why is a sense of humour so important

8/3/2019 Why is a Sense of Humour So Important

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Why is a sense of humour so

important for the British?By the end of this class, please answer

this question.

Mgu.joff.jp 222 words by Saturday23:59:59



• World-play - allusion, euphemism

• Sexual – suggestiveness

•

Sense of the ridiculousness• “Jokes are silly but you have to laugh”

• The laugh that laughs at itself



Ｗｈａｔｄｏｙｏｕｔｈｉｎｋ she is

saying? Friday 22nd April, 03:17 PM JST



Japan protests over IHT Snow White

cartoon about nuclear crisis • Friday 22nd April, 03:17 PM JST

• NEW YORK —

• Japan’s Consulate General in New York lodged a protest with New York Times Co on Thursday forpublishing a cartoon in which Snow White, carrying a newspaper with the headline ‘‘Japan nuclearradiation,’’ asks an old woman offering an apple if she comes from Japan.

• The consulate said that since the cartoon refers to a story in Grimm’s Fairy Tales in which SnowWhite falls into a stupor after biting a poisoned apple, it may stir up what the consulate called

unfounded anxieties over the safety of foods from Japan.• The cartoon was carried on the editorial page of the International Herald Tribune, which is owned

by the New York Times, in its Thursday edition.

• In the cartoon Snow White looks skeptically at the apple through a magnifying glass and says to theold woman, who is dressed like a witch, ‘‘Wait a minute! Do you come from Japan?’‘

• The cartoon was credited to Luojie of the English-language China Daily. It was not immediatelyknown whether it appeared first in the Chinese paper before being reprinted in the InternationalHerald Tribune.

•Deputy Consul General Yasuhisa Kawamura said consumers do not have to worry about the safetyof foods from Japan because they have cleared adequate radiation checks both in Japan and theUnited States.

• The newspaper publisher responded that it took the protest seriously, according to the ConsulateGeneral.



Differences

• What is the difference between laughter,

humour, wit?

• Is British humour just different from the

humour of other countries?



Ｓｔｅｒｅｏｐｔｙｐｅｓ



Ｂｒｉｔｉｓｈｎｅｓｓ

• You can tell I’m British because...

• I live in the past

• I don’t care what people think

•I’m a different person when the sun’s out

• I’m not bothered about a bit of dust

• I never refuse a drink

• I don’t speak a foreign language

• I’m lost without my dog

• I wouldn’t live anywhere else



ＰｏｓｔｃａｒｄｏｆＢｒｉｔｓＡｂｒｏａｄ



What is laughter?

• Laughter is evolutionary.

• It helps to make fun of those in power

•

To bring down their arrogance

• It is to ridicule

• Self-deprecating humour



Allusion

• “Allusion” is the noun form of the English

verb “to allude.”

• “Allude” comes from Latin “ad-” plus “ludere”

meaning “to play.”



Quotes

• THOMAS HOBBES:

• THOMAS HOBBES Laughter is 'the sudden

glory arising from the sudden conception of

some eminency in ourselves, by comparison

with the infirmity of others.' (Leviathan, 1651)

•



•

WILLIAM HAZLITT:

• WILLIAM HAZLITT 'The essence of the laughable

is the incongruous, the disconnecting one ideafrom another, or the jostling of one feeling

against another.' (Lecturers on the Comic Writers,

Etc. of Great Britain, 1819)•



•

SIGMUND FREUD:

• SIGMUND FREUD Laughter arises from 'the

release of previously existing static energy.'

(Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious,

1905) (Nilsen andamp; Nilsen 185)



33 15

METONYMY

• Metonymy occurs when something is named for a qualitythat is in some way associated with the item.

• In the days of CB radios, people often chose “handles” that

were descriptive of their physical characteristics or theirhobbies

• Today with e-mail and the Internet some people choose

nicknames that are metonymous.



33 16

OXYMORON

• Oxymoron comes from two Greek words oxys meaning“sharp” and moros meaning “foolish or dull.”

• This paradox or contradiction can be seen in such expressionsas Icy-Hot (an arthritis medicine) , Cool Fire (a line of shoes) ,and Soft Brick (a floor covering).

• An article in People Magazine (March 3, 1986) about WarrenS. Blumenfeld, who brought oxymorons to the attention of

the general public, contains fourteen oxymorons:



Samuel Beckett, Watt

•

• Of all the laughs that strictly speaking are not laughs, but modes of ululation, only three I thinkneed detain us, I mean the bitter, the hollow and the mirthless. They correspond to successive…how shall I say successive… suc… successive excoriations of the understanding, and the passagefrom the one to the other is the passage from the lesser to the greater, from the lower to the higher,from the outer to the inner, from the gross to the fine, from the matter to the form. The laugh thatnow is mirthless once was hollow, the laugh that once was hollow once was bitter. And the laughthat once was bitter? Eyewater, Mr. Watt, eyewater. But do not let us waste our time with that. . . .

The bitter, the hollow and—Haw! Haw!— the mirthless. The bitter laugh laughs at that which isnot good, it is the ethical laugh. The hollow laugh laughs at that which is not true, it is theintellectual laugh. Not good! Not true! Well well. But the mirthless laugh is the dianoetic laugh,down the snout—Haw!—so. It is the laugh of laughs, the risus purus, the laugh laughing at thelaugh, the beholding, the saluting of the highest joke, in a word the laugh that laughs—silenceplease—at that which is unhappy.

•

• Ululateほえる; 〈フクロウが〉ホーホー鳴く.

• dianoetic - logical rather than intuitive thought processes; intellectual activity.•



the risus purus, the highest laugh.

•

• Simon Critchley

•

• For me, it is this smile - deriding the having and the not having, thepleasure and the pain, the sublimity and suffering of the human

situation - that is the essence of humour. This is the risus purus, thehighest laugh, the laugh that laughs at the laugh, that laughs at thatwhich is unhappy, the mirthless laugh of the epigraph to this book.Yet, this smile does not bring unhappiness, but rather elevation andliberation, the lucidity of consolation. This is why, melancholyanimals that we are, human beings are also the most cheerful. We

smile and find ourselves ridiculous. Our wretchedness is ourgreatness.



• there is something melancholic at the heart of humour

• structure of melancholia and the structure of humour are the samestructure.

•

• Freud Melancholia is the relationship that the subject takes up with

respect to itself from the position of what he calls conscience or what helater calls the super-ego.

•

• And that can be lacerated - if you think of the anorexic who seesthemselves from the perspective of the image they have, of the imagethey have of themselves in the mirror which is false - that would be the

super-ego.•

• Super-ego is what generates depression and it is what has to be dealtwith in psychoanalysis.



Freud

• Later Freud, the essence of humour is the

ability to look at myself and find myself

ridiculous.



• pathology of humour is the same pathology as that of melancholia ordepression

•

• BUT humour can transform that experience of wretchedness intosomething elevating, and liberating

•

• people find themselves ridiculous but can rise above the wretchedness

•

• It is normal to say about humour that it is good to laugh at yourself andnot good to laugh at others - that is the ethical headline of the book.

•

• That's the place where I begin: everybody's an expert when it comes tohumour. What humour feeds off is a tacit knowledge, an implicitknowledge of the social world that we have.



vocabulary

• Scepticism 懐疑懐疑論[説];無神論

• lampoon 風刺文[詩],落首.風刺文[詩]で風刺する.

• insult 侮辱行為,無礼なこ

• controversial 議論の;論争の的になる

• symbolise象徴する

• satirical風刺の,風刺的な

• satire風刺,皮肉

• irony皮肉

• politically （in）correct ポリティカル・コレクトネス

• 政治的に正しくない、中立的な表現でない

• without barriers さく,障壁 ~のない

• Self-parody, 風刺[嘲弄(ちょうろう)]的もじり詩文,パロディー

• ふうし風刺 (a) satire; a lampoon (軽い)風刺する satirize; lampoon

• ちょうろう嘲弄 • ridicule; derision; mockery嘲弄する laugh at; ridicule; deride; scoff at; make a fool of.

• Self-mockery あざけり,冷やかし:hold…up to～〈人・ものを〉あざ笑う.

• あざ笑いの的,笑いもの

• Censorship検閲官の職[職権,任期

• freedom of expression表現,言論[出版]の自由

• European integration

• ＥＵの統合;完成

• provocation 挑発,怒らすこと;立腹,憤激

• cynical humour,皮肉な,冷笑的な,世をすねた冷笑的なユーモア

• mosaicモザイク.

• Grotesque hyperbole 怪奇な,異様な,グロテスクな誇張,こちょう誇張

• (an) exaggeration; (an) overstatement誇張する exaggerate; overstate/誇張して exaggeratingly;

• indulgence たんでき耽溺 addiction• urination 排尿

• Minaret (イスラム教寺院の)ミナレット,光塔

• とう塔a tower; a pagoda (仏寺などの); a steeple (尖塔)

• Swastika 1まんじ (卍) #十字架の変形;昔は幸運をもたらす印とされた#.

• 2かぎ十字ナチスドイツの国章#.#サンスクリット語「幸運」の意

• DraculaドラキュラB.A.Stokerの小説の主人公で吸血鬼

• jingoism (盲目的な)愛国主義,主戦論しゅせんろん主戦論 support for advocacy of] war.主戦論者a war advocate; 〈集合的〉 the pro-war party.

• Cliché決まり文句.

• False identity (不正)独自性,主体性,本性

why is a sense of humour so important

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