Class Notes (2/21-3/4)

After members of our class chose to read either Pride and Prejudice or Huck Finn, we have been discussing our book in our respective groups. This has included a few conversations of intermingling.
In the P&P group, we discussed:

• how the plot was comedic (Frye v. 6 elements of humor)
• how the characters were comedic (Frye v. 6 elements of humor)
• how the language was comedic (Frye v. 6 elements of humor)

To see notes on Frye, click here.

Notes on Comedy (From "Theories of Humor and Comedy")

There are SIX elements required for something to be humorous:

1. must appeal to the intellect rather than the emotions
2. must be mechanical
3. must be inherently human, reminding us of humanity
4. must be a set of established social norms with which the observer is familiar, either through everyday life or through the author providing it in expository material
5. the situation and its component parts must be inconsistent or unsuitable to the surroundings (ex: societal norms)
6. must be perceived by the observer as harmless or painless to the participants

• we often laught at people b/c they have some failing or defect, or suffer some small misfortune
• some stock figures of comedy: miser, glutton, drunkard
• some mistakes: incorrect answers, faulty pronunciation, bad grammar
• Superiority Theory: the pleasure we take in humor is from our feeling superior over those we laugh at; all humor is derisive; we need not be directly conscious of our superiority
• criticism for Superiority Theory: its is too narrow to cover every type of humor
• comedy is based on incongruity (see more after bullet points)
• for a comedy to work there must be an established set of cultural, human and societal norms, mores, idoms, idosyncrasies, and terminologies against which incongruities may be found
• Plays and jokes can go out-of-date
• The greatest incongruity is violating social taboos, the greates are 1) Sex, 2) Death, and 3) Biological Functions
• A pun is the weakest form of wit (purely verbal connection)
• Humor is more penetrating (real connection between two things normally regarded with quite different attitudes; or forces on us a compete reversal of values)
• many writers on humor have refused to accept the wide-held view that humorous incongruity must necessarily consist in degrading something exalted by bringing it into contact with something trivial or disreputable
• Relief Theory: affording us relief from the restraint of conforming to those requirements; the feeling of relief that comes from the removal of restraint

Three aspects of incongruity:

1. Literalization: when the joke comes form taking a figure of speech and performing it literaly
2. Reversal: reversing the normal, taking what is normal and expected and doing or saying the opposite
3. Exaggeration: taking what is normal and blowing it out of proportion

Some Important People:
Arthur Schopenhauer: all humor can be "traced to a syllogism in the first figure with an undisputed major and an unexpected minor, which to a certain extent is only sophistically [based on false logic] valid."
Thomas Hobbes: believed that the pleasure we take in humor derives from our feeling of superiority over those we laugh at; Superiority Theory
Alexander Bain: all humor involves the degradation of something; we need not be directly conscious of our own superiority; it need not be a person that is derided: it can be an idea, political institution, or anything that makes a claim to dignity or respect
Henri Bergson: comedy must be elastic, and adaptable; comedy is inherently human; laughter is society's defense against the eccentric who refuses to adjust to its requirements
Immanuel Kant: humor arises from the sudden transformation of a strained expectation into nothing; "frustrated expectation"
Herbert Spencer: all humor can be explained as "descending incongruity"; laughter is an overflow of nervous energy
Sigmund Freud: humor is outwitting the "censor" (internal inhibitions which prevent us from giving into many natural impulses); this includes both superego impulses (sexual) and malicious impluses; he finds many similarities b/w the techniques of humor and the ways in which our waking thoughts are distorted into dreams

See "Types of Comedy" Handout for complete definitions of common Comedy terms.

We also analyzed an excerpt from "The Other Paris," by Mavis Gallant, in terms of comedy.