What is Comedy and Why Do We Laugh? · 5:33pm Mar 13th, 2016
I dunno, but I have a fairly good guess.
Welcome to my new hit blog series, Front Pretends to Know What He’s Talking About! :D
But really, why would I write something so pretentious? Well, having written a few comedy stories on this site, and having built up a somewhat decent sense of humour from years of practice (which consisted mostly of telling terrible jokes in front of real people), I want to start compiling what I’ve learned so far into somewhat coherent blogs, starting with this one. This will help me organize my thoughts and understand these topics better myself. And hey, I thought other people might appreciate this as well.
So. The goal of comedy, at least in my mind, is to make the audience laugh. But, what is laughter? Why do we laugh? Being a psychological topic, there’s no definitive answer, but with some research and some of my own experiences, I have a good theory in the context of comedy.
Well, laughter is basically a response to surprise. If you’re interested, I’d suggest watching this video. His theory is that laughter is the result of learning. When something surprises us or delights us, we laugh because there’s incongruence (a difference) between what we expected and what happened. We learn a new line of logic, and this makes us laugh, but once we’ve learned that new line of logic, if we hear the joke again, it’s not as funny because that new line of logic is now our expectation. I agree with this for the most part, but he doesn’t really break it down further than that.
He mentions the idea that laughter serves a more social function (“We laugh 30 times as much when we're with other people than we do when we're alone”), but I want to ignore that part for the sake of looking at this in the context of comedy itself, which can be enjoyed alone as well and isn’t necessarily a social thing (although, it most certainly can be—it’s the reason sitcoms include laugh tracks, and why Adam Sandler-type movies have pauses after the jokes—gives the theater audiences a chance to laugh before moving on).
There’s another vsauce video where I think they’re hinting at my own theory of laughter, that laughter has a more primal origin. When we are surprised, the first response is fear, whether it’s fear for ourselves, or fear for the person we’re observing (through empathy). When we realize what’s surprising us isn’t a threat, or that the other person is okay, we release that fear that we built up in the form of joyful relief. Laughter itself is the physical form of that release.
Basically what this means is that comedy hinges on surprise and relief. It starts with a norm, or baseline (What do you call a pig that knows karate?). This sets an expectation (perhaps the person listening to this joke thinks, What types of pigs do I know that are somewhat related to karate?). This expectation is then upset with a surprise (Pork chop), which in this case is a play on words, where you didn’t expect the name of a pig that knows martial arts to also be the name of a cut of meat.
Or, maybe you did expect that, as maybe you’ve heard this joke before. Then, there’s no surprise there (since you’ve already learned that new line of logic), and that’s why you don’t laugh. If I wanted to make you laugh, then, I’d have to play with the execution of that joke (The pig raised his hoof in the air as he came down upon the zebra. “Ultimate pork chop!” he cried.) so that it’s a joke you’ve heard before in a format or execution you didn’t expect.
Point is, this explains most of comedy—it is the upsetting of expectations in a non-threatening surprise. Surprise is present in nearly every joke, from potty humour to Tom Swifties to parody to brick jokes to even meme images. It’s a matter of setting up the expectation (sometimes called the setup) and then delivering on the surprise (the punchline).
Hope you enjoyed that bit of pretentious comedy theory :P I’ve got more opinions on other topics in comedy, which I think I’ll write up in future blogs, so stay tuned if you’re interested :o
Thanks for reading and have a great day :>
Surprise definitely plays a part in a lot of comedy, but I don't think it's the only aspect. Some imagery is funny even when expected. I can think of a few very stupid youtube videos I watched over and over again, and still make me laugh. I would say that the unexpected or unusual can bring humor, even if the audience knows what's coming.
Laughter can come from expectation. Take rick rolling for example. Granted, it's overplayed now, but we all laughed when someone clicked on a link and got rick rolled. "Damn it, you got me," was always the expected answer, but hearing it caused laughter.
I think about this quite often as well, as my mind is just attuned like an aerial to potential comedy material. (In particular, if I'm ever asked a question with an open-ended answer, I will always - always - strive to provide the most ridiculous answer I can think of. I think people who know me are starting to get wise to this. ^^) I love making people laugh.
I have a similar idea to you about humor (I feel that all comedy is, at some level, subversion), but I think there's a lot more to the story.
3806037 Yeah, I doubt surprise is the key to everything, here. It’s hard to talk about a broad subject like comedy in such general strokes, but surprise is about as general as I can get. It seems to be present in a lot of forms of comedy.
Like that Rick Roll’d thing, for example. The surprise was the victim’s surprise, when he was expecting a link to something other than a Rick Roll, but then got a Rick Roll. Then, I think the social part of comedy would come into play—we laugh because he laughs, or rolls his eyes, or reacts in an otherwise funny way.
Also, I can also think of stupid youtube videos that make me laugh, even when I know what to expect by now. Hmm. I’ll have to think about why those are still funny.
3806047 I’m the exact same way. xP My mind’s searching for jokes in pretty much any situation, even if it’s just a really stupid pun.
I agree with you also that I’m talking in such broad strokes, I highly doubt that surprise is exclusively the main element in comedy, but from what I’ve seen, it’s such a prevalent element. Perhaps I’ll figure it out as I keep practicing comedy & such :o
Am I doing it right?
3807096 Stahp xP