Define "Funny"

Philosophy Forums Psychology and Mind
1

when i make people laugh, its usually because i inserted a word or sentence into a place where they were expecting a different one. im having a hard time remembering examples because i dont really think much about it, my whole sense of humor takes place when i should be answering or responding in a predictable and boring way. when im sure that my humor recipient can predict my response, ill tell him something ridiculous instead. the mere fact that they werent expecting what they heard makes them laugh.

an example happened during the mundane process of orientating a new employee. we have turnstyles at the entrance to the office and you swipe an electonic card over a thing and it unlocks the turnstyle. the one at the main entrance takes longer to unlock than the one at the sub entrance, so if youre not careful, and you expect the thing to unlock quickly, youll run your crotch right into it. i told the guy ‘be careful at the main entrance, you dont want to break your crotch’

this is a bad example i know, and it barely inspired a chuckle. the thing is, he was expecting the word hurt, instead of break. besides the fact that breaking a part of your body is really hard and wouldnt happen, breaking a crotch is a crazy image. a crotch is like a corner, its where two things meet. in order to ‘break’ the crotch, youd have to i guess make it so its not a crotch anymore. youd have to split your entire body in half down the middle in order to actually break your crotch.

the point is, a blunt impact can break things and it is what i was warning him about. the fact that i said his crotch might break made him consider this idea for a second, and it is very absurd. i know its not so hilarious youll run out of breath, and i wish i could think of a better example, but im trying to scientifically identify the foundation of humor.

so what about spongebob squarepants? if theres an example of the most fundamental kind of funny, it is in cartoons. i remember the last time that i laughed so hard i couldnt breathe and had to mute it (one of two or three times… i smoke weed alright) was when sandy is hibernating and spongebob and patrick decide to go mess with her (the rest of the characters are a huge waste, even though there is rarely a deep, involved story without them). first of all, imagine sandy is hugely fat, has bloodshot eyes and is sleeptalking. there was a good 5-10 minutes of pure one after another hilarious things happening, and it eventually got to sandy chasing bob and pat who were of course panicking and screaming.

imagine that the camera is fixed on the three of them, and the terrain is moving as they run. the camera is in front of them, so you can see all their faces. sandy grabs patrick, and since she is really after spongebob, she quickly throws him over her shoulder and continues pursuing sb. imagine patricks screams slowly fading as he is flung far off into the distance behind them. as he goes past the horizon, a giant yet distant mushroom cloud slowly explodes where he landed. same principle as before: i wasnt expecting a mushroom cloud and my silent breathless laugh spasm increased in strength dramatically.

another time i couldnt breathe was while watching “and now for something completely different”, an awesome collection of monty python randomness. a guy is in his office and he has invited somebody to come in to give a sales pitch for a safari package. i dont remember much of what happened, except the gag is that the salesman gets waay too into it and as he screams out an exciting description of what will happen on the trip, he ends up trying to climb up a bookcase and immediately toppling it over onto himself. whats funny about that? it seems to simple to say that i didnt expect him to do something crazy, because i did! is it simply the fact that guys in suits dont knock over bookshelves? and i was unable to get rid of this preconception?

i think satire is an entirely different kind of funny. i think the only way it will make you laugh is if you never noticed the truth that it is exposing. i dont think satire is actually funny, its not something that is aimed at causing laughter, its more aimed at exposing truth.
i think silliness is a much more interesting facet of the mind. id like to find out exactly how to tickle people with telepathy.

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Humor is something that is out of place in the normal mundane spectrum of things, and comes across as unusual & witty, therefore making us react. Such as chuckling, laughing, smiling, or even smiling on the ‘inside’ when you find something funny, but don’t want to share that opinion with someone else.

3

Nothing’s funny if it fails to delight us. If I’m under acdemic probation, the funniest jokes won’t do.

When we’re delighted, we get: either actual encounters, e.g. a promotion, a million quid, a bimbo;or fictional encounters, e.g. a joke, a film, a piece of music. We use “funny” to describe, when the later case applies. I think.

4

A million quid? What’s that in money?

5

come on people, think about what is funny.

and, i agree, what exactly IS a quid??

6

$1864710 USD to 7 sig. fig.

Soz this took sometime, I had to find out the current exchange rate.

7

Problem is, that was supposed to be funny. :blush: Geez, tough room. :wink:

8

well, according to my theory, we would all have to know what a quid is before hand… or we would have to know what an appropriate response to the word quid would be.

we would have to think that a quid is like ‘an applause’ or something besides money, and pureR would have to be known by all normal english speaking people as saying “When were delighted, we get a million claps aka quids”

and then you- not knowing (or pretending to not know) that quids means claps- you say something completely unexpected

basically, replace the word “quid” with “claps” and phaed is a hilarious failure of a translator

9

Actually, I suspected that Pha was making a laugh. Futureman you psychoanalysed me well there.

I didn’t know what a “quid” really is, still don’t. Obviously england isn’t native to me.

10

well what did you mean when you said quid? nothing?

im lost, i guess i need to study up on my spongebob, or the definition of quid

11

Well you see, people over here sometimes say “quid” instead of “pound”. So a quid, in this common usage of meaning, means a pound. I said I don’t know what a quid is as what it’s supposed to mean initially intened.

12

stupid language, everybody move to philadelphia and listen to me explain everything and all problems are solved,and then well starve, but only the idiots who coincidentally didnt understand my language lecture

13

True… Sometimes people are confused by words more than their own reasoning. We all need someone who recognise the flaws of language well to constantly remind us of what’s Pureason and what’s not.

14

I love the “English,” language as opposed to “American.” How much quid to buy some quim? :stuck_out_tongue: I’ll be buggered if I can figure Euro’s, but pounds and pence at least makes some sense.

15

I hope you’ll be dissapointed to know that some of the most stupid of american english is getting hold of some of the youngest of the british. Thanks to hollywood and rap musicians.

16

Now, that’s funny. :evilfun:

17

:blush:

real cute arendt :angry:

18

Yeah, satire is really a caricature of society’s vices and weaknesses. We recognize what is going on in a satire because it is about people—though a caricature of people (or people’s behaviour).

Cartoons are funny. Stand up comics are funny. British humor is funny. But I don’t like comedies in film. I think funny movies are boring and flat and not funny.

19

Scary Movie 3… that’s funny! :laughing:

20

People can find anything comic, amusing, queer, even under-handed - funny in a given situation. Given another situation they can find the same thing annoying, boring or insulting. I think it’s the context of the situation and our temperament at the time that makes something funny or not funny.