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MindOverMatter2
Guest
Why do i laugh? And is it rational to find something funny? Does comedy transcend the mere impulse to laugh; or are will simply laughing at nothing at all?
What is the essence of comedy? Is comedy rational or irrational?
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Earnest_Bunbury
Guest
Rational… but absurd. As they say, all jokes have a basis in reality. It is like Scripture in that all Scripture is based in the literal but that the interpretation is in what happens, not in that you must define what the writer really meant, or what a joke is meant to convey, but that the definition is in the realness of it. Take my wife… please! It is real, but absurd. It is the people who are not “real” that don’t understand Scripture, or jokes.
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prodigalson2011
Guest
Laughter is the physiological response created by the collision of the rationality of the mind with the absurdity of life.
When these circumstances are artfully arranged to induce the effect of laughter, we call it comedy.
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empther
Guest
Good comedy has an element of naughtiness in it but stops short of meanness.
We see a man slip on a banana peel and laugh. But if he gets hurt it’s not funny.
Laughter may be a kind of expression of relief. “Well, he slipped on a banana peel, but I didn’t. Ha ha!”
We see a man slip on a banana peel and laugh. But if he gets hurt it’s not funny.
Laughter may be a kind of expression of relief. “Well, he slipped on a banana peel, but I didn’t. Ha ha!”
meltzerboy
New member
Sigmund Freud discusses comedy, humor, and jokes in his book “Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious.” He states that jokes serve several functions: cognitive, social, cultural, and psychological, and divides humor into different types. It is also worthwhile to look at Henri Bergson’s essay on laughter (Le Rire).
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greylorn
Guest
Great OP!
You laugh because you have a highly functional conscious mind, connected to a brain and vocalization system designed to accommodate the expression of humor. (BTW this suggests that the Designer could also be responsible for wart hogs and catnip, and may be in collusion with whoever engineered the interactions of beer and beans with the human digestive system.)
Humor requires a mind to generate it, another mind to appreciate it. It is the ultimate Turing Test.
Were I to query a potential machine/person in a Turing Test, I would not ask it to tell me a joke. I’d want it to be my partner in a dollar-per-point game of Contract Bridge, to see if it could play, if it had instincts, and if it had a sense of humor. I’d take it along to a big-city WalMart on a shopping trip and see if it found humor in some of the customers’ attire. We must also watch “Shot in the Dark,” “Halilujah Trail,” and some Laurel and Hardy shorts. If the person/machine does not laugh, or laughs at the wrong places, I would know that it is a machine.
Interestingly, a depressingly high percentage of regular human beings would also fail this test.
Any nitwit perfesser with a well-programmed brain can appear rational. A well programmed supercomputer with a humongous database can appear rational. Rationality is the booby prize.
Humor is your certificate of conscious, soul-level intelligence. Embrace it in yourself and demand it of your friends.
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FurtherSuntime
Guest
Each and every moment of consciousness is connected to survival. Think of your peripheral vision and the usual frontal vision. The similar relationship is taking place between the conscious and unconscious mind. They are constantly working together, to ensure survival through maximum safety. If you catch a snowball headed your way in your peripheral vision the information is made ready and we duck. These relationships are necessarily continuous with each breath. The continuous relationship requires some form of accomplishment. The only way accomplishment can be realized is if consciousness itself is diminished and can take a break for a change. Laughter is one of many…
The circumstance of absolute safety or, absolute knowledge of not being alone in fear, will
relax the relationship that is required for maximum safety between the unconscious mind and conscious awareness. When we laugh well…consciousness is severed and the accumulated tension from the relationship evokes laughter , much the same as an earthquake …storring tension-energy and then releasing . A person cannot laugh indefinitely because the stored tension in the above explained relationship has been depleted.
So…when we see someone or even imagine by suggestion a goof up, with an appropiate setting, freedom from the continuous watch is available …it is logically even more funny if the subject is a little cruel natured or whatever because…the idea of that person or whatever has already suggested a threat of some form on an unconscious level…funny cloths as G above points out…presents a person who is apparently in a total comfort zone in which he or she can look and act like a clown…we then laugh through…" the suggestive in safety" a doorway suggested by the clown to …let go of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind…the funny clown says… defenses are not only down…they are radically down…go for it…
we are safe…let go…The clown plays himself for a fool …showing no need for defence…lots of explainable things going on.
A person slips on a banana peal…The stuffy no good and cheap employer would cause a better laugh…why…? because the suggested threat is higher and his demise sends a sure doorway to feel safe…he is not only human it is thought , but this un-likable employer is down on the floor…hes off track…what splendid joy…I always knew it says the emotion in a flash. The tension between the continuous relationship explained above can be released…why…because there is a cessation in operations…a break and the healing release of tension bellows out that laughter as it is safe to do so.
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Charlemagne_II
Guest
Humor assumes the breakdown of rationality, or what you expect reasonable people to say or do…
If anyone doubts that, watch this:
youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M
If anyone doubts that, watch this:
youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M
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Robert_Sock
Guest
Laughter is sin that originates from within the darkness of the unconscious. Humor, on the other hand, is the good spirit that manifests itself from within the fruit of the soul. The truly spirited person laughs at nothing, but can find some kind of humor in almost everything he or she sees.
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MindOverMatter2
Guest
Laughter is a sin? But we have the capacity to laugh. Its an attribute. I don’t get it.
Its seems to me that the ability to see the funny side of life and laugh at it exists as a survival mechanism of sorts, preserving us from insanity.
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MindOverMatter2
Guest
Yes. I laugh at what appears to be irrational. But why?
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MindOverMatter2
Guest
You got some interesting stuff going on here. So are you saying that laughter is essentially about feeling secure? If we can laugh at it, it is no-longer a fret. It makes sense.
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MindOverMatter2
Guest
Thanks.
True. People often talk intelligent; but whether or not they truly comprehend the essence of what they are saying is a different thing entirely. You have an interesting Turin test. But like you say, some human-beings pass for robots, and could easily infiltrate a society of robots.
nice. That would be a good signature or quote.I think we have a moral duty to make each-other laugh.
Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut Greylorn.
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Matrix_Refugee
Guest
Yeah, that one had me scratching my head as well: it’s like saying you can find something funny, but it’s a sin to laugh about it.
Good grief, if that’s the case, I’m a worse sinner than Nero, Genghis Khan, and Jack the Ripper combined: I’m always laughing at humanity’s absurd behavior, such as declaring perfectly wholesome things to be sinful.
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Robert_Sock
Guest
Let me rephrase my post to read ‘sinister’ instead of ‘sin’. The main point that I was trying to convey is that laughter is manifested from the unconscious.
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edwest2
Guest
As a professional editor and amateur media historian, let’s look at comedy.
Sight gags: A man accidentally sits on a board with a bunch of nails sticking up. Another man uses a hammer to remove the board. We know no one is actually injured but it is funny in a way similar to a cartoon character swallowing a stick of dynamite, blowing up and surviving.
Prat falls and exaggerated gestures: Once again, like a cartoon character, a man falls from a great height onto a wooden crate, smashes it and walks away. Or slips on a banana peel and is flung into the air, landing flat on his back and walks away. Or we see a weightlifter straining to lift a large weight. A little later, a regular guy is asked to get something, and mistakenly thinks it’s the weight, which he picks up with no effort. Some comedians would use exaggerated facial expressions, fold up their bodies and walk or one arm suddenly extends from its sleeve to way beyond its normal length.
Robin Williams could do voices, gestures and crazy dialog nonstop for an hour. At least, before the age of greater vulgarity. With all due respect to Mr. Williams, he has not been successful adding profanity to his act. Another one was George Carlin. In his earlier days, he was about words - being fascinated with words - and pointing out how some words and expressions were funny and thought-provoking. As well as his interesting and comical observations about people in general.
Unfortunately, he later stopped being a comic but an advocate for certain issues, plus he added profanity and graphic sexual references to his act. And that’s what too much comedy is today - issue advocacy. If the Church is against it, odds are most comedians are for it. Louis Black, by his own authority, assured his audience that “There’s no such thing as bad language.”
And that brings me to a post I read on another forum which summarizes a message that generally summarizes what most comedians do today: “We no longer want to feel guilty or ashamed or sinful ever again.” A good example of that is amateur Biblical scholar and comedian, Whoopi Goldberg explaining the book of Leviticus to her audience as part of her act. That was no act, and it wasn’t comedy/funny/humorous either.
Peace,
Ed
Sight gags: A man accidentally sits on a board with a bunch of nails sticking up. Another man uses a hammer to remove the board. We know no one is actually injured but it is funny in a way similar to a cartoon character swallowing a stick of dynamite, blowing up and surviving.
Prat falls and exaggerated gestures: Once again, like a cartoon character, a man falls from a great height onto a wooden crate, smashes it and walks away. Or slips on a banana peel and is flung into the air, landing flat on his back and walks away. Or we see a weightlifter straining to lift a large weight. A little later, a regular guy is asked to get something, and mistakenly thinks it’s the weight, which he picks up with no effort. Some comedians would use exaggerated facial expressions, fold up their bodies and walk or one arm suddenly extends from its sleeve to way beyond its normal length.
Robin Williams could do voices, gestures and crazy dialog nonstop for an hour. At least, before the age of greater vulgarity. With all due respect to Mr. Williams, he has not been successful adding profanity to his act. Another one was George Carlin. In his earlier days, he was about words - being fascinated with words - and pointing out how some words and expressions were funny and thought-provoking. As well as his interesting and comical observations about people in general.
Unfortunately, he later stopped being a comic but an advocate for certain issues, plus he added profanity and graphic sexual references to his act. And that’s what too much comedy is today - issue advocacy. If the Church is against it, odds are most comedians are for it. Louis Black, by his own authority, assured his audience that “There’s no such thing as bad language.”
And that brings me to a post I read on another forum which summarizes a message that generally summarizes what most comedians do today: “We no longer want to feel guilty or ashamed or sinful ever again.” A good example of that is amateur Biblical scholar and comedian, Whoopi Goldberg explaining the book of Leviticus to her audience as part of her act. That was no act, and it wasn’t comedy/funny/humorous either.
Peace,
Ed
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