Theory Of Humor Research Articles

Theorizing Laughter and Ethnicity in Philo’s Embassy to Gaius

Abstract Philo’s Embassy to Gaius (Legat.) narrates anti-Jewish violence in Alexandria (38–41 CE) and the experiences of a Jewish embassy sent to the Roman emperor Gaius to advocate for the rights of Jews in the city. Philo repeatedly brings up laughter during key episodes, using it to characterize his figures and situations, particularly along ethnic lines. Philo suggests that Egyptians have an inherent proclivity toward derision of Jews, whereas Romans only join in this unjust mockery when they inappropriately allow Egyptians to hold influence over them. In doing so, he establishes a narrative that places the blame of the crisis in Alexandria from 38–41 CE firmly on Egyptians and Egyptianness. In this article, I take Philo as a theorist of laughter, following Eva Mroczek’s arguments for “native theory” and Mary Beard’s work on ancient laughter. Taking up Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s interrogation of theories as constructed tools with specific effects, I ask what Philo’s theory of laughter does for him. Ultimately, I argue that Philo’s theorization of laughter supports a specific ethnic reasoning, in Denise Kimber Buell’s language, that condemns Egyptianness while exonerating Romanness, perhaps in an attempt to endear his own Jewish community to the Romans who controlled Alexandria.

Joke synonymy sensitivity among working comedians and the General Theory of Verbal Humor

Joke synonymy sensitivity among working comedians and the General Theory of Verbal Humor

On Verbal Humour Translation from English to Chinese in Subtitles of Stand-up Comedies under the General Theory of Verbal Humour

Apart from the increase in local TV or network programs of stand-up comedies, many Chinese translators have translated English stand-up comedies online. In the light of Attardo’s General Theory of Verbal Humour, this research aims to discuss the translation effect of verbal humour in accordance with the six Knowledge Resources from the GTVH. After a qualitative analysis of research data, this research demonstrates the translatability of verbal humour in stand-up comedies.

Estudio del formante <i>-ina </i>y<i> -oide</i> como sufijo de creación léxica con efectos cómicos en la red social <i>Twitter</i>

This research aims to examine humor as a pragmatic-social phenomenon applied to the use of two Greco-Latin formants with comic intention. This objective seeks to demonstrate the use of two elements with Greco-Latin roots in the formation of a humorous pattern that manifests itself in the virtual environment. To achieve this, both suffixes have been applied to lexical bases that are in principle unrelated to these elements. This research will provide a brief explanation of the suffixes -ina and -oide, commonly used in the scientific-technical field, but in this case they are adopted by speakers as a strategy to generate comedy in the virtual environment of the social network Twitter. Finally, the General Theory of Verbal Humor will be applied to the 756 tweets that make up the compiled corpus. A pragmatic analysis of the most representative texts in which both suffixes published on said platform are used will be presented and will serve as an example of such uses.

Laughter in the Courts of Heaven? Chesterton and the Theology of Humor

AbstractThis article relates Chesterton’s theology, and that of other theologians, to existing theories of humor. It asks: With regard to the understanding of humor, what is offered by a theological perspective—especially by Chesterton’s theology—that cannot be supplied by philosophical and psychological theories? The article situates Chesterton’s work in relation to three theories of humor: the superiority theory, the release theory, and the incongruity theory. It then examines two important relationships: first, that between humor, worship, and joy; then, that between humor, cognition, and theology. While focusing on Chesterton’s writing, it also considers relevant aspects of the work of other thinkers, including Ian Ker, Duncan Reyburn, Thomas Aquinas, Søren Kierkegaard, Reinhold Niebuhr, Karl Rahner, Peter Berger, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Terry Lindvall, and Brian Edgar. The article concludes by suggesting the beginnings of an outline of a theology of humor.

The satirical cinema of journalists. Mass media characters and stories by the Hollywood industry (1970-2020)

Journalism is a historic profession. A target of criticism and the result of technological adaptations, it is used by the film industry to create characters who use journalistic skills, verify sources or create exclusives, to therefore promote a democratic society with truth and independence, as part of their plots. To do this, a quantitative and qualitative content analysis is carried out on six representative American comedies in the last half century - Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976), Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987), The Paper (Ron Howard, 1994), Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002), Morning Glory (Roger Michell, 2010), and Don't Look Up (Adam McKay, 2021)- based on humor theories and agenda setting theory. By using humorous resources and journalistic praxis, an overview is made of how journalism is portrayed on the big screen through satire, which results in an image rooted in frivolous stereotypes, jokes and sharp responses denouncing sensationalism and infotainment. It is a debate that makes viewers aware of the importance of journalism and that, though laughter, a critical vision fluctuates by satirizing their skills under the deconstructive capacity of humor that reflects American society.

Humor dalam Video Animasi Green Burger pada Channel Youtube Egyptoon

Humor is an important asset possessed by humans. By having a good sense of humor, a person will be able to see, acknowledge, and accept reality as it is. In fact, humor can defuse difficult situations and reduce a person's stress levels. There are various ways that can be employed to cultivate humor, and one of them is through speech. This research aims to illustrate how humor situations are created in the animated video 'Green Burger' on the Egyptoon YouTube channel by violating the principles of cooperation in the speech found in the video, using Grice's cooperative principle theory through Juan Manser's theory of humor. The data source is the animated video 'Green Burger' on the Egyptoon YouTube channel, using a qualitative descriptive method. The results of the research indicate the presence of humor built through the violation of cooperative principles.

CULTURAL RELATION ON DISCOURSE MARKERS IN PUNCHLINES ON RICKY GERVAIS’ SUPERNATURE STAND-UP COMEDY SHOW

This research investigates the intricate functions of discourse markers (DMs) in Ricky Gervais' stand-up comedy, exploring their alignment with humour theories and their impact on punchline delivery. The purpose of this research is (1) to define the categories and functions of DMs utilised by Ricky Gervais in formulating punchlines and (2) to define the application of DMs in the punchlines within the framework of three theories of humour. The data was obtained from Ricky Gervais’ Stand-up Comedy Show entitled “SuperNature” on Netflix. A qualitative descriptive was applied. The theoretical basis of this research is Brinton’s theory which entails the category and function of DMs and Raskin’s theory regarding the creation of humour. Through examination, the research reveals that Gervais employs a diverse set of DM functions to navigate and enrich his comedic narratives, including the textual and interpersonal categories. The textual category, specifically on DM as an information indicator, indicates the highest overall outcome, with 18%. Moreover, their appearance showcases the dynamic role of DMs in appealing to humour theories. It can be shown that DM commonly appeared in the punchlines on the show, reaching a significant number of 46% in the incongruity category, aiding and amplifying punchlines.

TIPE HUMOR DALAM CERITA-CERITA PENDEK GUNAWAN TRI ATMODJO

Gunawan Tri Atmodjo's short stories are considered by many readers present humour. Many impressions are written by readers on the humorous aspect, but there is still no study that describes the humour aspect in these stories. Therefore, this study examines the types of humour in Atmodjo's stories based on a number of humour theories in literary works as presented by Louis Hasley and Matthew Kotzen. From the results of the study, it was found that there are three types of humour in Atmodjo's short stories, namely play, the formation of new words and expressions, and irony in the story. In compiling the story Atmodjo often uses the principle of deviation in normal situations. This can be seen from how he punctuates the names of the characters and the title of the work, the formation of words and expressions, and the irony in the story. These three things are built in conditions that are far from normal, both in terms of ethics (names and titles are messy and irony in the stories) and grammatical (on how words and expressions are formed). In this way, Atmodjo managed to free his readers from the emotional aspect that had been limited by ethics and grammar. Atmodjo thus consciously carried out the selection process (choosing characters and titles to play on), arranging (forming new words and expressions and arranging ironic plots), and using style (in summarizing these three things) so that the humour can be experienced and enjoyed by the reader. without leaving a message to be conveyed. The three types of humour in Atmodjo's short stories are not separate, but they support each other to build humour in the minds of the readers.

Humorous elements in virtual onymic creations

Informal use of anthroponymy is an integral part of the lexical resource of every language. The subject of this article is issues related to media onomastics (the review concerns terminology in internet forums). The aim of the article is the material exemplification of proper names, emphasising their formal features and ways of functioning on a specific communication plane. The task is to show certain tendencies and motivations in the field of creating virtual proper names in terms of their humorous value. In accordance with the adopted research perspective and the purpose of this article, when explaining the process of creating media onyms, reference was made to the mechanisms of name-forming derivation and the theory of humour, in particular the theory of incongruity. The specific communication channel creates new opportunities for language users and is an interesting research field for onomasts because, with the development of computer technology, the terminology began to go beyond the traditionally accepted standards.

The collective and individual expressions of humour in social media spaces

This article seeks to establish a theoretical framework for considering how the collective and individual expressions of humour in social media spaces have been used and presented in the socio-political context of Jordan after the 2011 Arab Spring. This framework moves from the collective to the individual and makes Mikhail Bakhtin and Sigmund Freud complementary to the study of Jordanian social media humour after the Arab Spring. It argues that Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of carnival and the carnivalesque (folk humour) have a functional similarity to Sigmund Freud’s theory of humour (release theory) because both seem to agree on the role of repression to influence the production of humour. Although repression is being understood differently (for Bakhtin it is political repression, which is usually a conscious decision, while for Freud it is self-repression, which is usually unconscious), humour can provide us with a strong mechanism for overcoming repression, or at least, giving the individual or the crowd the impression that they are challenging repression without necessarily challenging the status quo i.e., calling for regime change or revolution.

Humour in Macanese Creole literature as an identity creator and consolidator

Macanese Creole survives in literary works of the late 19th and 20th centuries. This paper explores comic literature, which constitutes the bulk of the existing corpus in this language, and analyses how this genre relates to the creation and maintenance of a Macanese identity represented as distinct from surrounding historically and demographically significant identities. I resort to the incongruity theory and to some relevant knowledge resources (script opposition, situation, target, and language) of the General Theory of Verbal Humour (Attardo and Raskin, 1991; Attardo 2001; 2008) to analyse how comic literature in Macanese fabricates a fictionalised and performative memory connected to the way in which the Macanese wish to see themselves and be seen by others.

Wordplay-based humor

Translating humour is comparable to working with poetry: one has to make sacrifices for the sake of equivalence. The task is further complicated when humour is anchored in multiple communication channels, such as the verbal and visual ones. The data of this article is complete Season 5 of The Simpsons animated sitcom and its Ukrainian, Russian, and German translation versions. Selected instances from the larger corpus of 526 humorous acts are discussed in light of Attardo’s (2001) General Theory of Verbal Humour and Zabalbeascoa’s (1993) concept of faithfulness in translation. They are then evaluated according to Chiaro’s (2008) typology for wordplay translation, which is expanded with concrete techniques. The findings suggest that the translator’s creativity may play a more important role than the proximity between the source and target languages.

Unveiling Namibia's Digital Humour

This article explored the humorous and stylistic elements of memes in Namibian online discourse. In the digital age, memes have become an integral part of online communication, offering valuable insights into contemporary language use. Today, memes are widely recognised as short videos or images accompanied by humorous texts, rapidly shared on social media. The incongruity theory of humour helps elucidate the humorous and language elements within memes. The study aimed at analysing selected memes within the Namibian socio-cultural context, shedding light on how language is used to create humorous effects and identifying stylistic qualities. The study employed a desktop methodology, analysing image macros from the Namibian socio-cultural context. 8 memes were sampled from an online platform called Namibian memes01 populated by 139 thousand followers at the time of sampling these memes. The study revealed that memes serve as a form of communication, conveying emotions, thoughts, ideas, and reflecting cultural values. They contribute to language development and have the potential to shape social interactions and shared beliefs. Humour plays a significant role in memes, fostering a sense of community, defusing tension, and promoting positive interactions. The findings highlight the importance of pragmatics and context in interpreting the intended meanings of memes.

Laughing about race in “colorblind” France: Racial stereotypes in French television comedy

This article examines the portrayal of race in two iconic French television series, H and Platane, exploring how they negotiate racial stereotypes within the context of France's purportedly colorblind society. Through a comparative analysis, we analyze the comedic strategies employed by these shows, drawing on humor theory to elucidate the dynamics of superiority and relief in laughter. While H often reinforces racial stereotypes under the guise of criticizing racist speech, Platane adopts a more nuanced approach, inviting viewers to engage with the complexities of racial discourse. By contextualizing these representations within France's sociopolitical landscape, we demonstrate the evolving nature of race talk in French television and its implications for broader societal attitudes. This study underscores the significance of television comedy as a space for both reflecting and potentially challenging cultural norms surrounding race and identity.

Mina’s Joke in Dracula : The Danger of Women’s Laughter

ABSTRACT: When Mina first meets Van Helsing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula , she plays a trick on him by giving him the shorthand version of her Whitby diary, which she anticipates he will not be able to read. This essay looks at the central positioning of Mina’s practical joke as an opportunity to consider how Stoker represents women’s capacity to be funny through Lucy, Mina, and Mrs. Bilder, the zookeeper’s wife. The three major theories of humor—superiority, relief, and incongruity, along with nineteenth-century discussions of women and comedy—help clarify how sexualizing women’s laughter through vampirism threatens conventional Victorian sensibilities and masculinity.

Mina’s Joke in Dracula : The Danger of Women’s Laughter

ABSTRACT: When Mina first meets Van Helsing in Bram Stoker’s Dracula , she plays a trick on him by giving him the shorthand version of her Whitby diary, which she anticipates he will not be able to read. This essay looks at the central positioning of Mina’s practical joke as an opportunity to consider how Stoker represents women’s capacity to be funny through Lucy, Mina, and Mrs. Bilder, the zookeeper’s wife. The three major theories of humor—superiority, relief, and incongruity, along with nineteenth-century discussions of women and comedy—help clarify how sexualizing women’s laughter through vampirism threatens conventional Victorian sensibilities and masculinity.

Loneliness and Humour in Azi̇z Nesi̇n and Neil Simon: a comparative study

This comparative study explores how Aziz Nesin and Neil Simon, representing different literary canons, treat and reflect upon the incorporation of loneliness and humour in Hadi Öldürsene Canikom! [Let’s Kill Me Honey!] (1970) and The Odd Couple (1965), respectively. Both playwrights examine the loneliness that has caught urbanised and atomised humans in two metropolises: Istanbul and New York. Simon deals with the values, concerns, lifestyles, aspirations and problems of middle-class people in his plays with domestic realism. In contrast, Nesin’s plays explore lower-working-class people’s values, concerns and struggles. Moreover, it focuses on how Nesin and Simon employ humour, as a Lingua Franca of comedy, in their works. The study emphasises the two playwrights’ incorporation of the humour theories of superiority, incongruity and relief into the selected dramatic texts. The interactions between the characters in the two plays are analysed according to the three traditional humour theories by assuming a discourse-analytic approach. The study has exhibited that in Hadi Öldürsene Canikom, all the humour theories have been explicitly observed. The humour largely stems from a case of mistaken identity, which creates incongruity. On the other hand, in The Odd Couple, humour is primarily evoked due to the incongruous characteristics of the roommates abandoned by their wives.

Unraveling Implicature in Racial Humor Stand-Up Comedy on YouTube

Humor is a form of communication with the intention to implicitly express meaning by exposing a sense of comedy. The primary focus of this thesis is to investigate implicatures in stand-up comedy, which are then categorized according to the type of humor and to observe how stereotype racial issue depicted through implicatures in stand-up comedy. This thesis examines the implicatures found in stand-up comedy with the underlying topic of racial humor on YouTube. This thesis is a qualitative research using documentation techniques and data cards as a research instrument. It utilizes Yule's implicature theory and David Hector Monro’s Theories of Humor. This thesis is limited to only 4 comedians with different backgrounds; Maz Jobrani, Hasan Minhaj, Jimmy O. Yang, and Gabriel Iglesias. The study found three categories of humor: superiority, incongruity and release. Incongruity is a major finding because it aligns with the characteristics of stand-up comedy which is to express genuinely miserable concepts while combining them with humor. This thesis discovered that the comedian's punchline indicated the existence of stereotypes regarding specific racial groups. The racial stereotype humor found is dominated by the Middle East, such as Iran, Arabia, and Indian. In addition, another finding in this thesis is the construction of Chinese identity. It can be inferred from the findings that humor belongs for particular occasions. People can use humor to express implicit meaning and to define their identity.

Food metaphors and humour in Nigerian online interaction

AbstractThis article explores the complementary role of Cultural Linguistics in making up for the inadequacies of linguistics‐oriented theories of humour in unpacking culturally embedded meanings in humorous discourse. On the basis of purposively sampled internet memes, it analyses different types of cultural presuppositions in some food metaphors that netizens in Nigerian online interaction appropriate to negotiate gender and class identities, which reflect inherent beliefs, shared values and communicative practices in the Nigerian world. It applies Sharifian’s categorisation of the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics―cultural schemas, cultural categories and cultural metaphors. The article concludes that mental spaces and conceptual blending are instrumental in forging a holistic conceptual approach, which can account for not only the linguistic but also cultural and discursive meanings of humour as an essentially social and interactional phenomenon.