CONTRAST AS MEANS OF CREATING COMIC EFFECT

YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology
English Philology Chair
GRADUATION PAPER
CONTRAST AS MEANS OF CREATING COMIC EFFECT
( ON THE MATERIAL OF HUMOROUS TEXTS )
STUDENT : Nare Chobanyan
SUPERVISOR: Gayane Girounyan
YEREVAN 2014
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Contents
Introduction …………………………….………………………..... 3
Chapter 1
1.1 Contrast and Its Stylistic Realization in Humorous Texts…….5
1.2 Humor and Irony: A coin called Contrast…………………….12
Chapter 2
2.1. Linguistic elements in creating the comic effect………............14
2.2. Theories of humor and Comic Aesthetics…………………….16
2.3 Comic and humorous devices ……………………..…………..18
2.4 The Language of Humor ……………………………………....30
2.5 Incongruity as a humour mechanism…………………………..32
Conclusion ………………………………….………………………34
Bibliography ………………………………………………………..36
2
Introduction
“ It’s only a joke ”, we often say, but humor is complex, a matter of texts and contexts. As
texts, formal jokes and spontaneous witticisms follow grammatical rules, exploit semantic
associations, convey affect, thought and disposition. In context - that is, as a shared
experience - humor assumes and reveals social and psychological relations, cognitive
processes, cultural norms and value judgements. No wonder, then, that humor, long a
focus of philosophic speculation, is increasingly the subject of scholarly research in a
number of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, medicine,
linguistics, literature and history. If this ongoing work is to advance - given the importance
of seeing texts in variable contexts - the boundaries separating these disciplines must be
crossed.
Literary
journals
publish
essays
on
comedy;
social
science
journals focus on research in isolated fields. Even the few handbooks that
survey
trends
throughout
humor
research
include
chapters
on
many fields.
Humour is universal – it can be found in every society. Yet it is also highly particular, for
there is nothing that is universally funny. Not only are there cultural and individual
differences in humour, but these differences are frequently invested with moral meaning.
We laugh at particular things and we disapprove of laughter at other things. Humor can be
a matter of contention: there is a politics, morality and aesthetics of humour. It is also
reasonable to say that humour is social. We laugh with others, and laughter can help
strengthen social bonds.
My purpose in the pages that follow is to draw attention to the contrast as means of
creating comic effect in humorous texts. I intend not to develop a new theory of humor,
but to connect existing ideas about contrast in humor. What follows is not a study of
literary humorists ( such as Edward Lear, Stephen Leacock and S. J. Perelman ) or of
humorous genres (such as satire, the tall tale, the comic novel, film and essay ) but of
comic effect on the material of humorous texts.
The present Graduation paper consists of an Introduction, two chapters, conclusion and
references.
The first chapter has the following points to discuss: “ Contrast and Its Stylistic
Realization in Humorous Texts ” , “ Contrast efficiency ” , “ Oxymoron , Antithesis , Irony
- stylistic devices of contrast ”, “ Humor and Irony: A coin called Contrast ” . The aim of
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this chapter is to show the peculiarities of contrast and the ways it is used for creating
comic effect on the material of humorous texts.
The second chapter concentrates on comic effects. It has the following points to
discuss: “ Linguistic elements in creating the comic effect ”, “ Theories of humor and
Comic Aesthetics ”, “ Comic effects based on the theory of Paul Lewis ” , “ The Creation
of comic effects by visual means ”, “ Comic devices ”, “ Humorous devices ”, “ The
Language of Humor on the theories of Sigmund Freud and Henri Bergson ”,
“ Incongruity as a humour mechanism”.
This chapter aims at revealing the different options in which contrast plays the most
important role to make the texts humorous. It also presents theories suggested by Sigmund
Freud and Henri Bergson.
The conclusion sums up the results of this research.
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Chapter 1
1.1 Contrast and Its Stylistic Realization in Humorous Texts
Contrast is a rhetorical strategy and method of organization in which a writer
identifies
the
differences
between
two
people,
places,
ideas,
or
things.
In linguistics and semantics contrast is a relationship between two discourse segments.
Contrast is often overtly marked by contrastive markers like ‘ but ’ or ‘ however’ , such as
in the following examples:
It's raining, but I am taking an umbrella.
We will be giving a party for our new students. We won't, however, be serving drinks.
In (1) the first clause, It's raining implies that the speaker will get wet, while the second
clause I am taking an umbrella implies that the speaker will not get wet. Both clauses (or
discourse segments) refer to related situations, or themes, yet imply a contradiction. It is
this relationship of comparing something similar, yet different, that is believed to be
typical of contrastive relations. The same type of relationship is shown in (2), where the
first sentence can be interpreted as implying that by giving a party for the new students, the
hosts will serve drinks. This is of course a defeasible inference based on world knowledge.
The majority of the work on contrast and contrastive relations in semantics has
concentrated on characterizing exactly what semantic relationships can give rise to
contrast. Much early work in semantics also concentrated on identifying what
distinguished clauses joined by ‘ and ’ from clauses joined by ‘ but. ( Attardo Salvatore,
“Linguistic Theories of Humor” ; 767-768 ).
In discourse theory, and computational discourse, contrast is a major discourse
relation, on par with relationship like explanation or narration , and work has concentrated
on trying to identify contrast in naturally produced texts, especially in cases where the
contrast is not explicitly marked.
If Contrast is at the bottom of the comedy of manners and the comedy of epigram. It is not
less in evidence in the comedy of situation. Goldsmith’s ‘ She stoops to conquer ’,
Sheridan’s ‘ School for scandal’ , Hoyt’s ‘ A Texas Steer- all three’, like ‘ Are You a
Mason? ’ And ‘ Charlie’s Aunt ’ and ‘ Little Miss Brown ’ and ever so many others. They
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may incidentally show a conflict of wills and they may be arranged in a series of crises;
but they could get along very well without either.
The comic scenes that live in our memory are scenes depending for their efficiency on
contrast.Thus, the famous screen scene in ‘ The School for Scandal ’ has no volitional
element in it whatever; but it has a delightfully bewildering collection of contrasts in both
character and situation. So , too , in a farce possibly there may be a conflict of wills, but
the audience does not laugh on that account. The scene is funny because of the contrast.
The basic principle of humor creation is the comical contrast. Humor emerges when a
person is flexible enough to be both a Nobel prize winner and an idiot! This type of
“switching” allows for contradictory elements to come together within the creative mix.
Furthermore, when people express themselves verbally as highly educated individuals
when people express themselves verbally as highly educated individuals while behaving in
unconstrained or even naughty ways at the level of body language, this also constitutes a
comical contrast. It is possible to produce comical contrasts at a purely verbal level as
illustrated in the following examples:
- “ Here is a piece of scholastic wisdom: A soft fart wets the pants! ”
- “ Out of the greatest respect for you I dare to ask: May I kick you in the pants ? ”
- “ Eternal nothingness is okay if you are dressed appropriately ” ( W. Allen ).
- “ Existential being could be a big illusion. If so, I definitely paid too much for my
carpet” ( W. Allen ).
- “ It is statistically proofed that one-third of mankind is incredibly stupid. Okay, that
might be true. But what about the other third ? ”
- “ It might be true that God does not exist, but try to find a plumber on a weekend ! ”
(W.Allen)
To practice comical contrasting, we need to get off the freeway of logical thinking and
take the exit to stupidity as often as possible. However, we need to return as soon as
possible! Otherwise, we would be idiots, not humorists. (Arthur Koestler, “ Theory of
bisociation” ) called this process “ bisociation” , or playing with stupidity in an intelligent
way or playing with stupidity in an intelligent way. The Munich stand-up comedian Karl
Valentin once said: “ I am going to visit me. I do hope that I will be home! ” On one
occasion someone said to Valentin: “ Do you know that Herr Meyer has died ? ” Valentin
replied: “Oh, that's the reason why he shows up so rarely ! ”
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Traditionally Oxymoron, Antithesis and Irony are considered the stylistic devices of
contrast.
Oxymoron ( Greek oxys + moros - " pointedly foolish " ) is a
stylistic
device
the
syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clash. It involves a combination
of
two contrasting
some
ideas
features
within the
to
an
same
object
syntactical
whole, thus ascribing
incompatible
with
it.
Antithesis ( Greek anti + thesis - " opposition " ) is a stylistic device involving the use of
a parallel construction , the two parts of which must be semantically opposed to each
other.
Irony is a stylistic device involving the use of a parallel construction ,
the two
parts of which must be semantically opposed to each other.
Irony ( Greek eironeia - " mockery concealed " ) - as a trope - is a stylistic device in
which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary
meaning .
As a rule , one of the two members of oxymoron illuminates the feature which is
universally observed and acknowledged while the other one offers a purely subjective
individual perception of the object . Kukharenko names three structural patterns that are
possible ( the first three points in the table below ) , the forth is mentioned in the text-book
Stylistics by Galperin (76-77).
a. Attributive
structuture
(
the
most
widely
known
structure
)
“ with careful carelessness ”
b. Verbal structures
“ to shout mutely ” “ to cry silently ” (Wilson)
c. Non-attributive structures “ the street damaged by improvements ” (O. Henry)
“silence was louder than thunder ” (Updike)
d. Adverbial-attributive structures
“ awfully pretty ” (Cusack)
Oxymora rarely become trite, for their components, linked forcibly, repulse each other
and oppose repeated use. There are few
colloquial oxymora , colloquial oxymora all of
them showing a high degree of the speaker's emotional involvement in the situation, as in "
damn nice ," "awfully pretty".
If we pay attention to the structure and semantics of the oxymora, we notice which of their
members conveys the individually viewed feature of the object and which one reflects its
generally accepted characteristic:
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1. If out of my meager vocabulary only the term unenthusiastic excitement comes
anywhere near describing the feeling with which all my thoughts were suffused, you must
resolve
my
meaning
from
that
term's
dissonance.
(Earth)
2. " Heaven must be the hell of a place. Nothing but repentant sinners up there, isn't it? "
(Delaney)
3. He opened up a wooden garage. The doors creaked. The garage was full of nothing.
(Chandler)
4. He caught a ride home to the crowded loneliness of the barracks.
(Jones)
5. Sprinting towards the elevator he felt amazed at his own cowardly courage. (Markey)
6. They were a bloody miserable lot - the miserablest lot of men I ever saw. But they were
good to me. Bloody good.
(Steinbeck)
7. Harriet turned back across the dim garden. The lightless light looked down from the
night sky.
(Murdoch)
8. It was an open secret that Ray had been ripping his father-in-law off . (Uh-nak)
9. A neon sign reads "Welcome to Reno - the biggest little town in the world ." (A. M.)
10. Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield are Good Bad Boys of American literature . (Vallins)
11. He was sure the whites could detect his adoring hatred of them . (Wright)
In contrast to oxymoron the two opposed notions of an antithesis can refer to the
same object of thought or to different objects. Antithesis is based on the use of antonyms,
both usual (registered in dictionaries) and occasional or contextual. It is essential to
distinguish between antithesis and what is termed contrast. Contrast is a literary (not
linguistic) device, based on logical opposition between the phenomena set one against
another.
For example :
1. Don't use big words . They mean so little .
(Wilde)
2. ... quite frequently , things that are obvious to other people aren't even apparent to me .
(Barth)
3. ... drunkenness was an amusing but unquestioned vice : churchgoing a soporific but
unquestioned virtue .
(Barth)
4. I like big parties . They are so intimate . At small parties there isn't any privacy .
(Fitzgerald)
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5. Rup wished he could be swift , accurate , compassionate and stem instead of clumsy and
vague and sentimental .
(Murdoch)
6. His coat-sleeves being a great deal too long, and his trousers a great deal too short , he
appeared ill at ease in his clothes .
(Dickens)
7. It is safer to be married to the man you can be happy with than to the man you cannot
be happy without .
(Esar)
8. It was the best of times , it was the worst of times , it was the age of wisdom , it was the
age of foolishness , it was the epoch of belief it was the epoch of incredulity , it was the
season of Light , it was the season of Darkness , it was the spring of hope , it was the
winter of despair : we had everything before us . We had nothing before us. We were all
going direct to Heaven , we had everything before us . We had nothing before us. We were
all going direct to Heaven we were all going direct the other way - in short the period was
so far like the present period , that some of its nosiest authorities insisted on its being
received for good or for evil , in the superlative degree of comparison only . (Dickens)
9. His fees were high : his lessons were light .
(O. Henry)
Irony occurs when a person says one thing but really means something
Therefore, irony does not exist
phenomenon and
means.
Three
may
be
kinds
outside the context. Irony is a
achieved
of
both
irony
by linguistic
are
and
usually
else .
wide-ranging
extralinguistic
distinguished.
Verbal (or linguistic) irony is a figure of speech involving discrepancy between what is
said and what is meant. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word reverses the
direction of the evaluation, and the word positively charged is understood as a negative
qualification and (much rarer) vice versa.
Besides, according to Skrebnev, irony can be based on stylistic incongruity. It happens
when highflown, elevated linguistic units are used in reference to insignificant, socially
low topics.
In cases of extra-linguistic irony it is usually extended over a whole story.
In dramatic irony the contrast is between what a character says and what the reader knows
to be true. The value of this kind of irony lies in the comment it implies on the speaker or
the speaker's expectations.
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In irony of situation (or irony of life) the discrepancy is between appearance and reality, or
between expectation and fulfillment, or between what is and what would seem appropriate.
Thus, irony makes it possible to suggest meanings without stating them. It can be used to
convey both the seriousness and humour of situations .
1.
She
turned
with
the
sweet
smile
of
an
alligator.
(Steinbeck)
2.
The book was entitled Murder at Milbury Manor and was a whodunit of the more
abstruse type, in which everything turns on whether a certain character, by catching the
three-forty-three train at Hilbury and changing into the four-sixteen at Milbury, could have
reached Silbury by five-twenty-seven , which would have given him just time to disguise
himself and be sticking knives into people at Bilbury by six-thirty-eight . (Woodhouse)
3. When the war broke out she took down the signed photograph of the Kaiser and with
some solemnity , hung it in the men-servants’ lavatory : it was her own combative action.
(Murdoch)
4. From her earliest infancy Gertrude was brought up by her aunt. Her aunt had care­fully
instructed her to Christian principles . She had also taught her Mohammedanism, to make
sure.(Leacock)
5. She's a charming middle-aged lady with a face like a bucket of mud and if she has
washed her hair since Coolidge's second term. I'll eat my spare tire, rim and all. (Chandler)
6. With all the expressiveness of a stone
twenty
seconds
apparently
hoping
to
Welsh stared at him another
see
him
gag.
(Chandler)
7. Apart from splits based on politics, racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds and specific
personality differences , we're just one cohesive team.
(Uhnak)
8. I had been admitted as a partner in the firm of Andrews and Bishop, and throughout
1927 and 1928 I enriched myself and the firm at the rate of perhaps forty dollars a month.
(Barth)
9. But every Englishman is born with a certain miraculous power that makes him master of
the world. As the great champion of freedom and national independence he conquers and
annexes half the world and calls it Colonization. (Bernard Shaw)
Examples of oxymoron, antithesis, and irony :
1. Sara was a menace and a tonic, my best enemy; Rozzie was a disease, my worst friend.
(Cory)
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2.
Mrs.
Nork
had
a
large
home
and
a
small
husband.
(Lewis)
3. Bookcases covering one wall boasted a half-shelf of literature. (Capote)
4.
You
have
got
two
beautiful
bad
examples
for
parents.
(Fitzgerald)
5. A very likeable young man with a pleasantly ugly face.
(Cronin)
6. There were some bookcases of superbly unreadable books.
(Waugh)
7. I liked him better than I would have liked his father... We were fellow strangers.
(Greene)
8. All this blood and fire business tonight was probably pan of the graft to get the
Socialists chucked out and leave honest business men safe to make their fortunes out of
murder.
(Charteris)
9. I'm interested in any number of things, enthusiastic about nothing.
(Barth)
10. Ah. me. Everything . I'm afraid, is significant, and nothing is finally important. (Barth)
11. A local busybody, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, asked an expectant
mother point-blank whether she was going to have a baby. '"Oh . goodness , no." the
young woman said pleasantly. "I'm just carrying this for a friend." (Wodehouse)
12. I also assure her that I'm an Angry Young Man. A black humorist. A white Ne­gro.
Anything.
(Richler)
13. Last time it was a nice, simple. European - style war. (Irving Shaw)
1.2 Humor and Irony: A coin called Contrast
This way of understanding irony offers a dynamic view of the phenomenon which
may include both obvious cases and not so representative ones. On the one hand, those
cases where the speaker blatantly transgresses quality and most of the cases in which this
principle is inverted are clearly ironic, since they play with oppositions of meaning, and
contrary as well as contradictory values. Furthermore, this explanation provides a sort of
continuity between irony and humor: the least representative cases of irony are precisely
quite obvious cases of humor, since the initial transgression of quality leads to a
substitution of semantic frames
or , more generally, of communicative levels.
Both irony and humor involve contrast , but , whereas the former is based on an inclusive
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contrast, the latter is based on an exclusive one. However, no clear-cut distinction can
really be drawn between them. From this perspective, it comes as no surprise to check that
irony has been usually linked to negation. For instance, in Gloria’s view ( 1995; 240-241) ,
irony is a kind of indirect negation; in other words, a negation without an explicit negative
mark. Similarly, in the definition offered by the Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics,
Marino ( 1998; 410) insists on describing negation as the most representative feature of
irony.
As for humor, it has been traditionally characterized as a clash of semantic frames,
although the way in which this procedure has been explained varies according to the
theoretical model adopted. In fact, ever since the appearance of the structuralist approach,
In fact, ever since the appearance of the structuralist approach In fact, ever since the
appearance of the structuralist approach humor was linked to the discursive encounter of
two isotopies. The Script Semantic Theory of Humor ( SSTH) has more recently
highlighted what defines a humorous text from a semantic point of view. According to
SSTH, scripts must be opposed for a text to be humorous. (Vladimir Propp - On the
Comic and Laughter; 41-45)
Irony exhibits an inclusive contrast, since it is triggered by an obvious and assumed
transgression of quality. This infringement may directly affect what is said or may invert
some of its systematic, normal inferences. In turn, humor is based on an exclusive contrast
because, even though the frames coexist or alternate throughout the discourse, the
humorous interpretation of the utterance should opt for one of them. Nevertheless, the
limits between them are far from clear.
Contrast of appearance and personality was the hallmark of comedy teams, and
the laughs coming from something so basic as ‘ differences’ was the reason so many
comedians decided to work in twos. Stan Laurel – thin, remorseful, nervous, quiet, and
lacking confidence – complemented his partner Oliver Hardy – a fat, loud. Boisterous,
temperamental , and self-assured buffoon – and slapping laughs with their personalities –
she with her patrician beauty and literal language and he with his puzzled expressions and
cigar.
Humor can be created by revearsing, opposing, or ontrasting characters, expectations,
actions, words, tones, images, and settings. Humor can be created by using any detail
that’s playfully unusual. Like all good writings, good humor is concrete.
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Concrete details conjure more humor than abstract or general ones because their
incongruities clash more directly with normalcy; with abstract or general words, the
incongruities disperse and the out-focus meaning mellows the humor, creating a weaker
effect. Of course, there is no need to use concrete words all the time to create humor,
sometimes the writing calls for abstract or general language.
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Chapter 2
2.1 Linguistic elements in creating the comic effect
This chapter sketches an approach which encompasses not only the verbal but also the
non-verbal dimension of humor in comics. The chapter focuses on the semiotic
complexity of playing on verbal and non-verbal signs. This chapter presents a
framework for studying the translation of comics in humor as a multimodal practice
on the premise that translation is a cultural, rather than linguistic phenomenon.
While studies of the general area of humor are mainly concerned with jokes, the study
of comics tends to foreground other comic techniques. Jokes can generally be
described as autonomous textual entities, with a similar sequential organization (i.e.
introduction, text, reaction) , which are structured so as to lead up to a punch line and
are not necessarily dependant on contextual factors (cf. Attardo 1994; 296-311).
Comics, in contrast, are narrative texts ( whose plot need not be comical) which
contain humorous elements but whose comic effect results from the overall narrative
context. Rather than jokes, comics often work with techniques such as verbal and nonverbal puns, parody, illusion and intertextual reference. Their comic effect comes not
from the punch line, which Kotthoff defines as a “clash between two perspectives”,
but from the “dual perspectivisation ” of different contexts (Kotthoff 1996;250).
Comics are very strongly governed by conventions (cf. Kloepfer 1976; 43 ), both in
terms of positioning of individual panels, i.e. macro-structure, and in terms of the
pictorial representation on the micro-structural level, i.e. within the panels. Moreover,
the depiction of culture-specific objects or behaviours can lead to comprehension
problems in translation. This also affects the rendition of comic elements, as will be
shown be a few examples below.
Discourse analytical studies of humour have shown that non-verbal elements like
facial expressions and gestures often play a significant role in the perception of a
spoken utterance as humorous or funny. Moreover, the depiction of culture-specific
objects or behaviours can lead to comprehension problems in translation. This
interdependence between verbal and non-verbal components is also significant in the
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way behaviour is depicted in comics in which actions and dialogues are closely
intertwined with the visual representation of the characters.
A good example for this can be found in the history “ L’homme aux 7 douleurs ”, from
Les Frustrés by Claire Brétecher.
Example1.
…a hypochondriac keeps pestering his girlfriend with his imagined ailments. The comic
effect in this case results from the tension between the woman’s routinely unimpressed
response to the fears of the hypochondriac, and the latter’s ( mis )perception of this
response as showing genuine concern for his complaints. This is conveyed both verbally
and by gestures. The latter include the swearing of an oath, with which the woman
unflinchingly assures the man that she would not hesitate to tear out with her own hands
any tubes to which he might be connected for life support. Unlike in France, where the
swearing of an oath is indicated non-verbally by an extended forearm and by spitting on
the floor, the corresponding gesture in the German-speaking area would be a raised hand,
the index and middle fingers of which have previously been put to one’s tongue. Sine
German readers will be unfamiliar with the French gesture and will not recognize it as
representing the swearing of an oath, the comic effect created by the woman’s non-verbal
behaviour will in part be lost.
Example2.
The football is part of a running gag: Lucy will hold the ball, and whenever Charlie Brown
tries to kick it, she pulls it away, sending Charlie to take a dive onto the ground. In the
American version, the action of holding the ball makes perfect sense, since the oval ball
used in American football needs to be set up in this way for the kick. In the German
version with a round ball used for soccer, whose rules do not permit players to touch the
ball, the act of holding the ball appears unmotivated or to serve no other purpose than
pulling it away, thus rendering the gag much less effective. Though it is true, that the
monomodal (pictorial) comic effect is maintained in German, we find change in the type
of humour. Whereas the original uses slapstick-like humor, with many repeated instances
of a violation of expectable behavior the original uses slapstick-like humour, with many
repeated instances of a violation of expectable behaviour, Lucy’s behaviour in the German
versions is unusual from the start; the act of holding the ball has no counterpart in reality,
which renders the comic somewhat absurd.
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“Comic effects will be lauded in the academic journals as a salient contribution to the
study of humor.” _Joseph Boskin, Bostin University
Lewis (Assoiate professor of English at Boston College) draws on both humor theories
and research, arguing for the development of interdisciplinary methodologies in the study
of literary humor. He demonstrates that the sociologist of humor and the comic playwright
approach the same subject_ humor in and between groups_ with different tools, that
writers of Bildungsromane and developmental psychologists share a common interest in
the role of humor in maturation, and that the monsters that haunt the psyches of
professional comedians can be useful in understanding the odd minglings of humor and
fear in Gothic fiction. His treatment of writers who differ widely in their use of humor
suggests that the complexity and diversity of humor make it a richly variable determinant
of character, genre, and writer.
The creation of comic effects by visual means also relies heavily on intertextual relations,
which, according to Genette (1982), include quotations and plagiarisms as well as textual
allusioins and, in particular, parodies. Following
Kotthoff (1996; 264), a parody is
defined here as the imitation and functional transformation of source-text structures. The
understanding of parody is culture-bound. Comics must be viewed as complex multimodal
texts. All of the verbal and non-verbal elements of this genre can, in principle, be used
also to create humorous and comic effects.
2.2 Theories of Humor and Comic Aesthetics
The three main theories of humor – Incongruity theory, superiority theory and psychic
release theory – largely explain what makes things funny in terms of semantic content
( Cook 2000; Ross 1998 ).Incongruity theory emphasizes clashes between two competing
semantic schemata, superiority theory focuses on semantic or experiential blunders by a
group of others; and psychic release theory stresses the role of taboo semantic domains. Of
the three theories, incongruity theory is both the most influential theory and the theory that
places the greatest emphasis on semantic content in humor. Incongruity theory, and its
most detailed statement, the general theory of verbal humor (Attardo 2001; Attardo and
16
Raskin 1991), argue that humor is created when schemata either overlap or are broken
(Cook 2000, Minsky 1985; Raskin 1985, 2008). Schemata, also termed scripts and frames,
refer to cognitive structures of knowledge of ordinary events ( Nassaji 2002) which enable
participants to generate expectations of what is likely to be heard or read next. Generally,
people find things funny under two broad circumstances: first, when an incongruity is
created either by breaking a script through the inclusion of content at odds with the script
or by breaking a script through the inclusion of content at odds with the script or by
activating a mix of two conflicting scripts; and second , when the incongruity is resolved
( Deckers and Avery 1994).In such cases, the most likely expectations generated by the
original schema at the start of a joke are not fulfilled; rather, they are replaced by
expectations from
a second, less highly activated, schema, which may be applied
retrospectively. Where no resolution is possible, the supposed joke may just be perceived
as illogical. Where no resolution is possible, the supposed joke may just be perceived as
illogical. This process can be seen most clearly in children’s jokes such as ‘ What do you
call a cow lying on the earth ?’ ‘Ground beef ’. Here, the word ‘ground’ can be interpreted
in two ways based on two conflicting schemata associated with ‘earth’ and ‘beef’ , and the
joke is resolved by accepting that ‘ground beef’, the most likely meaning of which is
minced meat, can also be interpreted literally as a ‘cow lying on the earth’. Incongruity
theory, then, clearly foregrounds semantic content as the central and necessary factor in
how people understand jokes (Scovel 2001).
This centrality of semantic content to humor has been supported by numerous research
studies. While semantic content creating incongruity may be essential to humor, it seems
likely that a range of humor or in increasing the funniness of humor based on certain
semantic content.
Systematic functional linguistics proposes that there are three main purposes of language,
termed metafunctioins: the ideational concerning content, the interpersonal concerning
social purposes and interaction, and the textual concerning organization and linking within
texts. Considering the importance of semantic content in what people find funny, it is clear
that the ideational metafunctioin is central to humor. Within linguistics research, much
research into the interpersonal metafunction has focused on the linguistic elements used to
achieve certain goals ranging from politeness and honorification ( Kashyap 2008).
17
‘Comedy’ is often presumptuously defined as a performance-oriented genre imbued with
humorous and satirical elements wherein the hero must confront and overcome some type
of adversity. Comedy illuminates not the ideal, but the profane, imperfect qualities of
heroes. Comic moments in the text reveal the truth that characters seek to be hidden.
Moreover, comedy exposes the imperfect interior nature of characters that outwardly
would seem perfectly constructed. There must be a reaction on the part of the reader in
order to confirm a comic moment. This necessity creates a kind of ‘circuit’ between the
reader and the text, as well as all of the mechanisms contained within the crux of the text,
including the deployment of the comic aesthetics .
Humor is for the all- consoling and the all- excusing grace of life. Hence it is
invaluable as a means of destroying shame… Mere cowardice is shameful; Cowardice
boasted of with humorous exaggerations and grotesque gestures can be passed off as
funny. Cruelty is shameful- unless the cruel man can represent it as practical joke.
2.3 Comic and humorous devices
1. Verbal Irony – What is said/written is the opposite of the meaning. When caustic or
harsh, can be sarcasm.
Example: "So anyway I feel terrible." Tri-Cities and Fabio Have Ups and Downs, Dave
Barry, page 1, line 72.
Function: In this article, and the one before it, the author spent the whole time insulting
and making fun of the Tri-Cities. Then, here, he admits feeling bad. He doesn’t mean this
at all – he feels the complete opposite. He then returns to mocking the Tri-Cities.
2. Situational Irony – What happens is the opposite of what is expected. It’s not a
coincidence.
Example: "…when you require assistance there is never anyone around." Shopping
Madness, Bill Bryson, page 2, line 83.
Function: Most of the time, when in a store, the employees are offering help finding items
or showing new sales. But the times that you need help, the author says, it seems like the
18
employees are all gone. If the employees really wanted to help you, you would expect that
they would be around when you wanted help.
3. Dramatic Irony – A character is unaware of the context in which they are speaking. The
audience, however, understands the circumstances and situation.
Example: "DID I have the chance to buy the first "Harry Potter" manuscript? Yes. Do I
regret it? Not for a second." The Editor’s Tale, John Kenney, page 1, line, 5.
Function: The writer doesn’t regret his decision to pass on the Harry Potter book, one of
the most anticipated book of the year. He is oblivious to that the fact that it was probably
one of the best books of all time for an editor to choose, and he passed it up. The author
was unaware of his mistake, and still thinks that it was a good choice.
4. Hyperbole – An extreme magnification or exaggeration of actuality. It blows something
completely out of proportion for a distorted effect.
Example: "The young man took ten minutes to change the receipt roll…" Shopping
Madness, Bill Bryson, page 2, line 116.
Function: The writer is trying to prove the point how slow stores can be. He goes beyond
what is reasonable for the comic effect. The article is filled with overstatements like this to
catch the reader’s attention.
5. Understatement – The opposite of a hyperbole. Making something seem much less than
what it is. An unexaggertion.
Example: "…it is like saying fish appreciate water" Shopping Madness, Bill Bryson, page
1, line 24.
Function: It’s common knowledge that fish must live in water to stay alive, so to say that
they "appreciate" it is underrating the fish’s need. Most of the rest of the article is filled
with hyperboles, so the opposite has a neat effect.
6. Pun – It is the intentional confusion of two homophones where both meanings work. It
is sometimes called a play on words.
Example: "…the booming construction behind Columbia Center mall." Tri-Cities and
Fabio Have Ups and Downs, Dave Barry, page 1 line 52.
Function: The key word here is booming. The first meaning could be that it is a
productive, successful construction area. The other meaning, however, could be that it is a
noisy construction area behind the mall. Although, this is a subtler pun, if noticed, can
have the same comic effect.
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7. Parody – Known by also as a spin-off or spoof, a parody is an imitation of another’s
work, usually in a humorous way to poke fun at the original work. This can be done in
television, music, posters, writing, and other media. Usually, for a better effect, a parody
makes fun of a famous or well-known piece of work, so the audience has a better chance
of recognizing the original.
Example: "Let’s keep our nation free from terror, from sea to glowing sea." Tri-Cities and
Fabio Have Ups And Downs, Dave Barry, page 1, line 167.
Function: Starting with, "nation," the writer gets the audience thinking of the country, so
that when he says, "from sea to glowing sea," the reader should make the connection to
where they’ve heard that before. The parody is of "America, the Beautiful, " in the lines,
"from sea to shining sea."
8. Absurdity – Often in a list, absurdity is the wrong or improper use of examples. They
stand out immediately as not in the right place or situation.
Example: "…we don’t know whether the ants are killed, or will mutate again and become
agents, or what." High-tech Twinkie War Will Be No Picnic, Dave Barry, page 2, line 24.
Function: The list starts with reasonable examples, and quickly changes to absurdity. It’s
possible that the ants will be killed, but that will mutate into agents has nothing to do with
any part of the article. The possibilities start logical and feasible, but then there is an
absurd example to catch the reader’s attention.
9.Incongruity – When something happens out of place or it is not in its normal
environment. This can also be a person acting out of character.
Example: "Muggers grabbing purses or gold chains. Degenerates whispering lewd
romantic overtures to defenseless ladies." If We’re Gonna Have Guns, Let’s Get ‘em Out
In the Open – Or Else!, Mike Royko, page 1, line 33.
Function: Degenerates are people who are typically criminal, corrupt people. They
wouldn’t be the type to whisper anything romantic, especially an overture, to someone.
Their actions would be radically out of place; thus incongruity.
10. Oxymoron – A short phrase that is contradictory in itself. One part has an opposite
meaning from the other.
Example: "…but I distinctly remember the day I signed N. Wizbicki for her manuscript,
20
" Spontaneity and How to Plan for It!" The Editor’s Tale, John Kenney, page 1, line 23.
Function: The oxymoron is in the title, "Spontaneity and How to Plan for It!" The
definition of spontaneity is impulsiveness and sudden, often irrational. To plan spontaneity
defeats its purpose and meaning.
11. Allusion – A reference to some other piece of work, an event in history, a person,
place, or idea not stated or explained. The reader is expected to know about the allusion, so
it is usually a well-known reference.
Example: "…roller-coaster ride, ‘Apollo’s Chariot,’ named for Apollo, the ancient Roman
god of motion sickness." Dave Barry, Tri-Cities and Fabio Have Ups and Downs, page 1,
line 137.
Function: If you don’t know much about mythology, this joke wouldn’t be funny. The
ancient Roman and Greek gods had an affection for certain things, like light, or travelers,
or musicians, or war. All of them were fairly general groups, and for mostly noble things.
To be the god of motion sickness (which wasn’t identified at the time) was to be the god of
a specific, unattractive thing, unlike the way mythology portrayed them.
12. Absurdity: Something may be described as “absurd” when it lacks meaning or seems
absolutely insane.
13.Ambiguity: Something is ambiguous when it may be interpreted/understood in more
ways than one.
Example:
“What do you call a short sighted dinosaur?
A do-you-think-he-saw-us !”
14. Bathos: “Low” comedy. Often deals with excrement, sex, farting etc.
Example: The Mary Tyler Moore Show had an episode that involved the death of the
clown Chuckles, who was killed very brutally by a stampeding elephant. Everyone on the
station keeps making jokes about it that Mary does not approve of. Later on, when she
attends the funeral, she starts laughing hysterically while the rest of the people stare at her
exasperated.
Absurd styles of humor can use this method. Such is the television series Police Squad,
which uses Bathos very often. Excerpts from The Naked Gun show numerous points
where a serious scenario is built up only to knock it down subsequently with Frank
Drebin’s silly comments. For example:
21
“FRANK: A good cop – pointlessly cut down by some spineless hoodlums.
ED: That’s no way for a man to die.
FRANK: No… you’re right, Ed. A parachute not opening… that’s a way to die, getting
caught in the gears of a combine… having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that’s the way
I want to go!
WILMA NORDBERG: Oh… Frank. This is terrible!
ED: Don’t you worry, Wilma. Your husband is going to be alright. Don’t you worry about
anything! Just think positive. Never let a doubt enter your mind.
FRANK: He’s right, Wilma. But I wouldn’t wait until the last minute to fill out those
organ donor cards. (The Naked Gun, 1988)
Function: Bathos is a device, which if used skillfully, can really build up a nice comic
scene. Bathos brings a certain degree of wit to a scene by highlighting the contrast in tone.
Initially, it is used to create a serious and powerful dramatic situation. This might be
slightly hard to create for comedy writers. Thus, comedy writers must be very careful
when they insert jokes here and there in the middle of a serious scene. There is a great
danger that their jokes will break the tempo of a serious scene in a prose.
15. Black comedy: A sub-genre of comedy where topics and events that are usually treated
seriously (death, disease, domestic violence, drug abuse, terrorism, etc.) are treated in a
humorous or satirical manner.
16. Carnival: The carnival element is employed in humour when the social scales are
inverted.
Example: The King becomes the bum, or the bum becomes king (often for a short period
of time.) It is funny to see how people perform outside their natural environment.
17. Caricature: A drawing or portrait that exaggerates or oversimplifies certain traits in a
person's looks in order to make him look funny or stress a certain part of that person's
character.
Example: Chief Wiggum is a caricature of a policeman because his nose is a pig's snout.
This “piggishness” stresses his corrupt nature etc.
18. Exaggeration and understatement: Humour often depends upon exaggerated characters,
events or situations.
Example: "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in
London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious
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nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no
doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragoust."
-Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
Swift makes use of bland understatement to advance his "proposal"; the organized
cannibalism of poor children.
" Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flea the carcass; the
skin of which, artificially dressed, will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer
boots for fine gentlemen."
Dr. Swift rapidly takes his proposal to its logical extreme in order to thoroughly lampoon
callous attitudes towards the poor.
His uses of both exaggeration and understatement make "A Modest Proposal" arguably
one of the most sarcastic works of the 18th century, if not all time.
*19.Physical comedy and visual Gags: A visual gag (a sight gag) is something that
conveys humor visually, often without words being used at all. Silent films often employed
this type of humor.
Example: One of countless memorable examples is the gag in "No, This is Not Based
Entirely on Julie’s Life" (2-1) where Joe sets traps to find out who has been stealing his
prized gelato. Lisa and Beth are having a conversation in the break room. When they go to
get something out of the freezer a beeping sound starts. They casually break their
conversation, turn around with their hands in the air and nonchalant looks on their faces
until Joe sticks his head in to check out the culprits and close the freezer door. Similarly,
the Basic Instinct gag from "Rose Bowl" (3-15) needed few words. They were also never
afraid to use purely visual gags. For example, in "The Secret of Management" (4-9), Mr.
James brings Lisa to his place to teach her the Secret of Management. On the street Lisa
heads for the stretch limousine, expecting this to be Mr. James’ transportation. Mr. James
instead steers her towards a World War II motorcycle with sidecar. Furthermore, he gives
the keys to Lisa and gets in the sidecar. The whole scene transpires without a word.
We should spend a moment discussing News Radio’s comic efficiency. There is one
breathtaking sequence in "Who’s the Boss (Part 1)" (4-12) where eight gags roll into each
other in rapid succession. Joe is on strike but his inability to fix things is driving him crazy.
The sequence starts with Beth fixing the coffee machine while Joe sits nearby reading a
magazine and saying "hot" or "cold." The sequence starts with Beth fixing the coffee
23
machine while Joe sits nearby reading a magazine and saying "hot" or "cold." Dave, a
coffee addict, looks over proceedings impatiently, empty mug in hand. These form gags
one and two. Gag one ends with Beth blowing up part of the coffee machine. Dave is
distraught — "My God, woman! What have you done?" Gag two segues into gag three:
Bill steps out of the News Director’s office and calls over Matthew who has bought eleven
cups of coffee from downstairs; "I believe you take yours black," Bill tells Dave. Gag three
involves Bill being such a good boss that he is ahead of the game. Gag four involves Dave
grabbing six cups of coffee for himself and rushing off. This then segues into gag five with
Bill trying to send the incompetent Matthew on another simple chore. Gag six is Bill
efficiently organizing Lisa, Beth, and Dave in order to report a bomb scare. Gag seven is
Bill walking back to the office, but stopping to provide a speedy but highly professional
statement of management’s position to the striking Joe. Gag eight is Bill fixing the coffee
machine by cutting a wire and explaining, Gag eight is Bill fixing the coffee machine by
cutting a wire and explaining, "The ground wire from the timer was shorting out the
heating element." These eight gags take barely more than two minutes of screen time. This
is faster than even the greatest Thirties screwball comedies were able to achieve.
In addition, many gags were multiplied across the relationships of all the characters of the
ensemble cast, achieving an elegant complexity that I have not seen since Chaplin’s best
films. I will illustrate this point with a gag from one of my favorite episodes, "Stocks" [39]. In this episode, Lisa’s office chair starts squeaking, but Joe says he cannot fix it. When
Lisa asks what she should do, Joe answers that she should ask Dave for a new chair,
hinting at her receiving special treatment by saying "Well, you know when you need
something, you just have to go in there and ask your Sugar Daddy." Catherine chimes in
with "Lisa, I need a new stapler, so if you get a chance while you’re in there with Dave
shaking your stuff for a new chair, could you ask him for...." Lisa’s response to all this is
the eminently quotable line, "Where did everybody get the idea that I’m some sort of
office supply whore?" Bill then throws more wood on the fire by adding that he needs
some more thumbtacks but Dave doesn’t seem to respond to his backrubs. Lisa asserts that
she tries very hard to maintain a professional relationship with Dave in the office, allowing
Bill to further the innuendo in his incomparable fashion with "That’s the best way. Don’t
get emotionally involved. Just lie back, close your eyes…."
24
The gag gathers momentum later in the episode when Dave, segueing from one gag
to the next, notices Lisa’s squeaking chair, but Lisa refuses to let him buy her a new one.
She swivels side to side on the chair to show Dave that the squeaking does not bother her.
Two seconds into this, Catherine walks by briefly in the background and sardonically
comments, "That’s right. Shake it, honey." An exasperated reaction shot from Lisa
heightens the comedy. This sequence is shot in mid-shot without any change in camera
position, maintaining the visual integrity of the gag.
The third variation of the gag comes when Matthew, again segueing from one gag to
the next, notices the squeaking chair and tells Lisa that Dave would buy a new chair if she
just gave him one of her "sex looks." He demonstrates the "sex look" to an incredulous
Lisa. Lisa leaves with Matthew still with the comical "sex look" on his face, but Mr. James
and Beth walk into the frame and provide the reaction shot.
The fourth variation occurs when Dave and Matthew hear a banging sound outside of
Dave’s office. When they go to investigate they find Lisa trying to fix the chair by hitting
it with a stapler. Dave insists on buying her a new chair and notes that the stapler is "on its
last legs as well." Catherine walks in on the scene and tells Lisa, "Stuff or no stuff, you are
good." Lisa gives another exasperated reaction shot .The final variation of the gag occurs
when Dave, after Lisa continues to refuse to accept what may be perceived as special
treatment, decides to put the chair "out of its misery" with a katana (a prop from one of the
other two plot lines of this episode). Before he can destroy the chair, Before he can destroy
the chair he inadvertently cuts up other pieces of furniture with the very sharp katana and
even causes the office lights to black out. In the pitch black darkness, Lisa exclaims in a
nervous tone, "Dave, I need a new chair." The other characters provide the audible
equivalents of reaction shots.
Joe: ( Making fun of the situation with whooping ) "The lights go down and the love talk
starts."
Catherine: "I wish I had a sweet papa like that."
Dave: "Listen everyone, there is absolutely no favoritism at play here, all right?"
Lisa: "Dave, shut up."
Dave: "I am on your side."
Lisa: "I know. I just don’t think that the best time to bring it up is when you’re waving a
huge sword around in a darkened room."
25
Catherine: "Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mmmm."
What this gag demonstrates is the perfect marriage of visual and verbal comedy that
typifies News Radio: fast-paced, brilliantly constructed with the variations and imaginative
surprises that mark the very best of gags, visually economical, efficient, and elegant, with
smooth transitions from one gag to the next.
20. Incongruity: Something may be described as incongruous if it does not meet our
expectations or does not fit into a realistic depiction of the world.
Example: It is incongruous when an adult (such as Mr. Bean) acts like a child.
21. Intertextuality: Intertextuality is when a work of art (a book, a film etc.) quotes another
work of art or deliberately makes the reader/viewer think of another work of art. It may be
used for humorous purposes.
Example: When Green Day's floating stage sinks during The Simpsons Movie, the band
start playing classical music in what is an intertextual reference to Titanic. Lisa's lecture is
also called “An Irritating Truth” which is a reference to Al Gore's climate film An
Inconvenient Truth.
22. Lazzi: A short physical act of comedy; for instance a short interlude of funny
exaggerated violence, somebody falling etc.
Example: Lazzo of falling unconscious: Certain servants (especially Arlecchino and
Pedrolino) can fall asleep or pass out at any time, in any place. This can bring the ire at
their laziness or worry at their health (or even life).
23. Litote: Understatement.
Example: “ Homer Simpson is not a model father.”
“Freedom now appeared, to disappear no more foreve” Frederick Douglass gives an
instance of Litotes in these lines as double negative play down the fact that freedom is
being materialized.
Nathaniel Hawthorne in his novel 'The Scarlet Letter' says, 'Not improbably, it was to this
latter class of men that Mr. Dimmesdale, by many of his traits of character, naturally
belonged." These lines are examples of litotes as double negative stresses that Dimmesdale
most likely belong to a group of men who are pious and moral.
24. Paradox: Something is paradoxical when it contradicts itself – a contradiction in terms.
Example: 1) Sorry, we are open .Welcome
2) Do not enter. Enter only
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3) Swimming pool. No swimming
25. Parody: A parody is an imitation of something where the aim is to poke fun at the
original.
Example: Movies in the Scary Movie series are parodies of other horror films.
26. Pathos: Pathos has to do with emotions. Pathos can be used for humorous purposes
when a character is so emotional that it becomes laughable.
Example: Pathos was at a maximum in Lewis' first solo film, The Delicate Delinquent
(1957). Lewis, in the title role, plays a troubled teenager in a crime-ridden urban
neighborhood. No one seems concerned that casting the 30-year-old comedian as a
teenager would strain the credibility of the film. A gang of juvenile delinquents give Lewis
a switchblade and demand that he use it to rob a well-dressed woman coming down the
alley. Before he demands that the woman turn over her valuables, Lewis wants to make
sure that he looks tough and he also wants to show the woman he knows how to handle a
switchblade. The scene gives Lewis an opportunity to act foolish. At one point, he lapses
into a Bogart impersonation. It would make sense for Lewis to imitate James Dean or
Marlon Brando, both of whom had played juvenile delinquents during this period, but
Bogart's
tough
guy
acts
seems
misplaced
in
this
situation.
Lewis fails dismally in this film to integrate comedy and drama. He brings the comedy to a
screeching halt whenever he wants to let some pathos lumber through. A scene, no matter
how anguished, should not cause the comedy to stop. Take for example the big dramatic
scene in The Kid. The welfare workers are taking Coogan away from Chaplin. Even in the
midst of this emotionally wrenching scene, Chaplin supplies slapstick in the form of
Coogan grabbing a sledgehammer and repeatedly bonking the welfare workers on their
heads
27. Sarcasm: Closely associated with irony. The term is often used to describe a kind of
mean irony that is intended to hurt somebody.
Example: Examples of sarcasm include President Lyndon B Johnsons comment in the
early 1960s about, 'we're at war and I've forgotten about it.' Other examples of sarcasm
include, 'not the sharpest crayon in the box, are we?' and 'This day was a total waste of
makeup.' Some other sarcastic remarks are, 'Errors have been made. Others will be
blamed.' And yet another is, 'Chaos, panic and disorder: my work here is done.'
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8. Satire: Satire is a witty attack on something somebody disapproves of. Satire is usually
meant as a critique of mankind' s or society's vices, follies or shortcomings.
Example: There are numerous examples of satire in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. He
uses satire as a tool to share his ideas and opinion on slavery, human nature and many
other issues that afflicted American society at that time.
“What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and isn’t no
trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (Chap 16)
“There wasn’t anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn’t any
lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it’s cool. If you
notice, most folks don’t go to church only when they’ve got to; but a hog is different.”
(Chap 18)
“The pitifulest thing out is a mob; that’s what an army is–a mob; they don’t fight with
courage that’s born in them, but with courage that’s borrowed from their mass, and from
their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it is beneath pitifulness.” (chap
22)
29. Stereotype: A stereotype is an exaggerated example of a specific type of character. We
laugh at the stereotype because we recognize him/her in people we know or know of.
Maybe we even recognize the stereotype in ourselves to some degree?
Example: 1) Asians have high IQs. They are smarter than most in Math and Science. These
people are more likely to succeed in school. (Positive stereotype)
6) Irish are alcoholics. (Negative stereotype)
30. Surprise: Being surprised is often funny. As a humorous device, surprise is related to
incongruity.
Example: Monty Python said it best: “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” The
element of surprise takes the set-up and punch line format to a whole new level. It's all
about distraction, leading the audience down the garden path — then siccing the dogs on
them. You make them expect something, and then you really twist it. It's like watching a
good magic trick; it's all about deception.
Imagine what it was like for the first person in history to be handed a can of salted peanuts
only to have cloth-covered spring snakes fly out of the can. That's what the element of
surprise is all about. Here's a great example of the element of surprise: In 1985, comedy
magician Harry Anderson hosted Saturday Night Live. At that time, he was the star of the
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successful sitcom Night Court. In his opening monologue, he spoke about how the
audience wouldn't be seeing the “old Harry” any more — No more shoving a needle in his
arm, or dropping his pants on stage. Now that he was a star he had to provide only “good,
clean fun … family entertainment.”
Be careful not to overuse the element of surprise. It's all based on trust. If you continue to
violate the audience's trust in you, eventually they'll get wise to you and won't take the
bait. Any of these techniques can be overused; it's up to you to know when to stop.
Then he introduced his new best friend, a cute little guinea pig named Skippy. After trying
to get Skippy to do some simple tricks and failing, Harry finally said, “Well, Skip … you
know the rules — you don't work, you don't live.” Then he proceeded to shove the guinea
pig into his mouth and eat him, mumbling, “We'll be right back!”
Now that's a surprise! The audience probably knew something was going to happen, but
nobody expected that. As it turned out, they were the guinea pigs in a bizarre comedy
experiment. (By the way, Skippy was in on the gag and lived out his life in Boca Raton.)
The element of surprise manipulates the audience's expectations, then takes them
somewhere completely different.
31.Use of Comical names: It is a stylistic technique that strengthens the comic effect of a
situation, character or plot. In Gogol’s works, the entire register of names is used in every
possible way to create a comic effect, which is his only reason for mentioning them.
2.4 The Language of Humor (psychological review)
In our time, the study of humor in literature continues to be shaped by two dated
and , therefore, limiting methodologies . On one side are critics who derive their
conceptual frameworks from an early universalist theory that has been either discredited or
subsumed in the past years. On the other side are critics who see no reason to refer to
humor research or theory at all. Both approaches are more or less unconnected to the rich
diversity of current research.
The most famous and influential universal approach was developed by Henri Bargson
whose book on laughter (1900) moves from a general definition of the comic to a
29
discussion of humorous characters and genres. Because Bergson is interested in the way
the comic “oscillates between art and life”, he follows “the thread that leads from the
horseplay of a clown up to the most refined effects of comedy”. Flexible enough himself to
avoid becoming comic in his own sense of the term, Bergson nonetheless sees a mingling
of the mechanical and the living as the definitive characteristic of both literary and
nonliterary humor. Critics who apply either Bergson’s or some other general definition (for
instance , Freud’s treatment of joking as the socially acceptable releas of repressed
impulses or Hobbes’s view of humor as an expression of superiority) follow the same
logical form, moving from an overview of humor to its manifestations in given texts.
‘ONLY joking’ – It’s one of the most common phrases in the language, frequently used
when our attempts to be funny seem to be leading to problems. But can a joke be ‘just a
joke’? Or is there much more involved in humour ? These were among the questions
Freud
pondered
when
he
tried
to
solve
the
riddle
of
why
we
laugh.
Over the past few years I have been turning back to the work of Freud, seeking to
reinterpret his central idea of repression in terms of language .. I have looked at the topic
of humour, especially its darker side, and suggested that ridicule plays a central role in
social life. Freud’s great work on humour, Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious
(first published in 1905) bears careful re-examination. Even its limitations and failures are
instructive. Freud himself had a great love of humour, telling jokes as he elaborated his
ideas. By looking carefully at his theory a number of key issues, including that of ethnic
humour, can be highlighted.
Humour is universal – it can be found in every society. Yet it is also highly particular, for
there is nothing that is universally funny. Not only are there cultural and individual
differences in humour, but these differences are frequently invested with moral meaning.
We laugh at particular things and we disapprove of laughter at other things. Humour can
be a matter of contention: there is a politics, morality and aesthetics of humour. It is also
reasonable to say that humour is social. We laugh with others, and laughter can help
strengthen social bonds. As Bergson (1911) wrote, laughter appears to stand ‘in need of an
echo’. But at the same time, humour can be antisocial: we can laugh at others. The
dangerous divisiveness of laughter can be seen in racist or homophobicjokes.
Freud’s approach to humour needs to be placed in its historical and intellectual context.
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First Freud had dealt with dreams in Interpretation of Dreams (1900), and then slips of the
tongue in Psychopathology of everyday Life (1901).
All three works express the tragic vision of humanity that lay at heart of Freud’s thinking.
According to Freud, there is a fundamental conflict between the demands of social life and
our instinctual urges.
As Freud wrote in a later essay, ‘humour is not resigned it is rebellious’
(1927/1990; 429). The relationship that exists between jokes (and humor in general) and
the unconscious is a complicated one. There seems to be a relation between aggressive
tendencies and humor. In Beyond Laughter, Martin Grotjahn argues that humor involves
masked aggression and writers.
The wit technique overcomes inner resistance and removes inhibition by camouflaging the
original aggression in a clever way, using methods of disguise similar to those used in
dream symbolization. The disguise of the original aggression tendency facilitates the
expression of aggression (1966,12-13).
According to Grotjahn, an aggressive impulse is first created, then suppressed, and
then released in a modified way that helps the humorist evade feelings of guilt. Humorists
are
people,
who,
in
a
special
way,
have
access
to
their
unconscious.
There is the matter of risk taking that must be considered. Being a humorist always
involves a great deal of risk, for the humorous material (the joke, the pun, the witticism)
may fall flat and not elicit the response which the humorist seeks to generate.
2.5 Incongruity as a humour mechanism
Incongruity theories have made an important contribution to understanding humor.
When they were introduced in the late 1960s and early 1970s ,they drew researchers’
attention to cognitive-perceptual aspects of humour, which had been seen as only having
secondary importance in other approaches such as psychoanalytic, superiority/
disparagement. Incongruity theories simulated a great deal of research and further
theoretical development that have continued to the present day.
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In terms of humour’s rhetorical and linguistic design ,most researchers agree that for a
piece of language or text to be funny, it must exhibit some sort of incongruity. The
incongruity may operate at any level of language, which means that it can be found in the
narrower features of vocabulary and grammer, or, in the wider context ,in the broader units
of discourse organization and social interaction. Puns and related forms of verbal play are
good illustrations of the type of incongruity that operates in the narrower linguistic
context. By contrast, pragmatic devices like irony and other types of figurative language
situate the humour mechanism in an incongruity at the level of discourse.
In spite of the unifying sense that an incongruity lies at the heart of its production, humour
comes in many forms and guises; puns, witticisms, jokes, anecdotes, slapstick, parody and
satire. Whatever the genre of humour, the essential point is that its use introduces levity
and non-seriousness into a discourse situation, inducing what we might call a “ humour
footing”. For instance, the way puns and related forms of wordplay are used in the tabloid
media. A pun is a linguistic structure which simultaneously combines two unrelated
meanings. The central incongruity in the formation of a pun is that a chance connection
between two elements of language is identified, and this allows a controlled ‘double
meaning’ to be created in the text. The following example is from a tabloid newspaper,
where the headline refers to the alleged theft of money by a member of the UK’s elite
military regiment:
Who dares swindles
SAS Sergeant accused of stealing $100k
First of all, this play on words adopts an intertextual frame which assumes knowledge of
the famous motto of the SAS: ‘Who dares wins’. Second, the pun works through a
happenstance connection in sound patterning between one of the words of the motto and
the informal lexical entry referring to the alleged theft: swindles. This particular type of
pun is known as a phonological sequencing pun but the essential point here is that verbal
play like this brings a levity to the story _ a levity that is markedly absent from comparable
reports in the quality broadsheets. (Michael Thomas Naceel- Comic Aesthetics and the
Effect of Realism in the Novel (2008); 400-411)
Incongruity can work at different levels of language. A common form of it, which
employs different varieties of discourse as its raw material, is the echoing or mixing of
different styles and registers. The mixing of styles for comic or other effects, for instance,
32
has been around for hundreds of years and was documented as long ago as the sixteenth
century in the burlesques of the Comedia dell’Arte in Italy. The concept of burlesque is
essentially the merger of two distinct forms of discourse where low burlesque (or
traversity) uses an undignified style in addressing lofty or serious subject matter, while
high burlesque uses an elevated or portentous style to deal with an inconsequential or
trivial topic. It is not difficult then to see how journalists ,by introducing a stylistic tone
that seems at odds with the subject matter it embraces, can deflate, ridicule or ironize
certain elements of their news stories.
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Conclusion
In the course of this paper I have investigated, as briefly as is consonant with
my general purpose the contrast of means of creating comic effect on the material of humorous
texts. Certainly, contrast exists in all forms of art. For contrast exists in life; and if we accept art,
in the broadest sense of the word, as a representation and interpretation of life, we must
naturally expect to find in art a reproduction of characteristics which are prominent in life itself.
The painter acts wisely, when he masters the principles of contrast; so does the orator, the poet,
the sculptor, the architect, the novelist. The dramatist is by no means alone in his dependence
upon the element of contrast. But he is alone in his essential and fundamental dependence upon
it. Contrast is often found in the novel, but it is not essential to the novel; Contrast is often found
in the narrative poem, but it is not essential to the narrative poem; Contrast is often found in the
musical composition , but it is not essential to the musical composition. But contrast is always
found
in
humorous
texts,
and
it
is
absolutely
essential
to
comics.
This Graduation paper suggests, that the basic principle of humor creation is the comical
contrast. Humor emerges when a person is flexible enough to be both a Nobel prize winner and
an idiot! Humor assumes and reveals social and psychological relations, cognitive processes,
cultural norms and value judgements. Humour is universal – it can be found in every society.
Yet it is also highly particular, for there is nothing that is universally funny. Not only are there
cultural and individual differences in humour, but these differences are frequently invested with
moral meaning.
In this research I tried to highlight the importance of contrast in literature. The
definition of contrast is the following: contrast is a rhetorical strategy and method of
organization in which a writer identifies the differences between two people, places, ideas, or
things. Hence, the basic principle of humor creation is the comical contrast, as comics always
needs to compare two things to create a strong effect and comic writers always have the
attempts to be funny.
To practice comical contrasting, we need to get off the freeway of logical
thinking and take the exit to stupidity as often as possible. However, we need to return as soon
as possible! Otherwise, we would be idiots, not humorists.
In this paper I intended not to develop a new theory of humor, but to connect
existing ideas about contrast in humor and to show my own opinion about this interesting topic,
34
which is “Contrast as means of creating comic effect on the material of humorous texts”.
If humor is ‘any sudden episode of joy or elation associated with a new discovery that is selfrated as funny’ (Davis 2008; 547) ,then research into humor may rely at least in part on subjects’
ratings of funniness. Seeking to employ the power of the comic in every conceivable way, a
‘laughing humorist’ usually does not stop his search for the comic effect on the level of
characterization. He uses a wide range of comic devices.
My intention was to examine the means that create comic effects and I tried to
focus on linguistic devices. This vast field required detailed and lengthy research; however, only
a number of striking examples were highlighted in this research. Language is not comical in
itself but becomes so when it reflects some feature of the speaker’s intellectual and moral life –
that is, some flaw in a mental process. A person’s speech can reveal a lack of logic. Every
language possesses a rich store of devices for the comic or for ridicule, but only the main ones
were examined, including puns and paradoxes along with various witticisms based on them.
35
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