After trudging through the dense, somewhat unorganized pages
of the book “Comic Relief “ by John Morreall, I was glad to have finally
finished the reading. The book explores many of the theories of humor through
the centuries, and although there were parts that were interesting, I failed to
fully enjoy it, unfortunately.
However, there were a few things I did learn from the book:
1)
Humor was, at one point, thought to be a
negative contributor to society. This idea was strange to me at first because I
cannot imagine a society where humor, or even laughing or smiling would go
against social mores. I absolutely love laughing and smiling, so when I read
that humor was viewed negatively years ago, I wondered how this could happen.
After reading some of the reasoning behind this belief, I understood the logic,
at least. It made sense that humor can cause ridicule and emotional pain, but
the old ideas of humor did not realize the potential humor has when it is not
used for these things.
2)
Humor allows people to do things they are
usually not allowed to do. With humor, you can imitate different aspects of
life and essentially ridicule different things. In everyday conversation, it is
not appropriate to ridicule something, but for a strange reason, ridicule in a
humorous fashion is more accepted. Morreall gives several examples of humor
that ridiculed a cultural practice, a powerful position in government, and
others. This type of humor can be harmful, but some of it can sometimes
actually reveal a truth that needed to be heard and accepted.
3)
Cognitive shift is usually the method of humor
or laughter. I had not really considered the exact reason I laugh until I read
the book. It made me realize that the things I find funny are funny because of
what Morreall calls cognitive shift. When I laugh at the short Monty Python
“Fish Club” skit, I laugh because the actor (from the official “Board of
Irresponsible People”) begins the skit acting normally, but very quickly tells
the audience how to feed your goldfish a good meal, including sausage,
potatoes, and bread. While he explains this, we see him stuffing the fishbowl
with this food, and it catches you off guard, making you laugh. I am much more
aware of why we laugh now.
Watch the Fish Club skit below. It's only 52 seconds!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJlBYvkRiHk
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