Humor is a seemingly simple, enjoyable construct in life shared and valued by many. Traditionally, humor has been viewed as trivial and lacking substance from an academic and scholarly standpoint. However, humor can be objective in analyzing and answering the same questions philosophers ask, ones that question widely accepted everyday concepts and ideals. The Incongruity Theory reveals the affinity between philosophy and comedy and rebukes the argument that humor is “hostile and irresponsible” (Morreall) in academics.
There are many theories when it comes to humor. The superiority theory of humor argues that people laugh at other’s misfortunes and shortcomings to assert their own superiority (Morreall). Additionally, in the Relief Theory, humor
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Humor is appreciated and accepted when it’s controversial topics and questions are delivered abstractly. This compels an audience to consider thoughts, otherwise overlooked or unaccepted without being directly confronted with them and therefore, more likely to accept and acknowledge these thoughts. Nate Bargatze, a stand-up comic, displays this theory by taking a philosophical stand with a humorous story in many of his stand-ups. In one example from a bit on childhood toys, Bargatze brings up the question of why girls are given toys that imitate household objects and values, such as vacuum cleaners, dolls, and houses, while boys are given unrealistic toys that embody aggression and dominance. While Bargatze makes jokes about the matter, his way of questioning mimics philosophical thinking. Bargatze delivers the concept through a series of jokes that ridicule the toys given to girls; for instance, Bargatze teases “girls would play house, they would fake vacuum. When I see my wife vacuum now, I’m like she is living her childhood dream” (Comedy). Bargatze's satirical tone reveals the irony in providing mundane toys to girls which unintentionally reinforce an aspiration for traditional and rather insignificant goals. Through satire, Bargatze intertwines humor with the philosophical notion that women should not be constrained to the domestic sphere, even through seemingly passive and trivial things such as childhood toys. By ridiculing the concept, the philosophical argument that these such toys promote sexism becomes less forward, thus, the audience doesn’t reject it and instead laughs at it. Therefore, in both comedy and philosophy, ideas are presented to a larger audience for consideration and evaluation; the only difference is the means of which the message is
When there is humor involved people seem to enjoy things way better, the reason for this is that people will
“Everyone has a sense of humor. If you don't laugh at jokes, you probably laugh at opinions.” Once said an American poet, essayist, and existentialist philosopher Criss Jami, Killosophy. I also believe that humor and laugh play a big role in our lives. However, there are two types of people’s personality; people who understand humor and more open minded, and those who just cannot get it, and that, in my opinion, just makes their live harder. The article, “That’s Not Funny” by Caitlin Flanagan, is talking about college students that are not allowed to joke because of comedians restrictiveness in what they are talking
“The practical disengagement of humor…helps explain the opposition between amusement and negative emotions.” (530) There are three effects of humor; irresponsibility, blocking compassion, and promoting prejudice. Humor can take away what we are/should be doing in life and sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with that. Sometimes when we hear a hateful thing we just laugh it off as if it was no big deal when it really was. “An
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
Humor can take many forms, including practical jokes, teasing, insults and self-deprecation. It is a staple of humanity and plays an extremely important role in our psychology as we move throughout life’s stages. In fact, famed philosopher Immanuel Kant placed laughter alongside sleeping and hope as the most beneficial means of renewing the soul. It is commonly perceived as a beneficiary tool for healing and social interaction for everyone, but few have looked at the roles humor plays in the aging process. Meika Loe set out to examine this relationship in her book, Aging Our Way by utilizing several case studies of the elderly of various backgrounds. Loe has identified key case studies to support this hypothesis in Eddie, who uses humor to
Nevo, O., Nevo, B., & Yin, J. L. S. (2001). Singaporean humor: A cross-cultural, cross-gender comparison. The Journal of General Psychology, 128(2), 143-156.
Laughter is associated with positive affects and social appropriateness and is correlated most strongly with the perception of a contribution to health made by a laughter type. The data received from the surveys revealed an interesting pattern, according to the researchers. The results suggest that young adults, relative to the older participants, saw high-volume, less controlled laughter as more healthful. The older, but not younger, participants indicated that social appropriateness is an important attribute of health promoting laughter. Both groups indicated that positive emotion was an important attribute. In sum, the laughter types perceived as most beneficial by the older group can be described as gentler, kinder, and less active; preferences of the young adults are greater volume and movement. There have been many changes in the social norms governing types of humor and responses to humor that are acceptable. (The Journal of Psychology, Mahony, Burroughs, & Lippman pg. 179) Mora-Ripholl hypothesized that it is necessary to discriminate between variables of laughter, as many analyses of humor have used a humor stimulus, for example a comic movie, to determine the effect of "humor" on a health-related outcome, and others look categorically at the effects of laughter on these conclusions. Still others explore different ways to test sense of humor in an attack to analyze whether scoring higher on a sense-of-humor scale is associated with certain health outcomes. (Mora-Ripoll pg.
According to Everything’s an Argument by Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz, “Humor has always played an important role in argument…” (38). Humor itself is something that activates amusement or laughter. Moreover, in popular culture satire is a tool that is used to point out things in our society. Satire opens the minds of people to philosophies they might completely deny, using humor. There are many elements of satire that identify flaws within our society. A couple of satire elements that will be discussed are irony and exaggeration. In addition, a parody is used in popular culture as a way to mock or mimic situation or person.
Psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists study humor because it is a fundamental culture value, but they still can’t determine why certain things make some people laugh and others not. There are “humor quotient” tests that are designed to measure an individual’s sense of humor, but these tests are questionable. These tests aren’t accurate because almost all humor depends on cultural background knowledge and language skills. Not every person in the whole world, or even in one country share the same background knowledge and skills, therefore they cannot have the same type of humor. “The fact remains that individuals vary in their appreciation of humor” (Rappoport 9). Since humor varies from individual to individual, humor lies in the individual. How successful or funny a joke is depends on how the person receives the joke, humor cannot be measured by a statistical
In Alain de Botton’s book, Status Anxiety, he argues that the aim of humorists is not solely entertainment, but also to convey a message that isn’t always okay to state directly. There are many places where his argument can apply. Even with humor, some topics are still too controversial to joke about; However, in most cases, humor can lighten things up and make it easier to discuss topics that otherwise would not be as easy to talk about without heavy arguments. There are many cases that would make his argument true. There are many examples that support his argument, and that help to show the importance of humor in arguing, including cartoons, comics, works of literature, and also when thinking of hosts of television programs.
Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults, such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental. As technology advances, people are adapting and becoming more reliant upon it.
James Conroy argues that laughter in serious topics has been regarded through the ages as dangerous, deviant, and subversive; yet equally as refreshing, challenging, and constructive. Political humor is extensively used in almost all countries, but political satire is perceived differently from one country to another. The research question is as follows: what factors make political satire an effective tool that affects politics and policy? I argue that humor is more influential when blended with serious topics, such as international relations or politics. Laughter is a great means to put serious topics under the lenses of critical thinking. The use of humor, and political satire specifically can bring about serious political change. Humor can play all sorts of roles in the political process through being informative, educational and influential while keeping its captive entertaining
Several cognitive theorists in the 1970s were of the view that the incongruity must be resolved, so that, it may be perceived as funny. Such a view of humor was known as “incongruity-resolution theories” which theorized that in order to “get a joke”, the incongruity in joke must be resolved. Suls (1972) proposed a ‘two-stage model’ according to which the ability to comprehend humor is crucially dependent upon the ability to resolve the incongruity between the punch line and the expectations shaped by the storyline. According to the theory, humor is divided into two different states: surprise and coherence. Surprise is a feeling generated by an unexpected situation. To comprehend a joke, however, one must go beyond the state of surprise and formulate a new, coherent interpretation of the information. This theory views humor as a problem solving task. The incongruity in the situation is resolved by transforming it into a congruous one. Shultz (1976) also proposed a theory that humour is created by a multistage process in which an initial incongruity is created, and then some further information causes that incongruity to be
Humor is the tendency to look at things from the mirthful or incongruous side. It is the quality that makes something laughable or amusing. Humor is the ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing or comical. It is the source of laughter and the catalyst of smiles. Humor is the spark that lights our eyes as well as the cause of tears that never grows old. Humor is a state of mind.
Writers at the time such as Aristophanes and Menander wrote comedy similarly to how we do today, mocking politicians, fellow writers, and Greek philosophers (Mark Cartwright). The word ‘comedy’ is derived from Middle English, from Medieval Latin comoedia, from Latin, ‘drama with a happy ending’ (Merriam-Webster). This joyful type of performance may be why we commonly use the word ‘comedy’ to talk about jokes, humor, and hilarious performers. Comedy is meant to bring us joy and relief from reality’s negativity. Mary O’Hara wrote about comedy for a BBC article titled “How Comedy Makes us Better People”: “Comedy is more than just a pleasant way to pass an evening, humour more than something to amuse. They’re interwoven into the fabric of our everyday existence. Whether you’re sharing an amusing story down the pub, making a self-deprecating joke after someone pays you a compliment or telling a dark joke at a funeral, humour is everywhere. (O’Hara)” This is certainly an accurate statement about modern comedy. Comedy is not sadness, but rather a way to forget the woes of everyday life. What is the point in humorous incidents and ridiculous jokes if they do not make a person smile or laugh so hard their gut