the taboo isn't especially important here--- what's more interesting is that every culture indoctrinates taboos. They are a universal. So, a violation of a taboo produces a sense of anxiety when we find ourselves in a situation where our expectations have not been met. Now, we little bots prefer things in our everyday to be very sensible, and predictable, and therefore when they aren't, we get upset and start making shit up to mollify our discontent-- religion, sweaters, etc. However, most often we will just turn to others for verification that all is well and fine. Social referencing among children--from child to caretaker--is observable from a very young age. A laugh communicates ease, provides nonverbal consolation, and thus relieves our internal collywobbles. This is why laughter generally takes place in a social setting. So, humor evolved as a pleasure activity shared between intensely social creatures relying on their interactions for survival in a hostile environment. *Laughs* No really, I'm just making this shit up.
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