Imagine for a moment you are at a party. You are perhaps the only philosophically minded person there, in fact… let’s say you’re sober, and drugs aside you’re the smartest, most rational person there by far. Then you get into a fight with someone, it could be about anything really… the point is, is that you are easily handing the person their ass on a platter in terms of your words against his. Everyone is listening, and the other person’s inability to properly answer your questions or present some comments of his own is evident.
Then the other person tells a joke. It could be about you, or could be in general. If it’s funny enough, immediately he is in control of the crowd. This is the logic behind comedy. I’m not claiming to know what it is exactly that makes something funny, I’m claiming that this is power. If you have ever been around someone who is truly hilarious it’s quite humbling (I remember this one guy in High School) because that person is always the center of attention, and even you yourself can’t help but laugh and like this person. You can’t communicate on their level, and thus you are inferior in any real societal value. Whoever controls the crowd, has the power. I imagine that the first leaders of man were the funny ones, back before intelligence had any real form.
Nowadays comedy is used mostly for money making purposes… but things still have not changed all that much.
This may have been said before… just sorta popped into my head. Any thoughts?
I think comedy is something that just comes naturally to some people.
I definately know what you are saying though about funny people being able to control a crowd. But I find it kind of annoying sometimes when everyone else in the group attempts to respond to the humour with humour…it’s almost like nobody is really saying anything, like everything is just one big act.
how do you learn to be funny is like asking how do you learn anything at all. Sometimes all it takes it when it comes to jokes is to have a computer and now a website with good jokes and very good memory so you can remember them. A true comdian is someone who can exploit holes in logic in everyday mundane events. I mean look at Seinfeld you could give him a piece of lint and he will make people laugh about it. I think its just a gift or talent. The ability to make people laugh can be learned but only those who are natruals at it are the best. This ability consists of being to identify with the crowd, very quick thinking, memory, a quick wit.
among other characteristics.
yea but see having the natrual talent is superior to looking up jokes and remembering them.
With talent you know your crowd and you can tell what to say and when to say it and how or in which way to say it to make them laugh.
With just knowledge of jokes you can say a joke but your tone might not be correct you might not even have a good sense of humour so what you think is funny is the opposite for everyone else?
Its the basic argument that states experiencing something is always better than knowing it. Pracical over theoretical.
Hi Old_Gobbo:
I believe humour IS a form of intelligence. But i think mainly it’s about ‘busting boundaries.’ Let’s say a school principal has the traits of being serious, upstanding, aloof, self-important etc. The school comic basically steps across that boundary, that set of traits which defines him as a person, reaches-in and, metaphorically speaking, takes that principal’s ‘self-importance’ trait and shows it up for the b.s. which essentially it is.
Take your example of the smart guy at the party; let’s call his defining trait the ‘egg-head’ trait. His ‘knows’ he’s intelligent and that’s how he defines himself. It’s a defining boundary to his sense of self. Party-Comic-Guy just steps right across that boundary so to speak and mocks his ‘egg-headness’ in front of everyone thereby reducing him to Party-Victim.
I remember a line from the Clint Eastwood movie “The Unforgiven” where that writer character describes how a gunfighter, if faced by a more than one adversary, will usually takes down the biggest guy first. In a social situation, maybe it’s the ‘comedian’ who should be taken-down first.
I don’t know if comedians are usually natural leaders. My observations from my school days is that this is how some of them survive amongst the ‘cool crowd’ or the ‘jocks’ or some other group they look up to. I think it’s a kind of defense mechanism and thus a survival mechanism.
To inspire laughter is a sign of higher intelligence and social understanding. it is a form of intellectual stimulation. think about ‘wit’ in the old days, what is wit but to out smart your opponent. and socially adaptable because you know what to say and not just able to say it.
In other words, for someone to get a joke they have to get the joke AND for someone to find something funny it has to be something other than a plain denotative statement…
Inbred? Hm…ok…going a little far…comedy isn’t a mutation of logic…it’s more anti-logic. Well, a lot of the humour…Spike Milligan, Pythons, maybe even The Office, Extras, Marx Brothers…
umm i think he was jking angst, lol get it? k i’ll stop, well i think humor does take practice, it’s more of an art then a “math” if you get what i mean. The logic is missing but in that sense it’s draws out the emotion of laughter, which causes something to be funny. So to answer ur question on how to learn to be funny, it’s the same as learning how to draw or paint well. Natural ability does count but practice makes perfect
this is the prerequisite to be on the next,and highest level of humor.you must be driven insane at least once. like monty python stuff.like in ‘the fisher king’(a movie).that guy that went mad after his girl friend died was as funny as hell. a field of anti-logic to defly all logic is generated(when logic can no longer cope),coupled with the way to make anti-logic funny(to distract yourself further),and vwa-la the ultimate humor is here.
i hope the insane or post insane can back me up on that one. once you go un-mad,if you do,you still remember how to be that funny. if you were to get stoned off your ass,and were as funny as hell,you probly would not remember the techniques properly when sober,i’m guessing. i never ever get or got stoned by the way,or did drugs.
k i’ll stop, well i think humor does take practice, it’s more of an art then a “math” if you get what i mean. The logic is missing but in that sense it’s draws out the emotion of laughter, which causes something to be funny. So to answer ur question on how to learn to be funny, it’s the same as learning how to draw or paint well. Natural ability does count but practice makes perfect 