To make predictions on how our funny materials will be perceived by study subjects, we also turn to a growing body of humor theories that speculate on why and when certain situations are considered funny. From ancient Greece to today, many thinkers from around the world have yearned to understand what makes us laugh. The woman makes a sudden movement, causing the moose to charge the couple. The man stands his ground, causing the moose to stop in his tracks.
After a few feints with a large stick and several caveman-ish grunts by the man, the defeated moose retreats while the man proclaims his victory with more grunting. The clip has been viewed on YouTube almost three million times, and the comments make it clear that many folks who watch it are LOLing.
But why is this funny? It is the oldest of all humor theories: Philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato alluded to the idea behind the superiority theory thousands of years ago. It suggests that all humor is derived from the misfortunes of others — and therefore, our own relative superiority. Taking this theory into consideration, it seems like the retreating moose is the butt of the joke in this scenario. Charles Gruner , the late expert on superiority theory, suggest that all humor is derived from competition.
In this case, the moose lost that competition. Freud used this idea to explain our fascination with taboo topics and why we might find it humorous to acknowledge them.
For example, my own line of research deals with humor in interracial interactions and how it can be used to facilitate these commonly tense situations. Many comedians have tackled this topic as well, focusing on how language is used in interracial settings and using it as an example of how relief can be funny. Interestingly, this theory has served as the rationale behind many studies documenting the psychological and physiological benefits of laughter. In both cases, the relief of tension physiological tension, in the case of laughing can lead to positive health outcomes overall, including decreased stress, anxiety and even physical pain.
In the case of our moose video: Once the moose charges, the tension builds as the man and the animal face off for an extended period of time. The tension is released when the moose gives up his ground, lowers his ears and eventually scurries away.
Humour that is in bad taste or cruelly targeted at particular groups may generate conflict, but, for Weems, humour is our way of working through difficult subjects or feelings. Troubling news events can inspire dark satire, which may help unite people in their shared values Credit: Getty Images.
Over the years, researchers have built a substantial body of evidence that some types of comedy — including sophisticated satire, which is growing in popularity — perform a potent social function, from breaking taboos to holding those in power to account.
Avner Ziv , who has written numerous books about humour, explores this theme extensively. The two forms together constitute the best illustration there is of the social function of humour. A social justice activist and a comedian, Long has a reputation for delightful, optimistic, whimsical humour and nimble storytelling.
However, as her career has evolved, she has consciously put social and political topics at the heart of her act. She believes that comedians have a role to play in articulating and challenging some of the most pressing issues of the day.
It was a way to be useful for other people. Context is crucial to humour Credit: Getty Images. That they have a role in contemporary society beyond just making people laugh is undeniable; their work is evidence of the impact comedy can have more widely. If we find a joke offensive, we protest by not laughing at it. In many ways, Quirk says, the sorts of observations made by comics such as Long are reinforced by her recent academic work, which has involved lengthy interviews with jobbing comics.
While you do sometimes just need something silly to watch, comedy has much greater resonance than it tends to be given credit for. The best comedians, he argues, are our most effective anthropologists and cultural critics.
A good joke packs a harder punch than many other forms of dialogue, and it can reach people who would otherwise be unwilling to listen Credit: Getty Images. British comic Stephen K Amos sells out venues seating thousands, year in, year out, and has successful BBC Radio 4 programmes under his belt.
And while it may be difficult to quantify, he says, the social and psychological impact of comedy warrants much greater recognition. The research backs this up. Although the role of comedy is to be entertaining first and foremost, through interviewing comedians, Sharon Lockyer , a sociology lecturer and the director of the Centre for Comedy Studies Research at Brunel University, has identified a number of possible other functions.
In the old days it was just about doing jokes. As an example of what comedy can do, Amos tells the story of a teenager who came up to him after a gig that featured Amos relaying his own tale of coming out as gay to his family. And if that means challenging your preconceived ideas about who I am, great. We can run with that. Gil Greengross, a University of Mexico anthropologist, thinks the secret to being funny is being smart. As he expected, the students who scored higher on the intelligence measures also created the funniest captions.
This makes sense. According to all of the theories of humor, wit involves putting discordant ideas together quickly, all while being perceptive enough to offend your audience a little, but not too much. They can connect these dots.
But—prepare to cringe, fellow feminists—Greengross found that the male students wrote more and funnier captions than the female students did, even though the men had only slightly larger vocabularies on average. The evolutionary explanation, though, is that women use humor as a proxy to select the cleverest mates from a crowd. One key part of the experiment, though, was that the men were actually attempting more jokes.
They wrote more captions overall, so they had more total successes. But humor can function as a mate-luring strategy for women, too: The authors found that the female participants who had started having sex earlier or had a greater number of sexual partners were also the ones who produced the funnier captions. And of all of the different purposes of comedy, this might be the most subversive of all.
It could be that office-cooler witticisms, stand-up routines, and sitcoms are just part of one big pickup line you never saw coming.
Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. Screenshot: The Onion. Recommended Reading The Evolution of Bitchiness. Psychological Science. British Journal of Psychiatry.
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