Information AboutJoke |
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A joke is a short story or ironic depiction of a situation communicated with the intent of being Humorous . A Practical Joke or Prank differs from a spoken one in that the humor is mainly physical rather than verbal (e.g. placing salt in the sugar bowl, or more cruel "jokes" such that involve destruction of another's property). Jokes are typically for the entertainment of friends and onlookers. The desired response is generally Laughter , although loud groans of revealed stupidity are also a common response to some "dumb" jokes, such as Pun s and Shaggy Dog Stories . ANTHROPOLOGY OF JOKES In 1975 Anthropologist Mary Douglas noted that " Joking is one Mode Of Expression that has yet to be interpreted in its total relation to other modes of expression";"Jokes" 1975 p.291 scholar Seth Graham remarked that 30 years later this statement remains largely valid.Seth Benedict Graham '' A CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSO-SOVIET ANEKDOT '' 2003 p.2"Jokes" 1975 p.293 PSYCHOLOGY OF JOKES Why we laugh has been the subject of serious academic study, examples being:
"An Englishman at an Indian's table in Surat saw a bottle of ale being opened, and all the beer, turned to froth, rushed out. The Indian, by repeated exclamations, showed his great amazement. - Well, what's so amazing in that? asked the Englishman. - Oh, but I'm not amazed at its coming out, replied the Indian, but how you managed to get it all in. - This makes us laugh, and it gives us a hearty pleasure. This is not because, say, we think we are smarter than this ignorant man, nor are we laughing at anything else here that it is our liking and that we noticed through our understanding. It is rather that we had a tense expectation that suddenly vanished..."
:Marvin Minsky suggests that laughter has a specific function related to the human Brain . In his opinion jokes and laughter are mechanisms for the brain to learn Nonsense . For that reason, he argues, jokes are usually not as funny when you hear them repeatedly.
:Edward de Bono suggests that the mind is a pattern-matching machine, and that it works by recognizing stories and behaviour and putting them into familiar patterns. When a familiar connection is disrupted and an alternative unexpected new link is made in the brain via a different route than expected, then laughter occurs ''as the new connection is made''. This theory explains a lot about jokes. For example:
Laughter , the intended human reaction to jokes, is healthful in moderation, uses the Stomach Muscle s, and releases Endorphins , natural feel good chemicals, into the brain. One of the most complete and informative books on different types of jokes and how to tell them is '' Isaac Asimov's Treasury Of Humor '' (1971), which encompasses several broad categories of Humour , and gives useful tips on how to tell them, whom to tell them to, and ways to change the joke to fit one's Audience . According to a Psychologist at Arizona University, "People tell jokes about things they are uncomfortable with". {Link without Title} RULES The rules of humour are analogous to those of , Synthesis and Rhythm . Precision To reach precision, the comedian must choose the words in order to provide a vivid, In Focus image, and to avoid being generic as to confuse the audience, and provide no laughter. To properly arrange the words in the sentence is also crucial to get precision. An example by Woody Allen (from '' Side Effects '', "''A Giant Step for Mankind''" story {Link without Title} ): Synthesis As Shakespeare said in '' Hamlet '', "''Brevity is the soul of wit''".2 Meaning that a joke is best when it expresses the maximum level of humor with a minimal number of words; this is today considered one of the key technical elements of a joke. An example from Woody Allen: Though, the familiarity of the pattern of "brevity" has led to numerous examples of jokes where the very length is itself the pattern breaking "punchline". Numerous examples from Monty Python exist, for instance, the song "I Like Traffic Lights", and more modernly, Family Guy contains numerous such examples, most notably, in the episode Wasted Talent , Peter Griffin bangs his shin, a classic slapstick routine, and tenderly nurses it whilst inhaling and exhaling to quiet the pain. This goes on for considerably longer than expected. Rhythm See Also: Timing (linguistics) Comic timing The joke's content (meaning) is not what provokes the , Premise , Antithesis (with the antithesis being the Punch Line ). In regards to the Milton Berle experiment, they can be taken to demonstrate the concept of "breaking context" or "breaking the pattern". It isn't necessarily the rhythm that caused the audience to laugh, but the disparity between the expectation of a "joke" and being instead given a non-sequitur "normal phrase." This normal phrase is, itself, unexpected, and a type of punchline. Conclusions When a technically good joke is referred changing it with Paraphrasing , it is not laughable any more; this is because the paraphrase, changing some term or moving it within the sentence, breaks the joke mechanism (its vividness, brevity and rhythm), and its power and effectiveness are lost. Douglas Adams described sentences where the joke word is the final word as "comically weighted." This saves the "payoff" until the last possible moment, allowing the expectation for surprise to reach its highest point, while the mind is more firmly rooted in the pattern established by the rest of the sentence. WHY DO WE LAUGH? (MODEL OF APPRECIATION) No satisfactory theory of laughter explains why humans laugh has yet gained wide acceptance. Some of the prominent explanations (that is a humour Appreciation Model ) comes from part of the ideas contained in the Psychology Essay '' Jokes And Their Relation To The Unconscious '', by Sigmund Freud (1905) {Link without Title} . According to Freud 's Operational Description , we laugh when the unconscious energy emerges to reach the conscious mind; and it reaches it unexpectedly due to the techniques used by the Comedian . This exceeding energy is rapidly discharged in the form of laughter. Freud distinguishes three fields: the Comic , the Wit , and the Humour . Comic In the comic field plays the 'economy of ideative expenditure'; in other words excessive energy is wasted or action-essential energy is saved. The profound meaning of a Comic Gag or a comic joke is "I'm a child"; the comic deals with the clumsy body of the child. Laurel And Hardy are a classic example. An individual laughs because he recognizes the child that is in himself. In Clown s stumbling is a childish Tempo . In the comic, the visual gags may be translated into a joke. For example in '' Side Effects '' (''By Destiny Denied'' story) by Woody Allen: The typical comic technique is the disproportion. Wit In the wit field plays the "economy of censorship expenditure"3(Freud literally calls it "the economy of psychic expenditure".); usually censorship prevents some 'dangerous ideas' from reaching the conscious mind, or helps us avoid saying everything that comes to mind; adversely, the wit circumvents the censorship and brings up those ideas. Different wit techniques allow one to express them in a funny way. The profound meaning behind a wit joke is "I have dangerous ideas". An example from Woody Allen: Wit is a branch of Rhetoric , and there are about 200 techniques (technically they are called Tropes , a particular kind of Figure Of Speech ) that can be used to make jokes.4 Irony can be seen as belonging to this field. Humor In the comedy field, humour induces an "economized expenditure of emotion" (Freud literally calls it "economy of affect" or "economy of sympathy". Freud produced this final part of his interpretation many years later, in a paper later supplemented to the book.).5 In other words, the joke erases an emotion that should be felt about an event, making us insensitive to it.e.g: "yo momma" jokes. The profound meaning of the void feeling of a humour joke is "I'm a Cynic ". An example from Woody Allen: This field of jokes is still a Grey Area , being mostly unexplored. Extensive use of this kind of humour can be found in the work of British satirist Chris Morris , like the sketches of the '' Jam '' television program. Black Humour and Sarcasm belong to this field. CYCLES Folklorists, in particular (but not exclusively) those who study the Folklore Of The United States , collect jokes into joke cycles. A '''cycle''' is a collection of jokes with a particular theme or a particular "script". (That is, it is a Literature Cycle .)6 Folklorists have identified several such cycles:
Gruner discusses several "sick joke" cycles that occurred upon events surrounding in the bushes") was subsequently recycled and applied to the crew of the Challenger space shuttle ("How do we know that Christa McAuliffe had dandruff? They found her head and shoulders on the beach.").20 Berger asserts that "whenever there is a popular joke cycle, there generally is some widespread kind of social and cultural anxiety, lingering below the surface, that the joke cycle helps people deal with".21 TYPES OF JOKES Jokes often depend on the humour of the unexpected, the mildly Taboo (which can include the distasteful or socially improper), or playing off Stereotype s and other cultural beliefs. Many jokes fit into more than one category. Subjects ''Political jokes'' are usually a form of Satire . They generally concern politicians and heads of state, but may also cover the absurdities of a country's political situation. A prominent example of political jokes would be political cartoons. Two large categories of this type of jokes exist. The first one makes fun of a negative attitude to political opponents or to politicians in general. The second one makes fun of political clichés, mottos, catch phrases or simply blunders of politicians. Some, especially the You Have Two Cows genre, derive humour from comparing different political systems. Professional Humour includes caricatured portrayals of certain professions such as lawyers, and in-jokes told by professionals to each other. Mathematical Joke s are a form of In-joke , generally designed to be understandable only by insiders. Ethnic Joke s exploit Ethnic Stereotypes . They are often Racist and frequently considered offensive. For example, the British tell jokes starting " An Englishman, An Irishman And A Scotsman ..." which exploit the supposed parsimony of the Scot, stupidity of the Irish, or some combination. Such jokes exist among numerous peoples. Racially offensive humour is increasingly unacceptable, but there are similar jokes based on other stereotypes such as Blonde Joke s. Religious jokes fall into several categories:
Self-deprecating or self-effacing humour is superficially similar to racial and stereotype jokes, but involves the targets laughing at themselves. It is said to maintain a sense of perspective and to be powerful in defusing confrontations. Probably the best-known and most common example is Jewish Humour . The egalitarian tradition was strong among the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe in which the powerful were often mocked subtly. Prominent members of the community were kidded during social gatherings, part a good-natured tradition of humour as a leveling device. A similar situation exists in the Scandinavian " Ole And Lena " joke. Self-deprecating humour has also been used by politicians, who recognize its ability to acknowledge controversial issues and steal the punch of criticism - for example, when Abraham Lincoln was accused of being two-faced he replied, "If I had two faces, do you think this is the one I’d be wearing?". Dirty Jokes are based on Taboo , often Sex ual, content or vocabulary. Other taboos are challenged by '' Sick Joke s'' and '' Gallows Humour ''; to joke about Disability is considered in this group. Surrealist or minimalist jokes exploit semantic inconsistency, for example: ''Q: What's red and invisible? A: No tomatoes.''. Anti-joke s are jokes that aren't funny in regular sense, and often can be decidedly unfunny, but rely on the let-down from the expected joke to be funny in itself. An Elephant Joke is a joke, almost always a Riddle or conundrum and often a sequence of connected riddles, that involves an Elephant . Styles The question / answer joke, sometimes posed as a common Riddle , has a supposedly straight question and an answer which is twisted for humorous effect; Pun s are often employed. Of this type are Knock-knock Joke , Light Bulb Joke , the many variations on " Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? ", and the class of "What's the difference between..." joke, where the punch line is often a pun or a Spoonerism linking two apparently entirely unconnected concepts. Some jokes require a Double Act , where one respondent (usually the Straight Man ) can be relied on to give the correct response to the person telling the joke. This is more common in performance than informal joke-telling. A Shaggy Dog Story is an extremely long and involved joke with an intentionally weak or completely non-existent punchline. The humour lies in building up the audience's anticipation and then letting them down completely. The longer the story can continue without the audience realising it is a joke, and not a serious anecdote, the more successful it is. Shaggy jokes appear to date from the 1930s, although there are several competing variants for the "original" shaggy dog story. According to one, an advertisement is placed in a newspaper, searching for the shaggiest dog in the world. The teller of the joke then relates the story of the search for the shaggiest dog in extreme and exaggerated detail (flying around the world, climbing mountains, fending off sabre-toothed tigers, etc); a good teller will be able to stretch the story out to over half an hour. When the winning dog is finally presented, the advertiser takes a look at the dog and states: "I don't think he's so shaggy." NOTES REFERENCES
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