Humour

For other uses, see Humour (disambiguation).
"Hilarity" and "Hilarious" redirect here. For the U.S. Navy ship, see USS Hilarity (AM-241). For the stand-up special by Louis C.K., see Hilarious (film). For the Roman Catholic Pope Saint Hilarius, see Pope Hilarius.
Smiling can imply a sense of humour and a state of amusement, as in this painting of Falstaff by Eduard von Grützner.

Humour or humor (see spelling differences) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.

People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—i.e., to be amused, to smile or laugh at something funny—and thus are considered to have a sense of humour. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour induced by humour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, intelligence and context. For example, young children may favour slapstick such as Punch and Judy puppet shows or cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, whose purely physical nature makes it more accessible to them. By contrast, more sophisticated forms of humour such as satire require an understanding of its social meaning and context, and thus tend to appeal to more mature audiences.

Theories

An April fool in Denmark, regarding Copenhagen's new subway.
Some claim that humour cannot or should not be explained.
Postcard from France, early 20th century. Illustration by Henry Gerbault.
Funny faces made with shells, painting made by Jan van Kessel the Elder (1626–1679)
Unintentional humor

Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves. The prevailing types of theories attempting to account for the existence of humour include psychological theories, the vast majority of which consider humour-induced behaviour to be very healthy; spiritual theories, which may, for instance, consider humour to be a "gift from God"; and theories which consider humour to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a mystical experience.[1]

The benign-violation theory, endorsed by Peter McGraw, attempts to explain humour's existence. The theory says 'humour only occurs when something seems wrong, unsettling, or threatening, but simultaneously seems okay, acceptable or safe’[2] Humor can be used as a method to easily engage in social interaction by taking away that awkward, uncomfortable, or uneasy feeling of social interactions.

Others believe that 'the appropriate use of humor can facilitate social interactions'.[3]

Views

Some claim that humour cannot or should not be explained. Author E.B. White once said, "Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind."[4]Counter to this argument, protests against "offensive" cartoons invite the dissection of humor or its lack by aggrieved individuals and communities. This process of dissecting humor does not necessarily banish a sense of humor but begs attention toward its politics and assumed universality (Khanduri 2014).[5]

Arthur Schopenhauer lamented the misuse of humour (a German loanword from English) to mean any type of comedy. However, both humour and comic are often used when theorising about the subject. The connotations of humour as opposed to comic are said to be that of response versus stimulus. Additionally, humour was thought to include a combination of ridiculousness and wit in an individual; the paradigmatic case being Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff. The French were slow to adopt the term humour; in French, humeur and humour are still two different words, the former referring to a person's mood or to the archaic concept of the four humours.

Non-satirical humour can be specifically termed droll humor or recreational drollery.[6][7]

Sociological factors

As with any art form, the acceptance of a particular style or incidence of humour depends on sociological factors and varies from person to person. Throughout history, comedy has been used as a form of entertainment all over the world, whether in the courts of the Western kings or the villages of the Far East. Both a social etiquette and a certain intelligence can be displayed through forms of wit and sarcasm. Eighteenth-century German author Georg Lichtenberg said that "the more you know humour, the more you become demanding in fineness."

Ancient Greece

Western humour theory begins with Plato, who attributed to Socrates (as a semi-historical dialogue character) in the Philebus (p. 49b) the view that the essence of the ridiculous is an ignorance in the weak, who are thus unable to retaliate when ridiculed. Later, in Greek philosophy, Aristotle, in the Poetics (1449a, pp. 34–35), suggested that an ugliness that does not disgust is fundamental to humour.

India

In ancient Sanskrit drama, Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra defined humour (hāsyam) as one of the nine nava rasas, or principle rasas (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by bhavas, the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. Each rasa was associated with a specific bhavas portrayed on stage. In the case of humour, it was associated with mirth (hasya).

In Arabic culture

The terms comedy and satire became synonymous after Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world, where it was elaborated upon by Arabic writers and Islamic philosophers such as Abu Bischr, his pupil Al-Farabi, Persian Avicenna, and Averroes. Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation, and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension" and made no reference to light and cheerful events or troublesome beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century, the term comedy thus gained a new semantic meaning in Medieval literature.[8]

Caribbean

Mento star Lord Flea, stated in an 1957 interview that he thought that: "West Indians have the best sense of humour in the world. Even in the most solemn song, like Las Kean Fine ["Lost and Can Not Be Found"], which tells of a boiler explosion on a sugar plantation that killed several of the workers, their natural wit and humor shine though."[9]

China

Shen Zhou's Commentary on Growing a Beard was written in the manner of Chinese classics, even citing historical examples. Yet, contextually, it was a lighthearted humorous work amongst close friends and literati—Zhao Mingyu, Zhou Zongdao, Yao Cundao, and Shen Zhou—about growing beards.[10]

Shen Zhou’s Commentary on Growing a Beard


Formula

Marx Brothers 1931.
Charles Chaplin

Humour can be verbal, visual, or physical. Non-verbal forms of communication–for example, music or visual art–can also be humorous.

Root components

Surprise is a component of humour.

Methods

Behaviour, place and size

Rowan Atkinson explains in his lecture in the documentary Funny Business[11] that an object or a person can become funny in three ways:

Most sight gags fit into one or more of these categories.

Exaggeration

Main article: Exaggeration

"Some theoreticians of the comic consider exaggeration to be a universal comic device".[12] It may take different forms in different genres, but all rely on the fact that "the easiest way to make things laughable is to exaggerate to the point of absurdity their salient traits".[13]

Culture

Forced perspective used for comic effect in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Different cultures have different expectations of humour so comedy shows are not always successful when transplanted into another culture. For example, a 2004 BBC News article discusses a stereotype among British comedians that Americans and Germans do not understand irony, and therefore UK sitcoms are not appreciated by them.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Raymond Smullyan, "The Planet Without Laughter", This Book Needs No Title
  2. ↑ Peter McGraw, "Too close for Comfort, or Too Far to care? Finding Humor in Distant Tragedies and Close Mishaps"
  3. ↑ Nicholas Kuiper, "Prudence and Racial Humor: Troubling Epithets"
  4. ↑ Quotationspage.com
  5. ↑ Ritu Gairola Khanduri. 2014. Caricaturing Culture in India: Cartoons and History of the Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  6. ↑ Seth Benedict Graham A cultural analysis of the Russo-Soviet Anekdot 2003 p.13
  7. ↑ Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World [1941, 1965]. Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press p.12
  8. ↑ Webber, Edwin J. (January 1958), "Comedy as Satire in Hispano-Arabic Spain", Hispanic Review (University of Pennsylvania Press) 26 (1): 1–11, doi:10.2307/470561, JSTOR 470561
  9. ↑ Michael Garnice (11 March 2012). "Mento Music Lord Flea". Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  10. ↑ Shen Zhou's Art of Calligraphy. Four Great Masters of the Ming Dynasty: Shen Zhou. National Palace Museum.
  11. ↑ Rowan Atkinson/David Hinton, Funny Business (tv series), Episode 1 - aired 22 November 1992, UK, Tiger Television Productions
  12. ↑ Emil Draitser, Techniques of Satire (1994) p. 135
  13. ↑ M. Eastman/W. Fry, Enjoyment of Laughter (2008) p. 156
  14. ↑ "Do the Americans get irony?". BBC News. 27 January 2004. Retrieved 2 April 2012.

Further reading

External links

Look up humor or humour in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to humor.