Class Notes 5-1

Class Notes

Feb 21^st – March 4^th

Topic 1 Humor and Comedy!

1.   “Theories of Humor and Comedy”

• Comedy causes people to express the spirit of carnival that is a time of pleasure subverting the normal social rules of the hegemony through laughter and chaos.

• Comedy is not always funny; its real view of life is not optimistic

• Comedy and Tragedy: In tragedy the individual retains integrity even in death; in comedy the individual is made to conform.

• Six elements that are required for something to be humorous (all six of them should be fulfilled at one time):

1)      It must appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions;

2)      It must be mechanical;

3)      It must be inherently human, with the capacity of reminding us of humanity;

4)      There must be a set of established societal norms with which the observer is familiar, either through everyday life or through the author providing it in expository material, or both;

5)      The situation and its component parts(the actions performed and the dialogue spoken) must be inconsistent or unsuitable to the surrounding or associations(i.e., the societal norms);

6)      It must be perceived by the observer as harmless or painless to the participants.

• Five theories of humor:

1)      Intellectual theories

• Think of ethnic humor

2)      Superiority theories

• Humor derives from our feeling of superiority over those we laugh at. According to this view, all humor is derisive.

• Thomas Hobbes: “Laughter, is a kind of sudden glory.”

• Alexander Bain: “All humor involves the degradation of something.” Bain expands Hobbes in two main directions—one, we need not be directly conscious of our own superiority (i.e. we may laugh sympathetically with another who scores off an adversary); two, it need not be a person that is derided.

• Aristotle: “distorted but painless (i.e. it is funny when someone slips on the ice and falls: people laugh—until they realize that the person broke his leg)”

• One important criterion for comedy would be mechanical and inherently human.

• Henri Bergson: “The typical comic character is someone with an obsession or idée fixe.” That type of comic character would not adapt to the change in situation and continues to sit in a mechanical fashion.

• An extension of Bergson’s theory: Comedy is inherently human. The audience may laugh at the antics of an animal, such as chimpanzees, but only direct proportion to the animal’s capability of reminding the audience of something human.

• The criticism of the superiority theory is that, by itself, it is also too narrow to cover every type of humor. It leaves out one very important element in humor: incongruity.

3)      Incongruity theories

• Incongruity: the unexpected with the expected, the unusual with the usual, the misfit.

• Immanuel Kant: Humor arises “from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing.” Incongruity theory is often identified with “frustrated expectation.”

• Internal norms are those that the author has provided in the text. External norms are those which exist in the society for shich the text was written.

• Three aspects of incongruity

① Literalization: In literalization the joke comes form taking a figure of speech and then performing it literally.

② Reversal: Reversal is simply reversing the normal, taking what is normal and expected and doing or saying the people.

③ Exaggeration: An exaggeration is taking what is normal and blowing it out of proportion.

• The greatest incongruity is the violating of societal taboos.

4)      Relief theories

• The central element in humor is neither a feeling of intelligence, superiority, nor the awareness of incongruity, but, instead, the feeling of relief that comes from the removal of restraint.

• Sigmund Freud

5)      Humor is ambivalence

2.   Comedy

• Types of Comedy

1)      Low Comedy: lacks seriousness and intellectual appeal

2)      High Comedy: pure or serious comedy

3)      Burlesque: form of comedy characterized by ridiculous exaggeration and distortion.

4)      Farce: A light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot, exaggerated character, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect.

5)      Lampoon: satirical piece used to ridicule people

6)      Parody: A composition imitating or burlesquing another, usually serious, piece of work.

7)      Satire

8)      Slapstick: characterized by chases, collisions, and crude practical jokes

9)      Travesty: presents a serious (often religion) subject frivolously—reduces everything to its lowest level.

**Note—Travesty, Burlesque and Parody are similar, but travesty always makes a mockery of a serious subject, whereas burlesque and parody may do the reverse.

             • “The Comedy Ladder”

1)      Comedy of Ideas

2)      Comedy of Manners

3)      Farce

4)      Low Comedy