First Comprehensive Theory of Humor Published
A researcher named Alastair Clarke has published the first "universal" theory of humor - referring to pattern recognition theory.
Alastair Clarke explains that the Pattern Recognition Theory “can not say categorically what is funny. The individual is of paramount importance in determining what they find amusing, bringing memories, associations, meta-meaning, disposition, their ability to recognize patterns and their comprehension of similarity to the equation. But the following two examples illustrate its basic structure. A common form of humour is the juxtaposition of two pictures, normally of people, in whom we recognize a similarity. What we are witnessing here is spatial repetition, a simple two-term pattern featuring the outline or the features of the first repeated in those of the second. If the pattern is sufficiently convincing (as in the degree to which we perceive repetition), and we are surprised by recognizing it, we will find the stimulus amusing.”
“As a second example, related to the first but in a different medium, stand-up comedy regularly features what we might call the It’s so true form of humour. As with the first example, the brain recognizes a two-term pattern of repetition between the comedian’s depiction and its retained mental image, and if the recognition is surprising, it will be found amusing. The individual may be surprised to hear such things being talked about in public, perhaps because they are taboo, or because the individual has never heard them being articulated before. The only difference between the two examples is that in the first the pattern is recognized between one photograph and the next, and in the second it occurs between the comedian’s words and the mental image retained by the individual of the matter being portrayed.
Mr. Clarke, hereafter referred to as "Admiral Buzzkill," has published this theory somewhat in advance of several quarter-baked ideas washing around my head for several years that I'm not even sure I told anyone about let alone write down, but for which I am nonetheless claiming credit, at least in my head, much as I claim credit for the inflatable air-bag motorcycle suit, and developing a yellow sponge cartoon character in 1986.
posted by JAB at 10:14 AM
5 Comments:
I'm with the Stevens (Pinker and Colbert)
All humor is about a fall in stature.
Pinker (the experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and bon-vivant) asserts that humor is generally about authority figures falling from grace. And the reason laughter is contagious is that it's a form of spontaneous mutiny.
The king appears foolish; the jester begins to laugh; soon the peasants are laughing too.
Pinker admits he may be talking out his ass. But it's as good a theory as any that I've heard.
As for why Colbert agrees. Either it's because he's interviewed Pinker, or because Papa Bear says so.
Now lookie here. I know all about this shit. I studied psychology in school and Freud was all over this.
Freud basically said: funny = unexpected + violent
Now my own empirical work suggests that it doesn't have to be violent to be funny, but it helps.
For me, dumb is almost always hilarious (prob. since my first TV memory is watching Get Smart with my Dad). Dumb and Dumber is one of the greatest movie comedies ever made, and they will be watching it, and laughing at it, 50 years from now.
Sometimes the Laird finds that type of comedy tiresome...near as I can tell, his taste runs more toward the cerebral and evil, a la Blackadder.
I believe Mel Brooks is in the right neighborhood when he says: "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall in an open manhole and die."
That is why comedy is the truest, and upon inspection the most existentially challenging of the arts. The Greeks distrusted it because they feared it. Tragedy they could handle - it imbued the darkest events with 'meaning'. But comedy is fearless. Comedy acknowledges - even embeds - the idea that there is no greater significance. It does not ennoble us, it forces us to admit what shitty little weasels we really are.
Plato and Aristotle didn't like that, but I don't think it's such a bad thing. I'll take Aristophanes over Aeschylus any day.
Alright, if "Humor is generally about authority figures falling from grace," or "funny = unexpected + violent," then why was that Budweiser "Wazzup?" commercial so funny?
Because it was dumb.
But - and here is where the next Einstein is needed - dumb can be funny, and dumb can just be dumb.
This (1:08 to 2:10) is dumb, but, I think, pretty funny.
This is just dumb.
The missing ingredient is...what? It is as profound and elusive as the breath of life itself.
[A sense of humor is] "a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge." - Dave Barry
Post a Comment
<< Home