HUMOR THEORIES: FEATURES VS. FUNCTIONS VS. SUBJECTS

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HUMOR THEORIES FEATURES VS. FUNCTIONS VS.
SUBJECTS

• by Don L. F. Nilsen
• and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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HUMOR THEORIES

• THE EVOLUTION THEORIES as proposed by Charles
  Darwin, and by the I. A. H. B.
• THE HUMOR-IS-GOOD-FOR-YOU THEORIES as proposed by
  Norman Cousins, et. al.
• THE SUPERIORITY THEORIES as proposed by
  Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Hobbes, Henri Bergson,
  and Charles Gruner
• THE INCONGRUITY THEORIES as proposed by Immanuel
  Kant, Arthur Shopenhauer, Paul McGhee and John
  Morreall
• THE SURPRISE THEORIES as proposed by René
  Descartes

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• THE AMBIVALENCE THEORIES (FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS)
  as proposed by Socrates
• THE CONFIGURATIONAL THEORIES (GESTALT RECOGNITION
  AND SUDDEN INSIGHT) as proposed by G. W. F. Hegel
• THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES as proposed by
  Sigmund Freud
• THE RELEASE AND RELIEF THEORIES as proposed by
  Harvey Mindess and William Fry

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A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT HUMOR THEORIES

• FEATURES
• FUNCTIONS
• SUBJECTS

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FEATURES OF HUMOR INCONGRUITY AND INCONGRUITY
RESULUTION
Unresolved Resolved
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FEATURES OF HUMORSURPRISE AND TENSION

• Surprise
• Garden Path
• Epiphany
• Tension and Relief

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ALLEEN NILSENS FEATURES OF HUMOR

• Ambiguity
• Exaggeration
• Understatement
• Hostility
• Incongruity or Irony
• Situation-Insight
• Sudden Insight
• Superiority
• Surprise or Shock
• A Trick or Twist
• Word Play
• (A. Nilsen Living Language 202-203)

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EXPLAIN THE FEATURES IN THE FOLLOWING JOKES

• David Lettermans first job in broadcasting was
  at Ball State Universitys classical music radio
  station, WBST. He was a constant trial to Tom
  Watson, the manager, who in exasperation fired
  him after he introduced the song Clair de Lune
  with You know the de Lune sisters there was
  Claire there was Mabel.
• Word Play
• (A. Nilsen Living Language 204)

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• Left to our own devices, we Wobegonians go
  straight for the small potatoes.
• Majestic doesnt appeal to us we like the Grand
  Canyon better with Clarence and Arlene parked in
  front of it smiling.
• (Nilsen Nilsen Encyclopedia 301)

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• Will Rogers solemnly declared, They have an
  unwritten law in the Senate that a new member is
  not allowed to say anything when he first gets
  in, and another unwritten law that whatever he
  says afterward is not to amount to anything.
• Superiority
• (Nilsen Living Language 205)

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• A good man dies and goes to heaven. When St.
  Peter asks him if theres anything he can do for
  him, the man explains that he would love to talk
  to Mary, the mother of Jesus. St. Peter is happy
  to set up such a meeting. After a few polite
  formalities, the man tells Mary the purpose of
  his request. He has always wanted to ask her
  something.
• When she encourages him to go ahead, he says,
  Ive wondered why in all your pictures you look
  so sad. Please tell me what it is. Mary sighs
  and then with a little wistful smile confesses,
  I always wanted a daughter.
• Incongruity and Surprise
• (Nilsen Living Languag 205)

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• In one of her routines, eleven-year-old Claire
  Friedman told about a classmate she calls
  Tiffany During lunch, Tiffany was staring at
  her carton of orange juice. I asked why. She
  said, The box says concentrate.
• Claire said, Tiffany is so dumb shed get fired
  from an MM factory for throwing away all the Ws.
• Superiority, Hostility, Wordplay
• (A. Nilsen Living Language 204)

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• During the 1960s, there was talk of nominating
  Senator Margaret Chase Smith for President of the
  United States. One reporter stuck a microphone
  in her face and asked, Mrs. Smith, what would
  you do if you should wake up some morning and
  find yourself in the White House?
• Without batting an eye she responded, I would go
  to the presidents wife, apologize, and leave
  immediately.
• Situation, Surprise,etc.
• (A. Nilsen Living Language 204)

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• A four-year-old was brought to the emergency room
  of a hospital with a bad cough.
• The child kept up a nonstop conversation while
  the nurse was trying to assess her lung sounds.
  Finally, the nurse said, Shhh, I have to see if
  Barney is in there. The child looked at her and
  calmly stated, I have Jesus in my heart. Barney
  is on my underwear.
• Surprise, Incongruity, etc.
• (A. Nilsen Living Language 204)

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• At the opening of a new play, George Bernard Shaw
  sent two tickets to Winston Churchill. Shaw
  wrote on the letter, Here is a ticket for you
  and your friendif you have one.
• Churchill sent back the tickets with a message
  for Shaw. I cant attend on the opening night,
  but I would love to go to the second
  performanceif you have one.
• Hostility, Exaggeration, Word Play, etc.
• (A. Nilsen Living Language 204)

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• In Alice in Wonderland, the Mock Turtle explains
  to Alice that he only took the regular course.
  What was that? inquired Alice. Reeling and
  Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the
  different branches of ArithmeticAmbition,
  Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.
• Word Play, etc.
• (A. Nilsen Living Language 205)

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PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS OF HUMOR

• Arousal
• Social Control
• Establishment of Superiority
• Relief, and Release
• Ego Defense, Coping, and Saving Face
• Gaining Status
• Healing
• Testing Limits

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SELF-DISPARAGEMENT

• Self-disparagement humor is actually intended to
  empower the user. Here are some effective ads
  using self-disparagement
• Terminix Pest Control When you think of pests,
  think of us.
• Twist Lemon-Menthol Cigarettes Our new menthol
  is a lemon.

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• Champion International Trend Carpet Eight
  million people walked all over us. And they
  dont even know our name.
• Quaker Oats as a diet food Quaker Oats
  Breakfast of losers.
• Simmons bunk beds Simmons beds are a lot of
  bunk.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 273)

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EDUCATIONAL FUNCTIONS OF HUMOR

• Teaching and Learning
• Arguing and Persuading

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SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF HUMOR

• In-Bonding and Out-Bonding
• Promoting Social Stability and Control
• Promoting Social Change

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SUPERIORITY VS. INCONGRUITY

• In Reflections upon Laughter, Frances Hutcheson
  argued against Thomas Hobbess century-old
  superiority theory.
• He pointed out that people dont go to asylums to
  laugh at the inferior beings, nor do we laugh
  at animals unless they resemble human beings.
• We laugh at someone who slips on a banana peel
  not because we feel superior, but because of the
  incongruity between our expectations and the
  sudden insight.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 163)

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!SUBJECTS OF HUMOR

• Ethnic Identification
• Politics
• Sexual Roles and Scatology
• Occupations
• Religion and Belief Systems

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• !!OLD TABOOS AND CENSORSHIP
• These are the taboo areas in American English.
  Theyre the subjects that we cant talk about,
  but we must talk about.
• But these taboos are changing. Most of our
  censorship used to come from the right, but now
  our censorship is coming from both the right and
  the left. Censorship from the left is called
  political correctness.

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• !!!NEW TABOOS AND CENSORSHIP
• TABOO AND CENSORSHIP FROM THE RIGHT INCLUDES
• Sex, Religion, Body Parts, Swear Words,
  Obscenities and Vulgarities
• TABOO AND CENSORSHIP FROM THE LEFT (POLITICAL
  CORRECTNESS) INCLUDES
• Women, Gays, Disabled People, Ethnic Minorities
  and Old People

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!HUMOR WEB SITES I

• AMERICAN COMEDY ARCHIVES (JENNI MATZ)
• www.emerson.edu/comedy
• ART GLINER HUMOR CENTER (LARRY MINTZ)
• www.humorcenter.umd.edu
• COMEDY ARCHIVES (JENNI MATZ)
• http//www.greaterboston.tv/features/gb_20060509_c
  omedy.html

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• !!COMEDY USA (BARRY WEINTRAUB)
• www.comedyusa.com
• THE HUMOR COLLECTION (RUTH HAMILTON)
• www.thehumorcollection.org
• HUMOR MATTERS (STEVE SULTANOFF)
• http//www.humormatters.com
• THE HUMOR PROJECT (JOEL GOODMAN)
• www.HumorProject.com

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• !!! HUMOR STUDIES AT ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
• http//researchmag.asu.edu/stories/humor.html
• LAUGHING JAPAN (TILL WEINGAERTNER)
• http//www.tillchan.typepad.com/laughing
• MIRTH HUMOR AND LAUGHTER IN TEACHING (RON BERK)
• www.mirthium.com
• PARENTING HUMOR (TIM BETE)
• http//www.TimBete.com
• A PLAYFUL PATH TO WHOLENESS (BERNIE DEKOVEN)
• http//www.deepfun.com

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• References 1
• Berger, Arthur Asa. An Anatomy of Humor. New
  Brunswick, NJ Transaction Publishers, 1993.
• Berger, Arthur Asa. Blind Men and Elephants
  Perspectives on Humor. New Brunswick, NJ
  Transaction Publishers, 1995.
• Boskin, Joseph. Humor and Social Change in 20th
  Century America. Boston, MA Boston Public
  Library, 1979.
• Boskin, Joeph, ed. The Humor Prism in
  20th-Century America. Detroit, MI Wayne State
  University Press, 1997.
• Doloff, Steven. Racism and the Risks of Ethnic
  Humor (Eschholz 273-275).

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• References 2
• Eschholz, Paul, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark.
  The Power of the Mass Media. Language
  Awareness Readings for College Writers, Ninth
  Edition. Boston, MA Bedford/St. Martins, 2005,
  349-420.
• Fry, William F. Sweet Madness A Study of Humor.
  Palo Alto, CA Pacific Books, 1963.
• Fry, William F., and Waleed Salameh, eds.
  Advances in Humor and Psychotherapy. Sarasota,
  FL Professional Resource Press, 1993.
• Fry, William F., and Waleed Salameh. Handbook of
  Humor and Psychotherapy. Sarasota, FL
  Professional Resources Exchange, 1987.
• McGhee, Paul E., and Jeffrey Goldstein, eds.
  Handbook of Humor Research. New York, NY
  Springer-Verlag, 1983.

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• References 5
• Martin, Rod A. The Psychology of Humor An
  Integrative Approach. London, England Elsevier,
  2007.
• Nilsen, Alleen Pace. Living Language. Boston, MA
  Allyn and Bacon, 1999.
• Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Encyclopedia
  of 20th Century American Humor. Phoenix, AZ
  Oryx, 2000.
• Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen.
  Humor. The New Dictionary of the History of
  Ideas Volume 3. Ed. Maryanne Cline Horowitz.
  New York, NY Charles Scribners Sons, 2005,
  1061-1064.
• Nilsen, Don L. F. Humor Scholarship A Research
  Bibliography. Westport, CT Greenwood, 1993,
  175-185.

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• References 6
• Nilsen, Don L. F. Humor in British Literature
  from the Middle Ages to the Restoration A
  Reference Guide. Westport, CT Greenwood, 1997.
• Nilsen, Don L. F. "Humor in the Earliest English
  Literature." Kansas English 79-1 (1993) 36-47.
• Nilsen, Don L. F. Humor in Eighteenth- and
  Nineteenth-Century British Literature A
  Reference Guide. Westport, CT Greenwood, 1998.
• Nilsen, Don L. F., and Alleen Pace Nilsen.
  Language Play. Rowley, MA Newbury House, 1978.
• Raskin, Victor. Semantic Mechanisms of Humor.
  Dordrecht, Netherlands D. Reidel, 1985.