What makes things funny

[TranquilNightElf]

I have always wondered this...
I read a Calvin and Hobbes strip about this and that added to my pondering.


Calvin:"Don't you think It's weird that Nature would give us a sense of humour?We laugh at things that don't make sense.We think Its funny.Why would we have evolved that way?"
Hobbes:"I think that if you couldn't laugh at things that don't make sense then you couldn't react to a lot of life"

Calvin is left dumfounded as hobbes walks off.
Presently he says to himself,a perplexed expression on his face,:"I can't tell if that's really funny or really scary"


Do you think that laughter is the reference point wherby we gauge other emotions?

[Mordecai2k]

The element of surprise and good timing. Timing is almost everything ^^

[TranquilNightElf]

so do you think we could come up with asic defenitions of how things are funny?..

[Case_in_point]

I forget who said this....

''Comedy is the truth the moment before you expect it.''

[OboeGuru]

I love the deep thoughts in Calvin and Hobbes!

I wouldn't say that laughter is the single emotional gauge, but it definitely is one of them.

[pixels]

Laughter, Comedy, Jokes; all essential to life. Without these things I fear we would not be human (not to say laughing at a comedians joke makes us a human). People can laugh at just about anything thats not entirely serious (such as death, no one really laughs at death with a sincerity. They laugh at things that are different (things that they arent used to), they laugh at mistakes (even though they've done the same thing, its still funny), they laugh at jokes because they pinpoint a flaw or coincidence or compare two different things or act something out in a different and unusual way.

Why?

Scientifically, something 'tickles' our brain (which leads us to wonder why being tickled generates a 'haha'), but you cant anylyze laughter like that (not without laughing, that is). Laughter just happens, I should know, I dont go a day without it, no matter how pissed off or serious I may try to be, things happen and I react -- and its funny. Most things that I do are "you had to be there" because timing is everything, and I've got that down pretty well.

Things are funny because, weather they were meant to be or not, have some known or unknown element of surprise that catches us off-guard or addson to an already funny moment taking us further into surprise.

Meh.

[TheGreatBrain]

God, I loved those comics.
I agree mostly with, well, with Hobbes' explanation. :)

I can remember several occasions where I've seen something that really freaked me out, and instead of going crazy I just laughed. I think that you wouldn't be able to cope with a lot of things in your life if you couldn't laugh something off. I think you'd just go insane.

[Duddits]

Duddits will tell you right here and right now: Alcohal makes a lot of things funny; but not the day after. One thing that Duddits often finds funny while hammered is tying some kind of noisemaking object to cow's tails. They flip out. Tying firecrackers to cow tail, like in Joe Dirt, is funny but very mean, Duddits thinks.

[Carnage]

Comedy is a dead art form...

Now tragedy. Haha. THAT'S funny. ^_^

[Subjukator]

Laughter is also a way to expell excess anxiety. Kinda like when your in like really deep doo-doo, I sometimes laugh making the person whos angry with me more angry. :)

[Yahhred]

well, I guess it always comes down to the " it depends on the person" cliche. when I have gotton seriously injured I have laughed really hard, or when I get hurt period, I start to laugh....why? I have no Idea, but for me it almost helps with the pain.

for example I popped my knee out of joint one christmas break 5 years ago, and after letting out a good scream I began to laugh incredibly hard, I was literally rolling on the floor with laughter

*shruggs* I guess I am just crazy :twitch:

[hammocksleeper]

Yeh I can't think of any specific instances, but I know that there have been times I have laughed hysterically but was really in extreme pain. I can't explain it, I guess it makes the pain feel good, or go away or something.

[Duddits]

Stick your tounge to a poll and have it freeze their. You will laugh your ass of even after you accidentally slip and rip your tounge off... (Duddits almost ripped his tounge off that way when he was about 5... Funny memory)

[Tranxiety]

Humor is caused by a systemic anomaly causing an adverse reaction to something that is generally considered subhumanly abnormal or peculiar. Anything beyond that depends on the person.