The Incongruity Theory reveals the affinity between philosophy and comedy and rebukes the argument that humor is "hostile and irresponsible" (Morreall) . Here the piece of abstract knowledge applicable to multiple pieces of sensuous knowledge is a word ('fire'), and so here we have an example of wordplay creating folly. However, from a neutral unshaped perspective, it is simply a brush. Proponents of this view include James Beattie, George Campbell, Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierkegaard, and Henri Bergson. If the joke were truly nonsensical, the response wouldnt be humor, it would be confusion. Give yourself a pat on the back! Before you continue reading, we thought you might like to download our three Grief Exercises [PDF] for free. Along with the Holocaust, dark humor has been used as a coping and survival mechanism across a broad range of life-threatening situations. The incongruity theory states that humor is perceived at the moment of realization of incongruity between a concept involved in a certain situation and the real objects thought to be in some relation to the concept. Two main theories of humor studies can be identified. In this way, humor results from feelings of triumph over the errors or misfortune of others, which promotes self-enhancement and feelings of superiority. On the association between humor and burnout. 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the bizarre or absurd is with the following joke. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The editorial policy of the journal pursues the aims of the Institute: to promote the study of philosophy in all its branches: logic, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, social and political philosophy and the philosophies of religion, science, history, language, mind and education. Humor also may function as an adaptive ego defense by enabling people to perceive the comical absurdity in highly challenging situations. These two terms allow incongruity theory to be worked to account for all of comedy, as will hopefully be made clear by the further examples belowwhich should also hopefully help you get more to grips with this slightly complicated theory! There are samples, in the provided dataset, that uses the incongruity to create humor . Twain had a point, as the research literature supports a relationship between humor and a wide range of positive psychosocial outcomes. The use of humor in serious mental illness: A review. Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. Interestingly, those who were higher in humor scores were also found to have increased immune functioning (Bennett et al., 2003). I would like to end with one of my favorite jokes from esteemed humor researcher Victor Raskin. Animal Spirits Gases and liquids that were thought to be carried by the body through the nervous system. Think about whats required for you to get a joke. Theories of laughter and humor originated in ancient times with the view that laughter is an expression of . The main issue with IT is that not all incongruities we experience lead to humor. In other words, laughter is a function of anticipating a different outcome than what was expected. Just as the surrealists might have liked. #2: The Incongruity and Incongruity-Resolution Theories One of the oldest andmost developed theories of humor adopted by Kant, refined by Schopenhauer is, roughly,that humor happens. Defense mechanisms are believed to protect the ego from emotional pain through the unconscious minds distortion of reality. . Jack uses irony, schadenfreude, and the incongruity theory to bring his story to life. (2009). We will be focusing on understanding it in this article. Martin and Ford (2018) describe the three top humor theories. Twinkle, twinkle little star how I wonder what you rooster! The substituted word would always change, but it was typically a noun of some sort and often an animal. Quoted in Huemer n.d. Really almost any placid, extraordinarily dry, joke from Wright might stand as a counter-example to the Relief theory. Want to know more about defense mechanisms? There are problems with it, as there are with all theories. The whole joke is layered with absurdities. Inferiority Theory. In another study examining the effectiveness of humor among individuals with mental illness, a humor-based activity involving clowns (i.e., the therapeutic clown approach) was implemented among psychiatric ward inpatients. Here are a few examples: Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away. Have a shot at working that one out. They have created a moment of incongruity for the audience, helping us realise the inadequacy of our abstract knowledge, without realising this themselves and therefore making themselves look silly. By Steve Buissinne, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. For more on the Relief theory, see Morreall 1983, 20-37; Roberts 2019, 91-93, and Freud 1960. Your friend welcomes you to their home for the first time and says "Let me introduce you to my furry little friend" before opening another door onto their bearded husband, where they had led you to expect a dog. The humor in a pun is the surprise in discovering the dual meaning, or perhaps embarrassment in having chosen the wrong meaning first. The child will continue playing with that rhyme substituting words here and there both with others and by themselves. congruity theory is satisfactory, but I believe it is more satisfactory than previous versions and deserves to be considered in this stronger form. It surely has some and we will briefly cover those next. Outside of a dog, a book is mans best friend. Without it, IT isnt much. So far, youve read about some other attempts to explain the cognitive/mental processes behind the phenomenon of humor. In-congruity theories are essentially cognitive, i.e. There are three main concepts that guide this research; relief theory, incongruity theory, and superiority theory. The jolt of gratification we feel at converting confusion into clarity is exactly what Incongruity Resolution Theory, a popular theory in the psychological study of humor, predicts: humor is the satisfying "click" of an incongruity within the joke being resolved after you find the appropriate interpretive framework. Happiness and humor group promotes life satisfaction for senior center participants. In general, research reviews have documented that positive styles of humor are related to lower perceptions of stress (Mauriello & McConatha, 2007). d) Resolution shows how (within the story world) the incongruity arises. Since we know humor represents an essential strength with all sorts of excellent benefits, it is in our best interest to maximize it as much as possible. On the pigs paint the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 5. They offer to 'cool you down' and you agree. Incongruity is a mismatch between what we see or understand to be true and what we (consciously or unconsciously) expected. Comedians who adopt a more dead-pan style of presentation can leave their audiences confused. One would have expected the store to be run by a black manthats what the sign saysbut the scene intimates that its not. Whereas the previous examples involved. You know its coming. Participants were categorized into either high or low sense of humor groups. Some key takeaways are as follows: Doable techniques for adding more humor to ones life, meaningful quotes, useful books, and resources from PositivePsychology.com are also included. Request Permissions. The question alone is utterly nonsensical. Another way to think about this playful or non-serious approach to incongruity is to think about the difference in a dead-pan performance versus a clown. The relief theory ar-gues that laughter serves to facilitate the relief of pressure for the nervous system (Morreall,2020). Babies can go from laughing to crying in no time when being tickled [9]. The effect of humor on elder mental and physical health. Clocks dont melt like that. Sense of humor, stable affect, and psychological well-being. One says to the other: Does this taste funny to you?. Thank . It is a combination of all three concepts that attempts to fully encapsulate the complex subject of racial comedy. Roughly the general idea is this. By Yuvika Koul, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wikimedia. Hence weve found a counter-example to the theory. Firstly, relief theory argues that the act of laughing helps individuals to "subconsciously overcome inhibitions". The results indicated that adaptive humor was linked to higher levels of self-esteem and happiness. THEORIES OF HUMOR IN THE MOVIE STEP BROTHERS 4 Another theory visible in Step Brothers is the incongruity theory. The researchers found that greater wellbeing was related to affiliative and self-enhancing humor, whereas reduced wellbeing was linked to aggressive and self-defeating humor (Maiolino & Kuiper, 2016). The light bulb joke about the surrealists works because the audience knows a little something about what a surrealist is and then uses that knowledge to make sense of the absurd response. How is this word play an incongruity? The effect of mirthful laughter on stress and natural killer cell activity. In general, all other things being equal, if theres no reason to worry about the incongruity, then laugh. Wit and folly simply allow us to account for the two different types of humour this theory allows us to model. is an example of 'humor went right. Research has supported this idea. They then proceed to pour their drink over you. The most serviceable example of incongruity is the pun, in which a word has multiple meanings, and the meaning of the sentence in which it is included changes dramatically if one or the other meaning is applied. Relief Theory. Remember, regardless of whether we are talking about wit or folly, what makes us laugh is the incongruity we realise exists between abstract and sensuous knowledge. Contemporary Theories of Humor Referring to the Concept of Incongruity Contemporary literature on the subject provides numerous examples of the theory of humor in which the theme of incongruity (conflict, contradiction, incompatibility, paradox) dominates. Zhan, L. (2012). Its not without its issues or critics. Whatever gets you through today: An examination of cynical humor among emergency service professionals. We struggle to understand why. You tell your friend to 'Look up the answer'. They ignore this fact and so foolishly use one as the other. Martin, R. A. Similarly, in their review, Stieger, Formann, and Burger (2011) reported that self-defeating humor was linked to depression and loneliness, whereas self-enhancing humor was related to beneficial outcomes. Martin, R. (1989). You can perform this sort of analysis on most any of the jokes or humor youve experienced. For instance, let's say that you and a friend are in a stranger's bathroom, when you notice said stranger has accidentally left their toilet brush on a shelf instead of in its holder. It also is advantageous for both elderly and child populations. (I know, the Whites frog has now totally expired) If you count them up, there are a number of incongruities in play here. Maiolino, N., & Kuiper, N. (2016). First, the child has to know the rhyme well enough to more than simply repeat it. The belief that laughter heals the mind has been around for centuries. However, it is safe to say that IT is accepted by most researchers as the most accurate and likely true approach to explaining humor. In fact, when you get a joke, so the objection goes, there is no incongruity at all. ulysses is a good example. In this chapter well cover the incongruity theory. Other genres such as the grotesque, the macabre, the horrible, the bizarre, and the fantastic all go against our aesthetic categories, and we don't find them funny, either. Gelkopf, M. (2011). And why not? Cooper, C., & Sosik, J. For example, the mechanism of denial, when used by addicts, serves as a barrier to accepting the addiction and seeking help. Hi Heather, Additionally, in their comprehensive review, Cooper and Sosik (2012) reported that humor at the workplace was linked to enhanced relationships, more creative thinking, more collaborative negotiations, and better customer relations. Askildson, L. (2005). However, she finds herself overwhelmed with an anxious energy that finally reaches its peak at the clowns funeral, where she is mortified by her inability to stop her pressure valve of nervous laughter. One such popular incongruity theory is the incongruity-resolution (IR) theory, which is especially useful for computational models due to its mechanical (rather than descriptive) nature. Mark Twain quite rightly explained humor saying, "Humour is the great thing, the saving thing after all. A friend is performing at an open mic night. Your friend has started out with two pieces of sensuous knowledgea medium brush we use for toilets and a small one we use for teethand intentionally grouped them both under the abstract knowledge of 'toothbrush'. They are reviewed along with neurolinguistic approaches, evolutionary theories of humor and a few mixed and partial theories that have been presented. In the first chapter, I summarize historical and contemporary theories, and show how each either 1) fails to give any definition of humor, 2) fails as a theory of humor, and/or 3) underappreciates, dismisses, White, E. B. and Katherine White. Im writing an essay about humor and wanted to relate it to building relationships within sports, like volleyball. The difference between the two is all about how the contrasts between abstract knowledge and sensuous knowledge are shown. Laughter is also a pleasant sensation and so when we experience the pleasure of incongruity, we- as Schopenhauer puts it- "give ourselves up gladly to the spasmodic convulsions which this apprehension [understanding] excites. We feel good, laughter feels good and so we laugh. Your human perspective makes this use of the brush seem incongruous (def. Klein, D., & Kuiper, N. (2006). Did the punchline fail to add in the number of purple fish needed? Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant. Violated expectations can indeed be funny, as is acknowledged by incongruity theories of humor. In K. S. Cameron & G. M. Spreitzer (Eds.). A fair warning is needed, as jokes are but a small slice of the humor pie. Internalizing criticism erodes self-esteem, a process that may be inhibited by a good sense of humor. The intentional use of classroom humor also has been linked to enhanced learning among nursing students (Ulloth, 2002). More about the theory: Expectancy Violations Marziali, E., McDonald, L., & Donahue, P. (2008). The four-stage model comprises the expectation, incongruity, resolution, and elaboration stages of humor processing. ("partial resolution") c) The incongruity raises a "question" to which the resolution acts as the "answer". Describes the works of dermot bolger, e.m. forster, and kazuo ishiguro. This play then leads to a feeling of delight in the form of humor or mirth. https://youtu.be/4K8EH0GAA9Q (0:0 - 1:34) The clip begins with a group of women staring at an attractive, muscular man across the waterpark. Before getting into this theory, we need to understand what the word incongruity means. These science-based tools will help you move yourself or others through grief in a compassionate way. But as a tool for explicating humor theories, jokes are compact, easily digestible, and thus make for useful examples. Ulloth, J. You reply with "Why, am I marrying her?" This page titled 2.4: Got IT?- Introducing Incongruity Theory is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Michael K. Cundall, Jr. (Lighthearted Philosophers' Society) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request. Hence, one would predict that any experienced incongruity would produce humor. School-age children talking about humor: Data from focus groups. Vaughan, J., Zeigler-Hill, V., & Arnau, R. C. (2014). Legal. One of simplest forms of humor in young children can be found when they actively do something contrary to expectation or norm. Humor as a defense mechanism during the Holocaust. Incongruity: Conflicting ideas, bizarre juxtapositions, and any other gaps between expectations and reality create comedy. The aim of this dissertation is to offer a new theory of humor that takes seriously both the universality and power of humor in culture. If youve spent any time around children when they find something funny, they will quickly wear it out. According to this theory, people are able to . You dont ask about the difference between a single thing; comparison require two things. Schulman-Green, D. (2003). Superiority theory, relief/arousal theory, and incongruity theory, propose different reasons as to what makes a situation humorous. In infants, humor is mainly observed in body and facial expressions during the first year of life. It This was a great help . Your perception of the item is incomplete. They now look silly but you have had it pointed out to you that abstract knowledge is insufficient in this sense. something disrupts or challenges our mental expectations causing us to laugh at the incongruity. At first the incongruity was unexpected, but now it cant be. New York: Kluwer, 1984. Why does this support the IT? The concept of defense mechanisms originated in psychoanalytic theory.
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