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From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: net.jokes.d
Subject: The source of humour
Message-ID: <158@looking.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Jun-84 00:00:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: looking.158
Posted: Thu Jun 14 00:00:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Jun-84 01:11:13 EDT
References: <255@tellab1.UUCP>
Organization: Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont
Lines: 31

99 and 44/100% of humour is based on something bad going on, but it's not
entirely fair to say that is the most important facet.  There
are several types of humour that are important in themselves.


One fundamental element of humour is the unexpected.  For something
to be funny, it can't be unexpected.  The more unexpected, the better
the impact.  "Why did the chicken cross the road", is a riddle, and you
expect a punch-line, so the answer is unexpected.  At the same time
it's so stupid it reduces the status of the listener because they
didn't expect it. 

This leads to another important aspect, the "status change".  This is
the source of rediculous humour, such as is sometimes done by Monty Python
and the English in general.  Parties in the joke gain, lose, or switch
status.  Only in the case of the "gain status" joke do we have a joke
without pain, ridicule or embarassment.  Examples of this include the
unexpected success (good justice done), and in particular the pun.
Some could argue that such a status gain for the joke teller or party
of the joke implies a cooresponding demotion to others, and perhaps
the listener, but this is not as important here.

Now bad things work so well because they contain a lowering of status
(the listener's value judgement of the parties within, telling and listening
to a joke) and something unexpected.  In particular, since normal
conversation isn't gross, it's easy to be unexpected with something gross.
When we see something good that is unexpected, we are happy in a different
way, and don't laugh.  Thus most unexpected things that make you laugh
involve bad things.
-- 
	Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ontario (519) 886-7304