What Makes Funny Funny
| "Funny Stories and Plays: What Makes Them Funny?" | |
By: David Zakheim
12/21/2011
|
David Zakheim
Funny Stories and Plays: What Makes Them Funny?
“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it” (White). One shouldn’t question comedy and what is funny to people. As soon as that happens all of the funniness disappears. There is no easy answer to why people laugh at things, and why things are funny. Something is funny because it captures a moment whether it’s expected or unexpected, familiar or not. There are four theories as to what humor is and what makes people laugh. The first theory is the “incongruity theory”. From this theory we learn that the explanation for finding things funny comes from the idea that people laugh when they are surprised. The second theory of humor includes the "superiority theory," which claims people laugh in the face of other people's misfortune, mistakes, or even stupidity. Examples of this theory would be “blonde jokes” and modern day prank shows like “Jackass”. The third theory of humor is called the “relief theory”, which asserts that "funny' comes from fear. One study purposely startled test subjects with a convincing fake rat, ending with a lot of relieved laughter. Finally, a recent theory called the "benign violation theory" hypothesizes that people laugh when they are harmlessly violated. This could mean anything from tickling, which most people hate but still laugh at, to vulgar stereotype-based humor. Comedy origins began in Ancient Greece and were one of the final three principal dramatic forms of classic Greek theater the others tragedy and satyr plays. “Comedy first took shape in Megaris and Sicyon, whose people were noted for their coarse humor and sense of the ludicrous, while Susarion, the earliest comic poet, was a native of a Megarian town. Comedy arose from the Phallic processions of the Greeks, as did
By: David Zakheim
12/21/2011
|
David Zakheim
Funny Stories and Plays: What Makes Them Funny?
“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it” (White). One shouldn’t question comedy and what is funny to people. As soon as that happens all of the funniness disappears. There is no easy answer to why people laugh at things, and why things are funny. Something is funny because it captures a moment whether it’s expected or unexpected, familiar or not. There are four theories as to what humor is and what makes people laugh. The first theory is the “incongruity theory”. From this theory we learn that the explanation for finding things funny comes from the idea that people laugh when they are surprised. The second theory of humor includes the "superiority theory," which claims people laugh in the face of other people's misfortune, mistakes, or even stupidity. Examples of this theory would be “blonde jokes” and modern day prank shows like “Jackass”. The third theory of humor is called the “relief theory”, which asserts that "funny' comes from fear. One study purposely startled test subjects with a convincing fake rat, ending with a lot of relieved laughter. Finally, a recent theory called the "benign violation theory" hypothesizes that people laugh when they are harmlessly violated. This could mean anything from tickling, which most people hate but still laugh at, to vulgar stereotype-based humor. Comedy origins began in Ancient Greece and were one of the final three principal dramatic forms of classic Greek theater the others tragedy and satyr plays. “Comedy first took shape in Megaris and Sicyon, whose people were noted for their coarse humor and sense of the ludicrous, while Susarion, the earliest comic poet, was a native of a Megarian town. Comedy arose from the Phallic processions of the Greeks, as did