Katherine's comedy blog

In response to Theo's lead blog post, I think he made a few interesting points. One point that stuck out to me was how he described the unpredictability of Eric Andre himself and how that mirrors the incongruity/relief theory. This show I think actually encompases all three theories very well. For one, the personality and arbitrary actions of Eric Andre already deomonstrate the incongruity theory at work. From another viewpoint, the guests on the show don't know what's going to happen or what to expect from Eric. Because the audience knows the guest's fate, we feel superior to them in a way that we know something they didn't. This also makes room for the relief theory. Even though Andre tends to be somewhat reckless and risky at times with his bits, the audience tends to laugh at the sheer stupidity and hilariousness of the act itself. We laugh because we can feel superior, relief, and even confusion all at the same time. Overall, great lead blog post and support on...

The movie Elf is a great representation of the superiority and incongruity theory. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies, and I think I look differently at it now than how I did as a kid. Watching the movie again knowing about the theories of humor has definitely changed my perception of the type of humor used in the movie. I liked how Jane gave specific examples from the movie and tied it into the superiority theory and how we as an audience tend to feel superior to him due to his child-like and naive behavior. I think Buddy's child-like tendencies and behavior is one of the main reasons why so many people find this movie humorous. In a way, we can all relate to Buddy. We all (and maybe still) have this young and childlike wonder about us. Who wouldn't want to stay in a mall overnight and make paper snowflakes and etchy sketch the Mona Lisa? The incongruity aspect comes from his age (a 30 something-year-old man) and the contrast between his sense of humor and mannerisms...

In response to Hannah's lead blog post, I found it interesting how my results varied from the different episodes and the types of humor that stuck out to me. I scored a 5 and 6 for Friends and found sarcasm, satire, people doing stupid things, put down, and incongruity. For The Office, I scored an 8 and 7 and found satire, dark humor, people doing stupid things, joking around to fit in, and naughty humor. I think this experiment demonstrates how people's perception of humor affects their favored type of humor and what they find as funny. Not everyone will like Friends, and not everyone will like The Office. But why do some people find certain things funny while others do not? It could all be linked back to the three types of humor theories, or maybe just plain life experience. If you like the kind of humor where there are discrepancies between what the character is saying and the actual meaning of the action, then you are inclined towards the incongruity theory and so on. In te...