I’ve always been interested in how frustration leads to a laugh. There is some kind of sarcastic release that frustration provides a set up for.
Take a movie like Planes, Trains and Automobiles. These two guys cant find the right way to get home. No matter what attempt they make, failure soon follows. The frustation builds, with these two men hating each other’s presence, until the one night, they get drunk and bond by talking about how frustrating their whole trip has been.
This to me is what comedy is built on. I think when we laugh it’s because we fell superior to what we perceive as human weakness or futility.
What frustrates you but makes you laugh?
Today it took me ten minutes to get my bed cover on, each corner slipping off when I streched it. Frustration. But I finally laughed.
I also think, In the Catcher in the Rye, when Holden talks about riding on the atomic bomb, saying he’d volunteer for it, that shows how frustration can be funny.