What makes comedy

Comedy is more than just a pleasant way to pass an evening, humour more than something to amuse. But what is it for? And can humour, as comedy, change how we feel, what we think or even what we do? Humour is not just frivolous entertainment - it can help us cope with situations that are overwise impossible to understand Credit: Alamy. As an integral part of human interaction, humour has been on the minds of thinkers for centuries. Sigmund Freud sought the underlying motivations behind jokes in the nooks and crannies of our unconscious.

One of the most enduring theories of humour arrived courtesy of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It asserts that humour is ostensibly about mocking the weak and exerting superiority. In his recent book, Ha! The science of when we laugh and why , Weems reviews a raft of academic studies, including those that have used scanning to show which parts of the brain respond when we encounter something funny.

Humour that is in bad taste or cruelly targeted at particular groups may generate conflict, but, for Weems, humour is our way of working through difficult subjects or feelings.

Troubling news events can inspire dark satire, which may help unite people in their shared values Credit: Getty Images. Over the years, researchers have built a substantial body of evidence that some types of comedy — including sophisticated satire, which is growing in popularity — perform a potent social function, from breaking taboos to holding those in power to account. Avner Ziv , who has written numerous books about humour, explores this theme extensively.

The two forms together constitute the best illustration there is of the social function of humour. A social justice activist and a comedian, Long has a reputation for delightful, optimistic, whimsical humour and nimble storytelling.

However, as her career has evolved, she has consciously put social and political topics at the heart of her act. She believes that comedians have a role to play in articulating and challenging some of the most pressing issues of the day. It was a way to be useful for other people. Context is crucial to humour Credit: Getty Images. That they have a role in contemporary society beyond just making people laugh is undeniable; their work is evidence of the impact comedy can have more widely.

If we find a joke offensive, we protest by not laughing at it. In many ways, Quirk says, the sorts of observations made by comics such as Long are reinforced by her recent academic work, which has involved lengthy interviews with jobbing comics. While you do sometimes just need something silly to watch, comedy has much greater resonance than it tends to be given credit for. The best comedians, he argues, are our most effective anthropologists and cultural critics. A good joke packs a harder punch than many other forms of dialogue, and it can reach people who would otherwise be unwilling to listen Credit: Getty Images.

British comic Stephen K Amos sells out venues seating thousands, year in, year out, and has successful BBC Radio 4 programmes under his belt. And while it may be difficult to quantify, he says, the social and psychological impact of comedy warrants much greater recognition. The research backs this up. Although the role of comedy is to be entertaining first and foremost, through interviewing comedians, Sharon Lockyer , a sociology lecturer and the director of the Centre for Comedy Studies Research at Brunel University, has identified a number of possible other functions.

In the old days it was just about doing jokes. As an example of what comedy can do, Amos tells the story of a teenager who came up to him after a gig that featured Amos relaying his own tale of coming out as gay to his family. And if that means challenging your preconceived ideas about who I am, great. We can run with that. It validates shared experiences, gets us to think more flexibly and reframe situations in this shared experience we call life.

As the cop-turned-comedian Alfie Moore points out, "if they are laughing, they are listening" - meaning you can spread your message to more people Credit: Getty Images. My friend gave it to me as he was dying. It seemed very important to him that I have it.

In the case of our moose video, the incongruity results from the false expectation that the interaction between man and moose would result in some sort of violence. When we see our expectations foiled, it results in the perception of humor. Incongruity is also a fundamental part of the benign violations theory of humor BVT , one of the most recently developed explanations. Broadly, benign violations theory asserts that all humor derives from three necessary conditions:.

The presence of some sort of norm violation, be it a moral norm violation robbing a retirement home , social norm violation breaking up with a long-term boyfriend via text message or physical norm violation purposefully sneezing directly on a child. The interpretation of the first two points simultaneously. In other words, one must view, read or otherwise interpret a violation as relatively harmless. Thus far, researchers studying BVT have demonstrated a few different scenarios in which the perception of a benign violation could take place — for example, when there is weak commitment to the norm being violated.

Take the example of a church raffling off a Hummer SUV. They found this scenario is much less funny to churchgoers with their strong commitment to the norm that the church is sacred and embodies values of humility and stewardship than it is to non-churchgoers with relatively weak norm commitment about the church. Hence, a benign violation is born. In many ways, this type of inquiry is what drove me to research the limits and consequences of humor in the first place.

People are unique and often find different things amusing. In order to examine the effects of humor, it is our job as researchers to try to select and craft the stimuli we present to affect the widest range of people.

The application of this still-growing body of humor research and theory is seen everywhere, influencing everything from political speeches to advertising campaigns. These applications underscore the importance of developing the best understanding of humor we can. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Why does that one video crack you up?

Laughing image via www. Alex Borgella , Tufts University. Author Alex Borgella Ph. Candidate in Psychology, Tufts University. Why is it so funny? Take the following video as an example of a funny stimulus one might use in humor research:.