So Whats So Funny? - Humor Article

By:Neil Ebsworth

Its a simple question to ask, 'Whats so funny?' but if you sit down and think about it, it's not so easy to answer. In some respects it's an eternal question with no one correct answer. Ask a comedian who is successful about what is it that makes the audience laugh? Why are you so funny? The reply you will probably get, is a litany of stories about the years that they spent 'doing the circuit', rooms full of drunks and the nights they died on stage and never got a laugh. They can never quite put their finger on the turning point in their careers and don't dwell on the reasons. 'If it aint broke don't fix it' and certainly do not try to analyze it for fear that it, like magic, may disappear overnight.

Simply the fact that different things make us laugh and a particular type of humour may leave someone in hysterics and another person bemused, looking for what was so funny, is testament to the innate personal nature of comedy. A study of what make us laugh concluded that their were two types of humour. The type where we laugh with someone or some situation, and another where we are laughing at someone or something. The latter can be seen as a reflection of our own position in society and the confidence we express at the misfortune of another person in an embarrassing situation.

The more confident someones is in them self that the situation would be unlikely to happen to them, then the more likely there are to laugh at the other persons misfortune. If you perceive that the situation that may happen to you, you are less likely to laugh, as the thought of a funny picture of yourself in a possibly compromised position is more unnerving.

Laughing outwardly at others misfortune is also a sign of the character of the person, a study by Dr Boris Sidis concluded in 1913. Dr Sidis concluded that laughter often displays the innate meanness of humanity. 'Show me the kind of thing a man will laugh at, and I will show you the kind of man he is'.

Funny in its purest form escapes this classification and the purer the source of the comedy, the higher the state of the evolvement of the amused society Dr Sidis said. We laugh at what we think to be inferior to our own position in society.

Probably the purest form of this is the clown who from his very appearance has released the shackles of what we consider normal in an attempt through visual and mechanical mimicry to make us laugh. It is the clowns diversion from all normal behaviour that allows all of us to laugh with him as well as at him. As the clown does not relate to any normal position that we might find ourselves in we are released from weighing subconsciously whether the situation would adversely affect us.

With the proliferation of the internet throughout our society, we find a situation whereby we can search for our own form of 'funny'. Be it funny pictures or literature, within the privacy of our homes and only shared between our PC and our self, we are not restrained by our social piers as to what we may laugh at. The proliferation of mediums such as You Tube are testament to this. Here you can find millions of examples of humour, the majority of which will not amuse the individual. However due to statistical variety available everyones taste is catered for and you are able to find something that amuses.

As for what makes us laugh, all I can say is that what makes us laugh only comes second to what puritans would say, is what makes us go blind!

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