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). (2012). The Superiority Theory There are three major families of theories of humor: humor as release, humor as aggression, and humor as incongruity. Incongruity is a mismatch between what we see or understand to be true and what we (consciously or unconsciously) expected. Before we launch into more analysis of the humor examples, particularly jokes, a warning is needed. Clearly, they understand about expectation and then are using the unexpected presence of the new word to create humor. Humor and the mastery of living: Using humor to cope with the daily stresses of growing up. Abel, M. H. (2002). Even our vernacular Get it? question, indicates that one has to understand the ideas involved to find humor. In fact, when you get a joke, so the objection goes, there is no incongruity at all. The researchers found reductions in anger, anxiety, psychopathology, and depression among participants (Gelkopf, Gonen, Kurs, Melamed, & Bleich, 2006). Askildson, L. (2005). 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. 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! Hopefully this tour has shown how and why IT is the leading candidate for explaining humor perception. Philosophers are a notoriously surly bunchheck, even our patron saint, Socrates, did his best to show everyone was wrongand that landed him a heaping glassful of hemlock juice, which isnt too helpful if living is your goal. Herth, K. (1990). The Incongruity Theory reveals the affinity between philosophy and comedy and rebukes the argument that humor is "hostile and irresponsible" (Morreall) . Contributors are expected to avoid all needless technicality. Incongruity Theory. In the simplest and most general way of stating the idea, an incongruity is something that is unexpected, absurd, out of the ordinary, strange, or bizarre. If the joke were truly nonsensical, the response wouldnt be humor, it would be confusion. Everyone who has experienced love has, most likely, faced a painful breakup. 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. To you, the brush would seem comically small for the task at handeveryone knows it's a toothbrush, not a toilet brush. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. Here are 18 examples of studies showing evidence of humor as a strength. HubPages is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. Because this obvious fact about humor shows how much, cognitively speaking, is required of us when we experience and enjoy humor. Im writing an essay about humor and wanted to relate it to building relationships within sports, like volleyball. Here, two pieces of sensuous knowledgea dog and a bearded husbandare deliberately put together under a single piece of abstract knowledge: the concept of a 'furry friend', which usually means a dog, but which you now see could refer to either. There are numerous positive benefits of humor, such as enhanced positive mood, life satisfaction, self-esteem, job performance, creativity, social bonding, and. Coping mechanisms of physicians who routinely work with dying patients. Additionally, humor may represent a vital strength during middle childhood by helping kids to gain the support of a peer group and by enhancing self-esteem (Klein & Kuiper, 2006). If you were to see a character brushing their teeth with a toilet brush in a slapstick comedy show, it would be amusing. There are problems with it, as there are with all theories. This idea is evident in Cann and Collettes study (2014), as positive outcomes were associated with self-enhancing humor. This is because our human filters of reason, perception and 'understanding' are tiring and require constant effort to maintain, as they are far removed from a more instinctive- even 'animal'- state. Moving up the ladder of humorous complexity, lets take a look at a couple of knock-knock jokes. The second theory described by Martin and Ford (2018) is the superiority theory, which focuses on interpersonal motivational mechanisms, with humor resulting as a function of self-esteem enhancement. Therefore, it is suggested that the absence of detrimental humor is equally important to the presence of prosocial humor styles (Martin, 2019). For instance, my children loved to take nursery rhymes that they knew well and then not say the expected words at some point. (2003). (I know, the Whites frog has now totally expired) If you count them up, there are a number of incongruities in play here. It is a combination of all three concepts that attempts to fully encapsulate the complex subject of racial comedy. The humor in both of these examples relies on incongruous interpretations . Humor was the weapon of those whose lives were utterly in the hands of the executioners, those who were powerless to rebel or resist in any other way.. When we are shown it is inadequate, we feel we can relax our reliance on it. 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). 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). In-congruity theories are essentially cognitive, i.e. It's not without its issues or critics. Szabo, A., Ainsworth, S. E., & Danks, P. K. (2005). Examining the impact of a brief humor exercise on psychological wellbeing. The humorous character in a slapstick show who uses a toilet brush as a toothbrush doesn't understand that the only thing that stops our word for 'toothbrush' applying to a toilet brush is abstract knowledgea human invention. As is widely known, theories of humour are traditionally divided in three branches: (1) Theories of incongruity, or inconsistency, or contradiction, or bisociation. Making fun of someone else because of their misfortunes. Two main theories of humor studies can be identified. Bizarre or absurd as types of incongruity are a bit more difficult to describe as they are, well, bizarre, but they are definitely further refinements, or subsets of the incongruous. The response of none both increases and diminishes your perplexity. While there is a paucity of research addressing humor among older people, there is some evidence of its potential to enhance the quality of life within this group. Think about whats required for you to get a joke. Humor styles and their relationship to explicit and implicit self-esteem. But not for them. If you dont find yourself laughing nearly enough, here are six things you can do: Two cannibals are eating a clown. If youve spent any time around children when they find something funny, they will quickly wear it out. They are reviewed along with neurolinguistic approaches, evolutionary theories of humor and a few mixed and partial theories that have been presented. In this way, humor results from feelings of triumph over the errors or misfortune of others, which promotes self-enhancement and feelings of superiority. ulysses is a good example. Humor has been reported as among the top eight of 24 character strengths and is associated with increased life satisfaction, life engagement, and life pleasure (Samson & Antonelli, 2013). We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Ongoing research is beginning to recognize that the feelings associated with losing a [], Each grief experience is unique, yet we share the need to have it witnessed without someone attempting to lessen it or find ways to reframe [], Every day, millions of people are affected by the loss of a loved one. Humor typically requires more of a shared cultural and cognitive background than other forms of entertainment. Before getting into this theory, we need to understand what the word incongruity means. If I told you a joke where Etruscans were the main actors, you might not find it funny. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. searching for some most common kind of humor. Abstract knowledge refers to the way we understand things through our human filtersour words for things in the world and the categories we assign them into. however, humor seems to be more prevalent in post-modern literature. So there you have it! This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Humor in the classroom also is believed to promote social and emotional development among children (Lovorn, 2008), and we share a few ideas in our article Activities to Stimulate Emotional Development. Even if one is familiar with the lightbulb form of joke, this particular one works because the answer supplied is a non-answer. School-age children talking about humor: Data from focus groups. Detrimental humor (e.g., sarcasm and self-disparaging humor), on the other hand, is believed to have potentially negative ramifications such as reduced relationship quality and low self-esteem (Martin, 2019). There are samples, in the provided dataset, that uses the incongruity to create humor . IT is refined by adding the play qualification so as to help us know which incongruities are funny ha-ha rather than funny strange.. The LibreTexts libraries arePowered by NICE CXone Expertand are supported by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project, the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the UC Davis Library, the California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program, and Merlot. In the second, the author discusses the debate over whether humor is an emotional experience, or something else. First the doctor told me the good news: I was going to have a disease named after me. Humor's Bad Reputation 2. Raskin, Victor. They then proceed to pour their drink over you. A metaanalysis of positive humor in the workplace. Relief theory. The BVT specifies how psychological distance plays a central role in determining whether a . More about the theory: Expectancy Violations The humor in both of these examples relies on incongruous . After watching a funny video, cancer patients reported significantly less stress, and a negative correlation was found between stress and amount of mirthful laughter. 1 : the quality or state of being incongruous 2 : something that is incongruous Synonyms contradiction dichotomy paradox See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus Example Sentences she's an incongruity: an impeccably groomed woman who keeps a messy house Remember, regardless of whether we are talking about wit or folly, what makes us laugh is the incongruity we realise exists between abstract and sensuous knowledge. Samson, A., Glassco, A., Lee, I., & Gross, J. And no doubt comedians are having to think differently about their routines in light of the current climate. Humor plays an essential role in buffering the impact of stress and is important for positive wellbeing among both children and seniors. It recognizes that you cant find a difference between a thing and itself. The listener, in line four, not really knowing if the term spoken earlier is who or hoo, but likely assumes the former, then follows along with the standard knock-knock joke format. Outside of a dog, a book is mans best friend. The hostility theories address the aggressive aspect of humor, i.e., the fact that often, but not always, humor is directed against someone. And why not? Relief theory maintains that laughter is a homeostatic mechanism by which psychological tension is reduced. Schulman-Green, D. (2003). Mathieu, S. (2008). For example, one study examined the impact of humorous films on various psychological symptoms among schizophrenia inpatients. 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. 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! There is no shortage of quotes about humor (and humorous quotes) available online; here are eight terrific examples: If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. "Irony is the . Request Permissions. Rowe, A., & Regehr, C. (2010). Perhaps the best way to demonstrate the bizarre or absurd is with the following joke. Gelkopf, M., Gonen, B., Kurs, R., Melamed, Y., & Bleich, A. The authors describe this as akin to a hydraulic engine, with laughter serving the function of a steam pipe pressure valve. A comprehensive look at how children are impacted by the experience of humor is described by Hogan (2003), who noted that humor benefits children in terms of enhanced social bonding, stress relief, and pain coping. Positive psychologists have a keen interest in the role of character strengths, which have been described as virtues that are crucial to human thriving (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). 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