Changing the audience's perception of a situation creates humor and the incongruous relationship between human intelligence and mechanical behavior serving as a social corrective helping people recognize behaviors that are inhospitable to human flourishing (Kant, Critique of Judgment I, I, 54).
Completely separate from the above theories is the Theory of Play. Play theories try to classify humor as a theory of play stating that similarities between what is true of play might be true of humor as well.
By looking at laugh triggers, Play Theorists suggest that humor in the behavior of animals such as tickling amongst chimps and even tail wagging amongst dogs is similar to laughing amongst humans. These behaviors are all products of evolutionary development. Meaning that we are born with the instinct to laugh when played with or tickled ((Eastman, the Enjoyment of Laughter, 45).
Eastman states that certain kinds of humor involve mock aggression and insults. A competitive game of tag amongst children often results in laughter suggesting that play activities result in humorous amusement.
PART 2: Joke #1-the Wise Hunter
This joke mainly utilizes the Incongruity Theory of humor. Thomas Veatch states that in order for something to be perceived as humorous, there are three elements that need to be present.
First, there is a prevailing fact that the situation is normal and okay. The hunter's friend has collapsed and the hunter is calling for help. A perfectly normal response to an emergency situation.
The second being that there is a perception that something is wrong and that there is a violation of what should be. The hunter's friend is unconscious and the hunter decides that in order to confirm his death, he will shoot him...
The hunter initially makes the correct decision in calling for help when his friend collapses. but, the situation escalates and the hunter shoots his friend as a response to the question posed by the emergency operator. The collapse of the man and the call for help now do not go well with the subsequent shooting of the man the call for help was made for in the first place.
They are incongruous. Although the scene has been completed logically, it is not what the audience expects the outcome to be. The hunter is simultaneously asking for help and ultimately helping with the demise of his friend, thus resulting in an unexpected situation and humor.
Here and as defined by Bergson, humor corrects our social behaviors and helps us to see what behaviors are detrimental to human survival.
Works Cited
Bergson, Henri. "Laughter." Trans. Wylie Sypher, in Comedy, eds. Wylie Sypher.
Baltimore; Johns Hopkins UP, 1980.
Hobbes, Thomas. Human Nature in English Works, vol. 4, ed. Molesworth (London: (Bohn, 1840).
Kant, I. (1951). Critique of Judgment. (J.H. Bernard, Trans.). New York: Hafner.
Morreal, J. The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor. New York, SUNY, 1987.
Plato. Philebus. In Morreal 1987.
Solomon, Robert. "Are the Three Stooges Funny? Solitarily! (or When is it OK to Laugh?)." Ethics and Values in the Information Age, Eds. Joel Rudinow and Anthony
Graybosch. Wadsworth, 2002.
