Term Paper on "Three Theories of Humor"

Term Paper 5 pages (1739 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Humor

Achieving a familiarity with the three theories / styles of humor affords a fuller understanding of how the humorous passage or presentation was made to invoke laughter. Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Engvall are comedians who use all three humorous styles, and a large share of their material is quite funny for their audience in Denver, Colorado, albeit they employ raunchy, sexually suggestive themes. This paper explains the three theories of humor - using research from several sources for a diversity of definitions - and then examines specific humor excerpts from the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" DVD. The excerpts are analyzed using material from Francis Hutcheson, Immanuel Kant, John Morreall, Michael Clark and Sigmund Freud.

Superiority Theory: This form of humor consists of giving "yourself a sense of superiority by deriding lesser mortals," according to Peter Marsh ("Raising a Smile"), quoted in an article in Communication World (Fatt 1998). Superiority humor can be found sometimes in the caricatures "that emphasize the unusual features of people," in particular people that we respect - and we laugh because the caricature makes that person look "ugly or comical" - Fatt explains. Superiority humor may also be identified when a person is in the act of "a reinforcement or happiness increment" creating a "heightened self-esteem," according to a piece in Poetics Today (Vandaele 2002).

Incongruity Theory: This is where, according to Fatt, a person is expecting to hear one outcome, but hears another instead. Also, an unexpected conflict or an "inconsistency between two ideas that is resolved as a joke" is incongruous, Fatt continues. Vandaele writes that incongruity is "a conflict between what is expected and what actually occurs in the joke." Author John Morreall explains that incongruity is "...an intellectual reaction to something that is unexpected, illogical, or inappropriate in some other way." Humans laugh, Morreall continues, when we "experience something that doesn't fit..." into our normal orderly patterns of living.

Relief Theory: People are humored and laugh when they release "pent-up tensions," Fatt asserts. If something is shocking, or terribly taboo, they experience relief, or a release; in fact, Fatt quotes Charlie Chapman as saying laughter "...is an outlet for discharging psychic energy." And in the book The Psychology of Humor the authors quote J.C. Gregory as saying, "Relief is not the whole of laughter, though it is its root and fundamental plan." Relief, Gregory is quoted as saying, "is written on the physical act of laughing and on the physiological accompaniments."

Humor from Bill Engvall:

On the DVD "The Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again" (Parallel entertainment Pictures) Engvall tells a story about the trip to Europe he and his wife took this past summer. The couple bought a couple paintings "...about eleven by fifteen" inches in size, which they carried on the plane to avoid damaging them during shipping. When their flight arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, they had the paintings in their arms, waiting for the customs. "We're holding the paintings in our hands," Engvall explains to a Denver audience, "and the customs' agent looks at us and says, 'Did y'all buy those paintings outside the country?' No," Engvall replied, "we carry this one all the time with us, and my wife painted this [other] one while we were waiting in line."

This humor has a bit of both "superiority" and "incongruity" built into it. The superiority part is set up by the cryptic rebuttal from Engvall after the customs agent is asking to verify that the paintings were purchased overseas. By answering as he does, Engvall is trying to make the customs agent look stupid, and hence put Engvall in a position of superiority, albeit the customs agent has a position of power and authority over the traveling Engvall. Meantime, in Francis Hutcheson's "Reflection Upon Laughter" the philosopher (Hutcheson 138) writes "...laughter is nothing else but sudden glory, arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others..."

The incongruity in Engvall's reply, is that it's absurd to imagine that a couple traveling to Europe would carry paintings with them all the way over and back, of course, and that was not an expected reply. A more appropriate reply would have been, "yes, we did..."

And yet it is the customs' agent's duty to ask that mundane question, so we have a simple question turned into an odd - and hence humorous - answer from the comedian. That is certainly not what would have been expected.

Humor from Jeff Foxworthy:

Jeff Foxworthy on the "Blue Collar" DVD was pointing out to his audience that there are "a lot of similarities" between a gay man and a married man. "If you are a man and you can't remember the last time you had sex with a woman, you're either gay, or married," he offered, to the howls of a sold-out Denver auditorium. Foxworthy used the incongruity method of humor here, because clearly most "straight" men who are married would not in a hundred years believe they have anything in common with a homosexual man. Foxworthy has come up with a juxtaposition that is funny because the two men he is portraying through humor are unlikely "bedfellows" in his story.

Michael Clark in his essay, "The Rejection of Humor in Western Thought" writes that laughter and humor should not be seen as the same thing. Clark says philosophers sometimes see laughter "as a form or scorn and humiliation..." And further believes that "to ridicule and humiliate another person just because doing so makes you feel better about yourself, is antisocial at best and curl at worst." By saying a married man rarely has sex with his wife, and that a gay man likewise can't remember the last time he had sex with a woman (since likely he has never had intercourse with a female), Foxworthy is creating laughter by ridiculing both men. He has license to do this, of course, because, his professional job is to shock (utilizing the relief theory of humor) the audience by using taboo subject matter (gay men compared with straight married men). But also, going along with what Clark said, Foxworthy is made to feel good about himself because the audience roared with laughter.

Turning to a "comedy" subject even more provocative than comparing gay men with married men - vaginal lubrication, used for sexual stimulation by men and women individually or during intercourse - Foxworthy mentions that he overheard his wife and her friends giggling about the product "Astroglide." First Foxworthy quips that "It's supposed to be really good stuff...apparently you're able to put it on a Cadillac and get it into a dog house." Then he adds, feigning innocence that he had never heard of the product, "After thinking about it, I figured I could put it on the poles the bird feeders are on and keep the squirrels off of it."

Now this is clearly a situation where incongruity comes into play, by first suggesting that a large car like a Cadillac could squeeze into a doghouse (a tight fit indeed). And secondly that image brings with it a subtle sexual male message, which could be thought of as comic relief, because people are likely laughing out of nervousness or shocked by the insinuation.

And there is a double meaning that emerges in his second spin on the lubricant's theme. Indeed, incongruity also exists because a product that is - in the minds of most people - supposed to be used in a sex act would not be normally be thought of in terms of keeping squirrels out of a bird feeder. And the "pole" upon which the bird feeder sits could be a subliminal phallic symbol.

Meantime, mentioning Astroglide to an audience of mostly men-women couples (many of whom may use Astroglide in their bedrooms) has probably raised libido levels, according to Sigmund Freud, who refers to blatantly sexual language in jokes as "smut." Smut is "originally directed towards women," Freud writes. And in this case, Foxworthy's mentioning of Astroglide came about because he said his wife was discussing it with friends, but in fact the women in the audience are the targets of Foxworthy's barb. The women, according to Freud may feel "shame or embarrassment" by the joke, but, "...on hearing it, [are] expected to become aware of the speaker's excitement and as a result to become sexually excited in turn."

In this case, the mentioning of Astroglide also comes under the "relief" theory of humor, as obviously, the panning cameras on the DVD production shows women putting both hands to their mouths in the body language of embarrassment.

Conclusion: To the comedian, the "agreeable" and the "good" is an audience howling with laughter, no matter whether the humor is in good or bad taste. And, along those same lines, in the words of Immanuel Kant, "Both the agreeable and the good involve a reference to the faculty of desire, and are thus attended, the former with a delight pathologically… READ MORE

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