Aaaand we're back, you can scroll down to view the previous
article where we defined humour and set up the subject of this series of posts.
So let's start by disecting a common phrase that is said
after a lot of good jokes; "That's clever" are clever things funny?
Maybe that's worded wrong, as lots of clever things are decidedly not
humourous, like transformations in the complex plane for instance (quite
possibly the least funny clever thing I've come across), maybe it should be
worded more like are funny things clever? No, a custard pie in the face of the
teacher is not clever, yet it is generally thought of as funny. We won't go
into what 'clever' is in this article and we'll assume it's something that you
need to be knowledgeable or mentally dexterous to work out.
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"Hahahahaha"
- Rob
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And that segways us into another train of thought, maybe a
joke is funny if it is heard in the knowledge that not everyone gets it, and
laughter is the self reward of working out this 'challenge' or the indication
to others that you get the joke and are indeed one of the group? The 'Carry On'
films relied entirely on this as do all 'nerd jokes', "Q: Two cats are on
a roof, which one falls off first? A: The one with the smallest mew (or ยต).
Also compelling is the fact that people laugh less when they are on their own
and more when in a group. This also follows with not necessarily clever 9/11
jokes as it is known that a lot of people won't get the joke at all and simply
see it as offensive. Humanity regards knowledge highly and so to not get a joke
is showing that you lack the knowledge needed to get the joke. And as we know,
laughter is a form of ridicule too. I laugh at your lack of knowledge is maybe
what we are trying to convey. I know for a fact that I've laughed at some
really crap jokes not because they're funny, but because I understand them and
want to make sure that people know that I get it.
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The exception, everyone
gets it, no one laughs (but are you not laughing because I just said no one
else does, why trust me?)
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This nicely links in with something else I've been thinking
of, are jokes just at the expense of others? This encompasses all satire and
lots of shock humour. As people we want to be at the top of the food chain, and
at the top of our species, so if someone else is doing badly it means you are
doing better than them and hence are one step closer to the top. Laughing is
just asserting your authority and showing that you are better than them. This
is why programs like 'you've been framed' work. It also explains why women
don't understand the comic genius that is a kick in the balls. They are simply
not as competitive in general. If we single out a kick in the balls we could go
the full sadist and say that laughing at someone else's testicle damage is your
joy at the chance that they are not going to be able to reproduce, or that pain
in general is funny as more dead people means more resources for you. Or could
it be that as social animals we like to teach each other, laughing at other
people's pain makes sure they remember the thing they did wrong so they don't
do it again, and as a species we learn from the mistakes of others.
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Their dentist is
laughing even harder as he flicks through wads of their cash
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This theory though, however much it works for some things,
doesn't cover wordplay as well as I'd like, and sometimes jokes are at such expense
that they stop becoming funny, for instance really obscure jokes aren't funny
because no one understands them and so there is no shame in not laughing. With
this all said though, knowledge and the losses of others together cover
everything quite well. But we haven't finished just yet.
The context of a joke plays a large part in the 'funnyness'
of jokes, for instance in the film 'Borat', when he sings the Kazak national
anthem to the tune of the USA's one, we find it hilarious as we know that
Americans love their national anthem, but if you're in the crowd when he does
that, you are one unhappy American as you don't understand humour, (at least
not in the British sense). Again I suppose this again ties in with the opinion
of the crowd, the joke is only funny if the majority of people find it funny.
The American example is also interesting if we think of the humour of
nationalities. British people laugh at people, Americans laugh with people, and
Scandinavians laugh at anything. Maybe it's the climate? I don't know and it
would take a separate article to go into so I'll just carry on not knowing.
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| Not meant to happen (see bellow) |
There is one final thing though that I have tried to
condense humour into though, the event where something that isn't meant to
happen, happening. Little absurdities that shouldn't happen in real life yet do
anyway. Pie in the face doesn't happen, hurt testicles don't happen much,
ruining the American national anthem doesn't happen, this even takes into
account wordplay with some imagination as words having two meanings doesn't
happen in normal conversation, for instance Q: Did you hear about the horse
that kicked a player in the football match? A: It was a foal.
So if you've read the whole thing, or are just skipping to
the end, I can roughly conclude that humour is at the expense of others, a
minority of people in any one instance of something humorous don't understand
it and it comes from things that aren't meant to happen.