Laughter and Culture

Prof: A. Elhaloui

1. What are some of the things that make

us laugh in the contemporary culture?
2. Why do we laugh at them?

Whats exactly funny

about jokes?
Two sheep in a field. One says to the
other: "BA AAA BA AAAA BA AAA".
The other says: "Blimey, I was going
to say that".

During the 2nd ww, Hitler, Mussolini and Franco were

traveling on the same plane.They were discussing
the people they governed and each one claimed his ppl
are the most fervid patriots. To resolve the question, they
agreed on this: the plane would fly over Berlin, Rome
and Madrid, a feather would be dropped on each city
Humans,
contemporary
culture,suicide,
still find
and
whoeverinit the
would
fall on was to commit
thus
jokes their
funny,
exactly
like their
ancestors.
proving
total
commitment
to teir
counteries.
Laughter
seems
toBerlin,
be a universal
faculty
First
the plane
flew on
few minutes
a shotof
was
Heard.
Then the plane flew on Rome, few minutes a
humans.
shot was heard. Finally, the Plane flew over Madrid.
A feather was dropped and nothing was heard. The plane
swooped down towards the city to see what had
happened. Thousands of Spaniards were busy blowing
the feather as far away from themselves as possible.

Tongue twister
Whats exactly funny
about tongue twister?
Once upon a barren moor
Humans,There
in thedwelt
contemporary
culture,
still find
a bear, also
a boar,
tongue twisters
like
their
The bearfunny,
couldexactly
not bear
the
boar,
ancestors.
Laughter
seems
to bewas
a universal
The bear
thought
the boar
a bore.
faculty At
of last
humans.
the bear could bear no more
That boar that bored him on the moor.
And so one morn he bored the boarThat boar will bore no more!

Whats exactly funny

about a clown?
Humans, in the contemporary culture, still find
tongue clowns funny, exactly like their
ancestors. Laughter seems to be a universal
faculty of humans.

Clown, merry-andrew, etc.

Whats exactly funny

about cartoons?

To Hilarious laughter!

From a charming smile ...

In Literature

In her Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen

mocks the feelings of sensibility expressed by
Marianne through the voice of Elinor.

Irony
and how does dear, dear Norland look?
cried Marianne.
Dear, dear Norland, said Elinor, probably
looks as it always does at this time of
year. The woods and walks thickly
covered with dead leaves.oh!, cried
Marianne, With what transporting sensations
have I formerly seen them fall!

 In the following passage Cleopatra taunts her lover

Antony when a messenger comes from Rome with
possible news from his wife or orders from Caesar:

Sarcasm
Nay, hear them, Antony.
Fulvia perchance is angry; or who
knows
If the scarce-bearded Caesar have
not sent
His pow'rful mandate to you: "Do
this, or this;
Take in that kingdom, and
enfranchise that;
Perform't, or else we damn thee."
Antony and Cleopatra 1.1.19-24

Epitrope: the (apparent) admission of what

is wrong in order to carry our point.

Go ahead, make
my day...

Rejoice, O young man, in

thy youth; and let thy heart
cheer thee in the days of
thy youth, and walk in the
ways of thine heart, and in
the sight of thine eyes: but
know thou, that for all
these things God will bring
thee into judgment.

The Ten Things I Hate

about you
10 Things I Hate About You is a 1999
American romantic comedy film. A loose
adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming
of the Shrew set in a modern American
high school.

Laughter mixed with tears

I hate the way you talk to me

and the way you cut your hair.
I hate the way you drive my car;
I hate it when you stare.
I hate your big dumb combat boots
and the way you read my mind.
I hate you so much it makes me sick.
It even makes me rhyme.
I hate it -- I hate the way you're always right;
I hate it when you lie.
I hate it when you make me laugh;
even worse when you make me cry.
I hate it when you're not around
and the fact that you didn't call.
But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you -not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

Antiphrasis: Irony of one word, often

derisively through patent contradiction.
Here is a midget for
you!

Humans, in the contemporary culture, still find

have different forms of fun, exactly like their
ancestors. Laughter seems to be a universal
faculty of humans.

Henri Bergson

Bergsons Question
What does laughter mean? What is the basal
element in the laughable? What common
ground can we find between the grimace of a
merry-andrew, a play upon words, an
equivocal situation in a burlesque and a scene
of high comedy?

Bergson has three ideas about laughter:

1. Comedy is necessarily human: we laugh at

people or the things they do.
2. Being able to laugh seems to require a
detached attitude, an emotional distance to
the object of laughter.
3. Laughter has a social function.

"Blimey, it's hot in here"

Why is this joke funny? What is in it that makes

us laugh? One possibility is that it involves an
absurdity: a talking egg shocked when she
heard another egg talking.

Arrgggh! A talking egg"!

I turned on the system like you told me

to but I still cant see the start up screen
youre talking about!

Absurdities do not make us

laughable
laugh
in themselves, and we
need a description of the
Laughable?!
process that starts
with
observing an absurdity and
pluslaughing.
10 makes 26.
ends up14
with

 Bergson suggests that laugheter is to be

defined in terms of its utility: what it
serves.

Laughters Utility
Specifically, comedy serves society by
pointing out our anti-social tendencies and
inviting us to laugh at them, thus
encouraging us to correct them.

What is laughter then?

[] something mechanical in
something living; in fact, something
comic. This is how Bergson in effect
defines his concept of the comic.

 We laugh at people when they behave in a

way that gives the appearance of a simple
mechanism.
Ordinarily we expect people to observe what
is happening around them and to adapt their
behavior accordingly.
When someone is lacking in the ability to do
this, we laugh at him. The way laughter works
as a corrective is obvious: Its function is to
intimidate by humiliating.

Comic effect, according to Bergson, is a

result of bringing together two oppsite
aspects in a single combination:
1. The illusion of life and
2. The distinct impression of a mechanical
arrangement.

 To give the impression of a mechanical

arrangement in a flowing situation, comic
authors use different devices in writing comedy:
1. repetition,
2. inversion and
3. reciprocal interference of series
B traces these techniques back to childrens
toys and games:
1. the jack-in-the-box: repetition
2. the marionette and: inversion
3. the snowball: reciprocal interference of a series

Marionette

snowball
Jack-in-the-box

The Point ...

The idea is that there can be no break in
continuity between the childs delight in
games and that of the grown-up person .
Both the toymaker and the comedy
playwright are involved in the business of
making arrangements that give us in a
single combination, the illusion of life and
the distinct impression of a mechanical
arrangement.

 Let us see examples of how each one

of these three mecahnisms work.

Marionette
There are innumerable comedies in which
one of the characters thinks he is
speaking and acting freely, and,
consequently, retains all the essentials of
life, whereas, viewed from a certain
standpoint, he appears as a mere toy in
the hands of another who is playing with
him.

 This technique has been exploited by

some ads such the following ones.

Repetition
Punch and Judy show: No sooner does the
policeman put in an appearance on the stage
than, naturally enough, he receives a blow
which fells him. He springs to his feet, a
second blow lays him flat. A repetition of the
offence is followed by a repetition of the
punishment. Up and down the constable
flops and hops with the uniform rhythm of the
bending and release of a spring, whilst the
spectators laugh louder and louder.

Repetition
The following animation is based on the
same mechanism of repeating a sill
action.

 From punishing the actual repetitive

person by laughing at him, we have found
ways to move to laughing at the principle
of repetition.

Snowball
The rolling snow-ball increases in size
as it moves along. We might just as well
think of toy soldiers standing behind one
another. Push the first and it tumbles
down on the second, this latter knocks
down the third, and the state of things
goes from bad to worse until they all lie
prone on the floor.

 In the following Microsoft commercial,

the snowball mechanism is used.

Humans, in the contemporary culture, still find

tongue twisters funny, exactly like their
ancestors. Laughter seems to be a universal
faculty of humans.