According to Everything’s an Argument by Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz, “Humor has always played an important role in argument…” (38). Humor itself is something that activates amusement or laughter. Moreover, in popular culture satire is a tool that is used to point out things in our society. Satire opens the minds of people to philosophies they might completely deny, using humor. There are many elements of satire that identify flaws within our society. A couple of satire elements that will be discussed are irony and exaggeration. In addition, a parody is used in popular culture as a way to mock or mimic situation or person.
Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental.
According to Aristotle, “Comedy can be any colloquy or performance generally intended to amuse or stimulate laughter”. In modern times, comedy can be found in different forms, such as television, movies, theatres and stand-up comedy.
Many people tend to use humor as a positive communication skill to make us laugh. It has long been used as a tool to navigate how we better understand media and politics. In today's crucial times of political chaos, social unrest and in-fighting between political parties, the use of Satire humor is more relevant than ever before. According to Oxford dictionary, satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. In the last decade there has been a staunch increase in technology and a rise in social media, this comes with its own benefits and downfalls. The use of satire humor has been represented
Similar to many other lively pleasures, humor can only be experienced if it resonates with a person. Without some kind of comprehension, there cannot be any type of reaction. Only once an outlandish statement, inappropriate remark, or unexpected situation, is remotely understood will a person be able to label it comical or sober. Since there are billions of people worldwide with their own languages including it’s respective idioms, euphemisms, the age old saying of “there is truth in every joke” applies to each culture individually.
Comedy consists of many components. It starts with the formation of comedic writing and leads to current day comedic skit. Early comedy dates back to Greek and Latin writers and is used to describe works with happy conclusions. Middle aged comedy shifted work to more substantial “happy endings”. A current definition of the word defined by the Oxford English Dictionary states, “That branch of the drama which adopts a humorous or familiar style, and depicts laughable characters and incidents” (Comedy, 2012). This definition brings us to the issue in review. Comedy is made to evoke laughter from its viewers; whether that laughter is from verbal stories, visual cues, or socially excluded ideas. In doing so, comedy constantly touches on issues of current events, human endeavor, and the too familiar issue of race.
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
He points out that the philosophical study of humor is focused on determining “what has to be true of something in order for it to count as assuming” (Morreall 7). The study has shifted from identifying the theories to now explaining the psychological reasoning behind humor and laughter. Philosophers want to know what does a situation have to satisfy to cause laughter. Over the years, three theories have emerged, the Superiority, Incongruity, and Relief Theory. Morreall particularly focuses on the Superiority Theory. Combining the philosophical ideas of Plato, Thomas Hobbes, and Roger Scruton, this theory claims that “laughter expresses feelings of superiority” (Morreall 6). Laughter comes from feeling better than someone else, like neighbors laughing at the man tripping on the sidewalk in the earlier story. His neighbors could laugh because they are not in his position. The man embarrassed himself in front the whole neighborhood and got a scraped-up knee from doing so. On the other hand, his neighbors are happily sitting on their porches, free from embarrassment in front of fellow peers and have no bruises from a fall. Since they are socially and physically superior to this man, they find the situation
Humor can form an idea of the comedy that expresses a humorous way to entertain the audience. Some other forms of humor show the different perspectives on how they manipulate the ideas on something funny toward the audience. In addition, humor always has different flavors on how they appeal from one to another so that people can find it enjoyable. Humor can use as tools to communicate with people in a good way. Sometimes, forms of humor, especially like satire, can express some misunderstood term that finds it really insulting. Humor always express something less serious for everyone. Humor expresses some opinions about political acts so people can view them more critically.
Humor is something that everyone can relate to. It's all around us, used every day, by everyone. Below, I’ve found three comedic items that tickled my funny bone. I made sure that each one actually made me laugh, therefore actually possessing humor rather than attempting to be humorous. Although they all share a similarity in being funny, each one captures a different aspect humor. One touches the ironic side of humor, while another touches the dark side, and the other one hits the slapstick humor. Humor is all around us and should be enjoyed and embraced. Let’s jump in.
The first example of humor in the book Dead End in Norvelt, is when Jack farts to save the deer's life. “. . . landed on an island that was populated by a primate tribe of people who just happened to be called the Hairy Ainus People. The name alone almost made me howl with laughter, but I kept telling myself not to laugh through my mouth, but out the other direction.” (Gantos 82) This is a funny text because it is ironic. He is doing something really meaningful and serious, but he does it by doing something funny and not serious. Jack saving the deer was humorous because it was ironic.
The phrase Black Humor has the broad meaning of poking "fun at subjects considered deadly serious or even taboo by some"2. This definition is simple, and yet embodies an important idea that is often lost in more complex definitions: the idea that Black Humor can actually be "fun", and provoke laughter. This is not, of course, the only important aspect of the term, and I shall explore some of the other important defining features of Black Humor before moving on to discuss its use in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle3.
If there is one way to bring a smile to someone’s face, it is laughter. Funny jokes, comical stunts, sarcasm- Every person is different when it comes to what makes them laugh. Some find dry humor comical. Others think sarcasm or joke-filled ranting are the best. ‘Comedy’ is such a broad term, broad enough to allow everyone to find something they find comical. In fact, ‘comedy’ includes a specific type of drama, one where the protagonist is joyful and happy endings are expected. Comedy is like a drug; it allows you to escape reality. When we say the word ‘comedy’ in the present, we are generally referring to a type of performance which provides humor. However, in its broadest sense, comedy has only one purpose: comedy makes people smile and
Those who use humor to its best advantage teach others by example. Instead of getting angry when something goes wrong, we should try to look for the humor in the situation. It eases tensions and keeps things in perspective. Humor can energize us when a task has become tedious. Humor can make even the worst of situations tolerable.