In a message dated 1/24/2000 5:49:22 PM Pacific Standard Time, EvMick@aol.com
writes:
<< All humor...(except for puns) has at it's base...." other people's
misfortunes". >>
No! NO!!!!!! But a lot of dumb humor does...
and only if you only watch TV for your humor fix ... Sure, most hollywood
comedians rely on sarcasm, mean spirited jokes and biting wit, but not all
HUMOR in general must be other's misfortunes..
It is true that we have a (possibly hardwired, genetic) laugh response to
oddity triggered by what we now call cultural "differences". People used to
laugh at deformities, funny accents etc. til we wised up that it was hurting
people...
( We automatically laugh at things that seem out of place or odd)
(There are other ways of amusing people ..like silliness, alliteration (puns
fall into that category) shock humor, and odd juxtapositions of ideas that
tickle the intellect)
Science doesn't explore laughter much. Perhaps there is an irony to that
somewhere...
Strangely enough, this subject is also explored in Janus, the book I
mentioned in another thread....
It's often a "surprise mechanism" that triggers laughter, not only cruelty
and oddities.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:02:38 MDT