Humour

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Biography

Humour or humor (see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or|spelling differences ) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement . The term derives from the humorism|humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks , which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humors ( Latin : humor , "body fluid"), control human health and emotion.

People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. The majority of people are able to experience humour, i.e., to be amused, to laugh or smile at something funny, and thus they are considered to have a sense of humour . The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour induced by humour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste (aesthetics)|taste , the extent to which a person will find something humorous depends upon a host of variables, including geographical location , culture , Maturity (psychological)|maturity , level of education , intelligence and wiktionary:context|context . For example, young children may favour slapstick , such as Punch and Judy puppet shows or cartoons such as Tom and Jerry . Satire may rely more on understanding the target of the humour and thus tends to appeal to more mature audiences.

Theories of humour

Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves. The prevailing types of theories attempting to account for the existence of humour include psychology|psychological theories, the vast majority of which consider humour-induced behaviour to be very healthy; spiritual theories, which may, for instance, consider humour to be a "gift from God"; and theories which consider humour to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a mysticism|mystical experience . Raymond Smullyan , "The Planet Without Laughter", This Book Needs No Title

Views on humour

Some claim that humour cannot or should not be explained. Author E.B. White once said, "Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind."

Arthur Schopenhauer lamented the misuse of the term "humour" (a German language|German loanword from English language|English ) to mean any type of comedy . However, both "humour" and "comic" are often used when theorising about the subject. The connotations of "humour" as opposed to "comic" are said to be that of response versus stimulus. Additionally, "humour" was thought to include a combination of ridiculousness and wit in an individual; the paradigmatic case being Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff. The French were slow to adopt the term "humour"; in French, "humeur" and "humour" are still two different words, the former referring to a person's Mood (psychology)|mood or to the archaic concept of the four Four Temperaments|humours .
Nonsatirical humour can be specifically termed "recreational drollery".Seth Benedict Graham 2003 p.13Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World . Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press p.12

Ancient Greece

Western humour theory begins with Plato , who attributed to Socrates (as a semihistorical dialogue character) in the Philebus (p.& nbsp;49b) the view that the essence of the ridiculous is an ignorance in the weak, who are thus unable to retaliate when ridiculed. Later, in Greek philosophy, Aristotle , in the Poetics (Aristotle)|Poetics (1449a, pp.& nbsp;34–35), suggested that an ugliness that does not disgust is fundamental to humour.

India

In ancient Sanskrit drama , Bharata Muni 's Natya Shastra defined humour ( hasyam ) as one of the nine nava rasas , or principle Rasa (aesthetics)|rasas (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by bhavas , the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. Each rasa was associated with a specific bhavas portrayed on stage. In the case of humour, it was associated with mirth ( hasya ).

Arabia

The terms " comedy " and " satire " became synonymous after Aristotle's Poetics was translated into Arabic language|Arabic in the Islamic Golden Age|medieval Islamic world , where it was elaborated upon by Arabic literature|Arabic writers and Early Islamic philosophy|Islamic philosophers such as Abu Bischr, his pupil Al-Farabi , Avicenna , and Averroes . Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from Greek drama tic representation, and instead identified it with Arabic poetry|Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension" and made no reference to light and cheerful events or troublous beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century , the term "comedy" thus gained a new semantic meaning in Medieval literature .

Social demographics

As with any form of art, acceptance depends on social demographics and varies from person to person. Throughout history, comedy has been used as a form of entertainment all over the world, whether in the courts of the Western kings or the villages of the Far East. Both a social etiquette and a certain intelligence can be displayed through forms of wit and sarcasm. Eighteenth-century Germany|German author Georg Lichtenberg said that "the more you know humour, the more you become demanding in fineness."

Humour formula

Humour can be verbal, visual, or physical. Nonverbal forms of communication - for example, music or art - can also be humorous.

Root components

Observational comedy|Being reflective of or imitative of reality

Surprise (emotion)|Surprise / misdirection , contradiction / paradox , ambiguity .

Methods

Farce

Framing (social sciences)|Reframing

Hyperbole

Metaphor

comic timing|Timing

Behaviour, place and size

Rowan Atkinson explains in his lecture in the documentary " Funny Business (TV series)|Funny Business "Rowan Atkinson/David Hinton, Funny Business (tv series), Episode 1 - aired 22 November 1992, UK, Tiger Television Productions that an object or a person can become funny in three ways. They are:

By behaving in an unusual way

By being in an unusual place

By being the wrong size

Most sight gag s fit into one or more of these categories.

Exaggeration

"Some theoreticians of the comic consider exaggeration to be a universal comic device".Emil Draitser, Techniques of Satire (1994) p. 135 It may take different forms in different genres, but all rely on the fact that "the easiest way to make things laughable is to exaggerate to the point of absurdity their salient traits".M. Eastman/W. Fry, Enjoyment of Laughter (2008) p. 156

Humour and culture

Different cultures have different expectations of humour so comedy shows are not always successful when transplanted into another culture. Two well-known sayings in British humour|Britain are "Americans don't do irony " and German humour|Germans have no sense of humour . Whether these sayings have any validity has been discussed in a BBC News article.

Copyright Citations

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