Intro to Humor

1
Intro to Humor

• Hum2 Honors

2
What is Funny?

• Aristotelian definition is imitation.
• Relies on the audiences relation to the
  subjects.

3
Comedic Forms

• Slapstick
• Hyperbole
• Litotes
• Irony
• Parody
• Satire
• Black Comedy

4
Slapstick

• Slapstickphysical comedy
• Often involves injury, but includes visual
  appearance.
• Generally considered the lowest form of comedy.
• Takes little intelligence/attention to get it.

5
Hyperbole

• Hyperbolic (Exaggerated)
• Could include dialogue or speech, situations, or
  characterization.
• This includes Tall Tales
• Generally considered of low quality humor

6
Litotes

• Litotes is understatement
• Treating a large topic as if smaller
• Opposite of Hyperbole
• Its only a flesh wound Monty Python

7
Irony

• Ironic (Unexpected)
• When the situations, dialogue, or
  characterization is counter to what the audience
  expects.
• Twist endings on stories or jokes
• I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.
  Woody Allen
• Sarcasm is a form of Verbal Irony

8
Satire

• Satiric (Cynical)
• Exposes a common or general flaw in humanity
  (greed, vanity, gluttony, foolishness, etc)
• Can be ironic or hyperbolic as well
• Satirists reveal what they think is a problem in
  society and ridicule it.

9
Parody

• Parody (Mimicking)
• Emulates a pre-existing work in a humorous way,
  so as to poke fun.
• There must be an original artwork or figurehead
  to be parody.

10
Black Humor

• Dark humor usually involving pain, great injury
  or bodily harm, and death.
• Shouldnt be funnytaboo
• Shaun of the Dead, Fargo, anything by the Coen
  Brothers.

11
Realism

• Realistic (Funny because it is true)
• Unofficially, this is where the audience can
  relate to a common stereotype or situation and
  find humor in it.
• When life presents an issue that is only funny
  because the audience understands.