Rosy Garcia

Meghan OKeefe

English IV

June 1, 2017

The Comedy Closet

Before we get started, I would like to explain my title. As you know, a closet has

space and belongings. When you close the door, people can't see whats inside. But when

someone opens it, you might find dirty laundry, old stuffed animals, the scarf you thought

you lost...anything could be in there. Same goes with comedy. Things that both make up

comedy and closets are the things within. Comedy has a way of making you laugh,

chuckle, snort, etc. But comedy doesn't simply make comedy. There are many factors

into the genre itself.

Occasionally, when I find myself with a group of people, Ive noticed that they

would laugh at a comment someone said, but I would not understand so I would not find

the comment amusing. Later, I would hear or see something else that would make me

laugh, but other people wouldnt even raise an eyebrow. Therefore, this scenario made

me curious, what do people find funny?

I personally enjoy comedy and making people laugh. Therefore, I would like to

know what makes something funny and perhaps use it as my advantage to spread laughs,

smiles, or snorts wherever I go. From my observations, people laugh at things that they

already know or if they did not know, someone would have to inform them before or
after, so they can understand a joke and maybe go Oh! I get it. I assume that it really is

about our own experiences and encounters in life that make us think, Hey, this is

hilarious! or No, this is not funny.

Intelligence. Something could be funny simply because, people understand what

is going on in the scenario and they know what someone or something means.

My mothers father, whose name was Danny Burns, had some money.

He owned an apartment building at 59 North Menard street, where my parents

lived rent-free for a while. My father owned a car that he parked out back, but he

didnt drive it because he couldnt afford the gasoline. Being kids, we used to play

in the car. We would fill up the tank with sand...The day came when my father

had saved enough money to buy gas and he discovered what we had done.

Predictably, he went ballistic. My mother interceded. She said,If you ever lay a

hand on the kids, Ill kill you. And she meant it(Newhart, chapter 2).

This is the part where Bob Newhart is informing his readers about an incident he

and his siblings did.

I sat down and wrote a routine, despise the fact that I had no place to sell

it or perform it. I now give you The Driving Instructor...Strange but true: At the

time I wrote The driving Instructor, I didnt have a drivers license. The reason

I didnt have a drivers license was simple: I didnt know how to drive. Most guys

I grew up with were taught how to drive by their fathers. My dad just never got

around to teaching me. He had a car, albeit one with sand in the gas tank, but he

never showed me how to drive it(Newhart, chapter 4).

 At this point the incident that was done was reminded again in chapter 4. I found

this part hilarious because, I knew what he was talking about since he mentioned it

earlier. If the reader did not know that Bob and his sisters added sand to the gas tank, but

only knew that his father never showed him how to drive because there was sand in the

gas tank would not be funny. It would be useless information.

When I read The Driving Instructor, I chuckled because I vividly saw a woman

with one driving lesson, in her car, driving with a driving instructor because I already

went through that process. Ive noticed that things that make people laugh are things that

they can relate to or if they have certain information beforehand, either given by the

comedian or by life experience.

Another example, What do you call a flying bagel? A plain bagel (Its okay,

you can laugh). You must have understood plane which is a machine of transportation

and plain as in none or simple. If you knew about homophones, Congratulations! You

are now my favorite person (I love puns!). According to the author Christian Cook, he

claims that people find something funny when it captures a moment, it contains an

element of simple truth (What Is Comedy and What Makes Something Funny?). Perhaps

an event, an action someone did, a word, or experience remind people of a very similar

moment they had in the past. Therefore, it makes it funny to that person because they can

relate to that situation. Cook writes:

I think that our need to feel intelligent comes into play a lot in finding things

funny... maybe humour is actually the overwhelming joy at feeling intelligent. Somebody

tries to put on their shoes standing up and falls over in the process. They look foolish, we
therefore feel intelligent as we are not the one falling over trying to put on shoes (What

Is Comedy and What Makes Something Funny?).

I think Cooks point of view is not about being superior because that could lead to

oppression. Okay, maybe Im over exaggerating, but it seems to be a subconscious

feeling and reaction, when someone does something foolish and then fails at succeeding

at the task.

There are many theories as to why something is funny. There is the superiority

theory: the joy toward the misfortune of others. The relief theory: humor being a way for

people to release psychological tension, overcome their inhibitions, and reveal their

suppressed fears and desires. The incongruity theory: the inconsistency between what

happens versus what is expected to happen. Though the theories are a nice thought and

could fit in some situations, ...They cant explain why some things are not funny.

Accidentally killing your mother-in-law would be incongruous, assert superiority, and

release pent-up tensions, but its hardly a gut buster if you have to explain the catastrophe

to your wife(What, Exactly, Makes something Funny?). That situation is awful and

pitiful. When someone gets hurt, it normally isnt a good thing. Something could be

funny up until someone gets hurt, people recognize the seriousness of the scene and feel

compassion toward the person. There is the Benign violation theory: when there is a

threatening scene but it is simultaneously safe in the end which seemed to be the most

convenient to Peter McGraw. He says, A joke can fail in one of two ways: It can be too

benign, and therefore boring, or it can be too much of a violation, and therefore offensive.

To be funny, a joke has to land in that sweet spot between the two extremes(What,
Exactly, Makes something Funny?). Beside intellect, another factor as to why something

could be funny is how far behind the line of sensitivity one is going to go. In this case,

I think a person should have some limits. One should be careful about the timing and how

he or she says something. Another factor is perfect timing. For example, one day a friend

and I were walking on Austin street. She was telling me a story of a very rude landlord

she had a couple years back. As we approached the next street, which happened to be

Berenice street. I said, Well that wasnt Ber-e-nice(very nice) of him!. I broke down

the word and made it into another word which was great, perfect timing. But perfect

timing is a mystery. Quick feet with this one.

A group of friends and I were bored one night so we decided to play a game of

charades and improv. The game of charades was very different to me. In this game, a

player was given a word and the player with the word acted it out and the first person to

guess the person, place, movie, or animal correctly would get a point. We saw people

doing things out of the ordinary to describe a subject without words. My friend named

Jaziel had to act out the movie series Fast and the Furious, I had to imitate a dragon, and

one of my friends had to act out someone from the group. It was all interesting to see

what people did from impersonations to imitations. During the game, I saw my friends

laugh at how odd and weird we all looked. Something things were not needed, like a boy

getting a blanket to impersonate a teacher. But even though some things were

unnecessary, those things made them funny. This one time my cousin was talking about

her day. She said, I got home from work at 9:15...or 9:35, no, Im pretty sure it was
9:25 Her bad memory was half funny but when she kept adding the useless

information into the conversation, it became hilarious.

Toward the end of my search, there was one thing that caught me by surprise; The

theories didnt play a huge role as this: ...humor can be studied in relation to cognitive,

motivation, and emotion. Changes in humor may be brought experimentally and by

systematic training...there are genetic and environmental factors. I was surprised that

people could train people to find comedy in some things than others. But this opened my

understanding even further. And as I thought I got closer to cracking what made

something funny, that quote took me back to the starting line. The truth is, there wont be

a theory that will always work or a joke that everyone will one-hundred percent find

amusing. A big role is how someone grew up, who or what surrounds them. Even though

a persons humor can change because of his or her environment, that will take time as

well. Our friends and family are the ones that influence our tastes in comedy, whether its

slapstick, parody, sarcasm, farce, surrealism, etc. I personally think that if you find

something funny there is no harm in sharing it. Therefore, if the person you tell

something to does not understand, you can explain it. You can increase their

understanding of the world around them. I would like to think that the core to what makes

something funny is either the understanding or the lack of it, because according to the

people that I asked about what made them laugh, the majority said odd, relatable,

abnormal things.

In my search, I encountered many comedic moments. It was pure observation that

made me realize that funny really is shaped by our surroundings that influence us. If
our surroundings influence us, then we all do have a sense of humor, even if its different

than others. When something is odd, it should not be creepy or scary. An appetite for

odd humor includes harmless things, like a person acting out things that are inhumane,

personification in an object or animal.

Its funny because its true! is a popular phrase that every person must have said

because of their race, lifestyle, location connection, relationships with people or animals,

etc. Either way, its something that has been said that maybe you have noticed but it

never came to mind that this is something that happens to everyone, because deep down

you might think that its just in your life. We might find relatable things funny because it

has been said by someone else that has gone through the same experience or a relief that

you are not the only one with that experience. Funny things make sense like pun jokes

and they dont make sense like this joke: Two fish are sitting in a fish tank, one fish says

to the other, So how do you drive this thing?. What makes something funny is a

relation between you and the joke, or the fault of sense in a joke because our intellect is

higher than what we saw, heard, or thought. But the joke isnt really dumb or else it

would be well, dumb with no sign of humor. Imagine a high school senior in a small bike

with training wheels. Can the high school student pedal? Im guessing no. The same goes

with comedy. There has to be some level of evenness between the joke and you. The joke

has to fit your way of thinking, your intellect, and lifestyle.

The question was way harder than I thought because there are so many factors

that fit into this subject that its hard to actually make sense of them all, because there are

contradictions between theories or thoughts. I would like to say it was fun to be real alert
 of my surroundings and this question made me think, why did she laugh at that?and it

made me retrace my steps to find out the punchline in a conversation. What makes

something funny? Well, thats a tough question, but I feel like I have only solved half of

an enormous puzzle that could lead to many more thoughts in the upcoming years, but for

now its the relation between a person and a joke. From here I would want to learn if their

is an origin where jokes, laughs, and pranks come from because [f]rom ancient Greece

until the 20th century, the vast majority of philosophical comments on laughter and

humor focused on scornful or mocking laughter, or on laughter that overpowers people,

rather than on comedy, wit, or joking(Philosophy of Humor). For me, comedy is a great

thing! Who doesnt enjoy a good laugh once in awhile? Though I must say, this quote has

made me curious: Where did comedy start?

Sources:

McGraw, Peter, and Joel Warner. "What, Exactly, Makes Something Funny? A Bold

New Attempt at a Unified Theory of Comedy." Slate Magazine. N.p., 23 Mar. 2014. Web. 08

May 2017.

<http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/features/2014/the_humor_code/what_makes_som

ething_funny_a_bold_new_attempt_at_a_unified_theory_of_comedy.html>.

Morreall, John. "Philosophy of Humor." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford

University, 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 May 2017.

<https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humor/#HumBadRep>.

Mota, Kevin. Personal Interview. 18 May, 2017.

Newhart, Bob. I shouldnt even be doing this! And other things that strike me as funny.

Easton Press, 2006.

TEDxTalks. "What Makes Things Funny | Peter McGraw | TEDxBoulder." YouTube.

YouTube, 11 Oct. 2010. Web. 08 May 2017.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysSgG5V-R3U>.

"The Primer of Humor Research." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2017.

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epage&q=psychology%20of%20humor&f=false>.

"What Is Comedy and What Makes Something Funny?" What Is Comedy and What

Makes Something Funny? :: Language Foundry. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2017.

<http://www.thinctanc.co.uk/words/comedy.html>.

"What Makes Something Funny?" YouTube. Science Plus, 26 Jan. 2016. Web. 14 May

2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vD86Ti-MrU>.