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Humor Theories

by Don L. F. Nilsen

and Alleen Pace Nilsen

WHIMSY

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Whimsical Don and Alleen

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THE NATURE OF HUMOR

• FEATURES = CHARACTERISTICS

• FUNCTIONS = THE PURPOSE(S)

• SUBJECTS = THE TOPIC(S)

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AN IMPORTANT FEATURE OF HUMOR IS INCONGRUITY AND

INCONGRUITY RES0LUTION

• Consider an umbrella in a severe rain and wind storm.

• We feel tension until we put things right—at least in our mind’s eye—as with the kitten on the next slide.

Machinification: Monorail LOL Cat

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Other Features of Humor

• Ambiguity• Exaggeration• Understatement• Hostility• Incongruity or

Irony• Situation-Insight• Sudden Insight

• Superiority• Surprise or Shock• Tension and

Relief• A Trick or Twist• Word Play• Visual Imagery

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Metaphor: “Pool Table”

Features:

•Ambiguity•Sudden Insight•Surprise•Visual Imagery•Word Play

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Pun: “Eye Pod”

Features

•Ambiguity

•Incongruity

•Surprise

•Visual Imagery

•Word Play

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A century ago, philosopher Thomas Hobbes said that an important feature of humor was laughing at those we feel are inferior to us.

This was known as the “Superiority Theory.”

• Later philosophers, including Frances Hutcheson, argue that what we are really laughing about is incongruity.

• We do not go to asylums to laugh at the “inferior” beings, nor do we laugh at animals unless they resemble human beings.

• We laugh at someone who slips on a banana peel not because we feel superior, but because of the incongruity between our expectations and the sudden insight.

“The Rule of Three” is another common feature of humor illustrated in this cartoon.

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Functions of Humor

PSYCHOLOGICAL•To amuse•To establish superiority•To gain control•To persuade•To save face•To test limits•To inbond/outbond

INTELLECTUAL•To amuse•To teach•To make connections•To compare two scripts—one metaphorical, one straight-forward

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An Important Literary Function relates to Double Entendre.

• “The text of a joke is always fully or in part compatible with two distinct scripts and the two scripts are opposed to each other in a special way.”

• “The punch line triggers the switch from the one script to the other by making the hearer backtrack and realize that a different interpretation [of the joke] was possible from the very beginning.”

Attardo and Raskin [1991] 308

A Real-Life Example of the Usefulness of Two Scripts

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Accidental humor occurs when the creator and the receiver have different scripts in mind.

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The impossibility in this picture causes tension, until we realize that it is a joke.

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The Function of Disparaging Oneself.

Self-disparagement humor illustrates how it is not always easy to recognize the functions of humor. On the surface, it appears to be humbling oneself, but oftentimes the mock-humility really puts the speaker in a position of power as in these commercials:

•Terminex Pest Control: “When you think of pests, think of us.”

•Twist Lemon-Menthol Cigarettes: “Our new menthol is a lemon.”

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• Champion International Trend Carpet: “Eight million people walked all over us. And they don’t even know our name.”

• Quaker Oats as a diet food: “Quaker Oats: Breakfast of losers.”

• Simmons bunk beds: “Simmons beds are a lot of bunk.”

Educators Use Humor To:

• Relax Students• Teach Facts • Argue and Persuade• Teach Vocabulary

Concepts• Teach Careful

Observation• Model Problem

Solving

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This Egg-to-Bird picture first causes tension, followed by a smile of relief as we “catch on.”

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Real vs. Unreal

• This is an amusing lesson in careful observation.

• What are the clues that it is a painting?

• Were such paintings precursors to today’s PhotoShop fun?

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SUBJECTS OF HUMOR

The subjects we joke about are the very subjects that we hesitate to talk about in real life.

To test out the attitudes of new friends, we often send up “trial balloons” disguised as jokes.

– Ethnic Identification

– Politics

– Sexual Roles and Scatology

– Occupations

– Religion and Belief Systems

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What subjects do the two fish

shapes on this car speak to?

Jokes Reveal Current Areas of Social Discomfort

OLD TABOOS

•Vulgarities

•Swear Words

•Body Parts

•Sex

•Religion

•Obscenities

NEW TABOOS

•Lack of Patriotism

•GLBTQ Issues

•Disabilities

•Ethnicities

•Old People

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The epiphany comes in this political joke with the explanation that the maple leaf design is a silhouette of

Jack and Jacque arguing over English vs. French.

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Humor Theory:The Sciences vs. The Humanities

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Hate Speech Vs. Humor

• In conclusion, the subject matter that people choose to joke about goes a long ways in determining whether they are using humor as release of moderate levels of discomfort, or whether they are really engaging in “hate-speech” disguised as humor. This is an area that we will investigate further in other discussions.

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HUMOR WEB SITES *COMEDY SERIOUSLY:http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/comedy/index.cfm

*INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF HUMOR STUDIES (MARTIN LAMPERT):www.humorstudies.org

*ISHS HISTORICAL SITE (DON NILSEN):http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/MathNat/Ruch/SecretaryPage.html