Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant. The incongruity theory purports to define the for-mal object of comic amusement, which it locates in certain kinds of incongruity. Clocks dont melt like that. My off-sounding engine does not produce a laugh. There are three main concepts that guide this research; relief theory, incongruity theory, and superiority theory. If youre not an English speaker knock-knock jokes will go over your head. Incongruity theory, which focuses on the cognitive mechanisms of perception and interpretation, posits that it is the perceptions of incongruity that explain humor (Martin & Ford, 2018). The presentation of the sign primes us to think the store is owned, not by an Asian man, but a black person of color. . In contrast, a person who is not yet ready to face trauma may use mechanisms such as regression or suppression as protective mechanisms until ready to face the situation. d) Resolution shows how (within the story world) the incongruity arises. In another study examining the effectiveness of humor among individuals with mental illness, a humor-based activity involving clowns (i.e., the therapeutic clown approach) was implemented among psychiatric ward inpatients. According to Schopenhauer, incongruity theory allows all of the 'ludicrous' to be divided into two categories. Confusion rarely leads to humor. The hostility theories address the aggressive aspect of humor, i.e., the fact that often, but not always, humor is directed against someone. Hi Heather, thank you for the insight and information. Twain had a point, as the research literature supports a relationship between humor and a wide range of positive psychosocial outcomes. They lean too close to a candle and their sleeve catches fire. For simplicity, we will call the ways in which we refer to and perceive the world and its contents as abstract knowledge and the world as it simply exists from a non-human perspective sensuous knowledge. Returning to the above joke, the answer of purple fish is not relevant at all to the question. But as a tool for explicating humor theories, jokes are compact, easily digestible, and thus make for useful examples. It recognizes that you cant find a difference between a thing and itself. Here the piece of abstract knowledge applicable to multiple pieces of sensuous knowledge is a word ('fire'), and so here we have an example of wordplay creating folly. Incongruity theory, which focuses on the cognitive mechanisms of perception and interpretation, posits that it is the perceptions of incongruity that explain humor (Martin & Ford, 2018). Built with love in the Netherlands. Ok, that wasnt simple. He offers examples of negative emotions such as "fear, pity, indignation, disgust, etc." and neutral ones like "puzzlement, wonder, curiosity, or problem-solving," 7 as attitudes that will not provide pleasure sufficient for humor. It was found that those within the high sense of humor category appraised relatively lower amounts of stress and anxiety. But within me finding it funnier with each exposure, opens an avenue of critique for IT. You are revising for a test with a friend. The right side is exactly the same as the left, especially the left. But if you know nothing of the Etruscans you couldnt possibly make sense of it. Among humans, laughter begins as early as four months of age (Lovorn, 2008). Schulman-Green, D. (2003). Describes the works of dermot bolger, e.m. forster, and kazuo ishiguro. In comedy, this often means that any kind of logic or familiarity is going to be replaced with something entirely different. However, it is safe to say that IT is accepted by most researchers as the most accurate and likely true approach to explaining humor. According to incongruity theory, things that are funnyor 'ludicrous'show us the differences between how we perceive the world and how it in fact exists. More traditional comedians with their exaggerated gesticulations or bombastic/exaggerated vocal inflections help the audience understand that what is going on is supposed to be funny and then allows us to experience the incongruity as funny. More specifically, the muscular and respiratory processes involved in laugher serve the important role of releasing pent-up nervous energy (Martin & Ford, 2018). The most serviceable example of incongruity is the pun, in which a word has multiple meanings, and the meaning of the sentence in which it is included changes dramatically if one or the other meaning is applied. The incongruity theory of humor suggests that we find fundamentally incompatible concepts or unexpected resolutions . . Relief theory. Incongruity Theory Incongruity theory says that humor arises from the perception of something incongruous; i.e. We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Legal. (2006). But the incongruity theory says that our perceptions of things in the real world only ever relate to part of that thing- they are incomplete. Outside of a dog, a book is mans best friend. MesmerMagnus, J., Glew, D., & Viswesvaran, C. (2012). The dominant theory of humor is the Incongruity Theory (Morreall, 2016). Similarly, MesmerMagnus, Glew, and Viswesvaran (2012) conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies focusing on the impact of humor in the workplace. But this also shows how deeply cognitive the act is. Experimental comparison of the psychological benefits of aerobic exercise, humor, and music. Without it, IT isnt much. Self-esteem instability and humor styles: Does the stability of self-esteem influence how people use humor? Everyone who has experienced love has, most likely, faced a painful breakup. Humor typically requires more of a shared cultural and cognitive background than other forms of entertainment. Marziali, E., McDonald, L., & Donahue, P. (2008). however, humor seems to be more prevalent in post-modern literature. How many Etruscans does it take to change a light bulb? When is a coping technique seen as a way to manage, and when is it seen as a defense mechanism? Contributions of humor as perceived by the terminally ill. Hickman, G., & Crossland, G. (2004). To do this, we will discuss the ideas of the leading thinker behind this theorya man called Arthur Schopenhaeur (he explains his theory in his work The World as Will and Idea, but you don't have to read that text to understand this article). This concept is exemplified by the ability of healthcare workers to employ dark humor as a way of coping with chronic job stress (e.g., Schulman-Green, 2003; Talbot & Lumden, 2000; Wanzer et al., 2005). Schopenhaeur believes we relate to everything in the world through our perceptions. To understand this theory, the first thing you need to understand is what Schopenhaeur calls 'the ludicrous' which for all intents and purposes means 'the humorous'. Research has supported this idea. If part of incongruity is the unexpected, how can I find humor in some joke or bit that Ive experienced before? There is little doubt that humor enables people to cope better with stress. For example, among physicians who do the exceedingly difficult work of treating cancer patients, humor has been reported as beneficial for patients, doctors, and relationships between the two (Joshua, Cotroneo, & Clarke, 2005). Good comedy works to create expectations and them frustrate or play with them in such ways as to get the audience to find something funny or humorous. (2013). Comedians who adopt a more dead-pan style of presentation can leave their audiences confused. Dowling, J. #2: The Incongruity and Incongruity-Resolution Theories One of the oldest andmost developed theories of humor adopted by Kant, refined by Schopenhauer is, roughly,that humor happens. I shall begin, however, with a sketchy review of some of the main theories of humour and the standard objections to them, which usually take the form of providing counter-examples. Most humor researchers would agree that the core of humor is the perception of an incongruity (Forabosco 1992; Gervais and Wilson 2005; Scheel and Gockel 2017).Humor refers to a thought, statement, or event that is somehow incongruous or surprising and accompanied by humor cues that signal a nonserious mindset (Mulkay 1988). However, from a neutral unshaped perspective, it is simply a brush. Hopefully you followed that. Stieger, S., Formann, A., & Burger, C. (2011). One way that Gantos makes his writing amusing is through the use of schadenfreude. The Incongruity Theory of Humor. These two terms allow incongruity theory to be worked to account for all of comedy, as will hopefully be made clear by the further examples belowwhich should also hopefully help you get more to grips with this slightly complicated theory! The main issue with IT is that not all incongruities we experience lead to humor. Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the bizarre or absurd is with the following joke. Philosophy These findings have been supported by other research studies, such as that by Maiolino and Kuiper (2016), who investigated the ability of humor to predict positive outcomes. Self-enhancing humor is an invaluable strength that supports human thriving. Humor and the mastery of living: Using humor to cope with the daily stresses of growing up. It says that we are nding humor in perceiving something unexpected (incongruous) that violates expectations that were set up by the joke. The Theories of Humor and Laughter. That is why, although the Incongruity Theory freed humor from the traditional stigma of being anti-social, it has not . So now that you understand the basics of incongruity theory, there is just one final part for you to understanddon't worry, we're almost there! Moving up the ladder of humorous complexity, lets take a look at a couple of knock-knock jokes. Here we share defense mechanism worksheets as tools for practitioners. Abstract. In linguistics, the affiliative aspect of humor has dominated the . Engaging in a humor exercise is associated with a positive mood (Edwards, 2013) and positive cognitive appraisals (Maiolino & Kuiper, 2016). 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