The Incongruity Theory (IT, hereafter) is the dominant theory used in modern research to explain humorous things. Similarly, other researchers have suggested that gallows humor is beneficial for emergency personnel by providing an outlet for painful emotions and by enhancing support via group cohesion (Rowe & Regehr, 2010). You reply with "Why, am I marrying her?" not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings or other aspects of something) with your understanding of the world. Here are 18 examples of studies showing evidence of humor as a strength. The difference between the two is all about how the contrasts between abstract knowledge and sensuous knowledge are shown. For example, among college students enrolled in language courses, 72% noted that humor enhanced their interest in the subject matter, 82% reported that the instructors use of humor made them more approachable, and 82% indicated that humor created an environment more conducive to learning (Askildson, 2005). So far, youve read about some other attempts to explain the cognitive/mental processes behind the phenomenon of humor. The right side is exactly the same as the left, especially the left. Here the piece of abstract knowledge applicable to multiple pieces of sensuous knowledge is a word ('fire'), and so here we have an example of wordplay creating folly. A beautiful piece of sculpture or statuary can do the same. Additionally, humor may represent a vital strength during middle childhood by helping kids to gain the support of a peer group and by enhancing self-esteem (Klein & Kuiper, 2006). Even if one is familiar with the lightbulb form of joke, this particular one works because the answer supplied is a non-answer. Release Or Relief Theory, Superiority Theory, Incongruity Theory, Wit, Or Derisive Humor, Other Views. After watching a funny video, cancer patients reported significantly less stress, and a negative correlation was found between stress and amount of mirthful laughter. The benefits of humor in nursing education. The whole joke is layered with absurdities. By Steve Buissinne, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Apparently, we're all seething cauldrons of fluid and gas, trying to get out and making us wacky. Humor theories and the physiological benefits of laughter. The intentional use of classroom humor also has been linked to enhanced learning among nursing students (Ulloth, 2002). Firstly, relief theory argues that the act of laughing helps individuals to "subconsciously overcome inhibitions". White is clear on this, in a humorous, IT 46 supporting way. Incongruity theory, which focuses on the cognitive mechanisms of perception and interpretation, posits that it is the perceptions of incongruity that explain humor (Martin & Ford, 2018). Humor may thus for example serve to facilitate relief of the tension caused by one's fears. They lean too close to a candle and their sleeve catches fire. A metaanalysis of positive humor in the workplace. We struggle to understand why. The presentation of the sign primes us to think the store is owned, not by an Asian man, but a black person of color. The question alone is utterly nonsensical. Martin, R. (1989). is an example of 'humor went right. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. The humor students bring to the classroom is also essential. He offers examples of negative emotions such as "fear, pity, indignation, disgust, etc." and neutral ones like "puzzlement, wonder, curiosity, or problem-solving," 7 as attitudes that will not provide pleasure sufficient for humor. Proponents of this view include James Beattie, George Campbell, Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierkegaard, and Henri Bergson. Joshua, A., Cotroneo, A., & Clarke, S. (2005). Irrelevance that is in a funny way; something out of place that makes you laugh.Fast and visual humor. Similarly, in their review, Stieger, Formann, and Burger (2011) reported that self-defeating humor was linked to depression and loneliness, whereas self-enhancing humor was related to beneficial outcomes. (2014). Participants were categorized into either high or low sense of humor groups. they reply simply with "Thank you!" According to the Benign Violation Theory (BVT), something is perceived as humorous when it hits the "sweet spot," where there is not only a violation, but where the violation is also perceived as benign. Even though the audience grows tired easily. They then proceed to pour their drink over you. Self-esteem instability and humor styles: Does the stability of self-esteem influence how people use humor? Dowling, J. Your perception only relates to part of the objectone of its possible uses. Clocks dont melt like that. For more information, visit http://journals.cambridge.org. (2002). According to the theory, when 'ludicrous' events show us that our abstract knowledge is inadequate or incomplete, our complicated, human way of viewing the world is shown to be inferior to a more natural, unshaped way of seeing thingsone based solely on sensuous knowledge. The predictive nature of humor, authoritative parenting style, and academic achievement on indices of initial adjustment and commitment to college among college freshmen. For example, among physicians who do the exceedingly difficult work of treating cancer patients, humor has been reported as beneficial for patients, doctors, and relationships between the two (Joshua, Cotroneo, & Clarke, 2005). Self deprecating; if someone else is laughing at it because you are both flawed in the same way. If you were to see a character brushing their teeth with a toilet brush in a slapstick comedy show, it would be amusing. There is no shortage of quotes about humor (and humorous quotes) available online; here are eight terrific examples: If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. Humor styles and their relationship to explicit and implicit self-esteem. Returning to the above joke, the answer of purple fish is not relevant at all to the question. By contrast, the present study used a humor corpus with the novelty of three-element verbal jokes to perform direct . As an important high-level cognitive activity, humor plays a crucial role in human social life. humor is - first and foremost - a recognition of and response to incongruities.) Mark Twain quite rightly explained humor saying, "Humour is the great thing, the saving thing after all. Research has supported this idea. New York: Kluwer, 1984. Stieger, S., Formann, A., & Burger, C. (2011). Ostrower (2015, p. 184) describes humor coping within this context as a defense mechanism that under the nightmare circumstances of living in the ghettos and camps during the Holocaust, laughter was a form of rebellion against reality. It means 'knowledge of the senses', things as they simply are without the filter of human 'reason'. however, humor seems to be more prevalent in post-modern literature. Moving up the ladder of humorous complexity, lets take a look at a couple of knock-knock jokes. Its philosophy Mike, everybodys wrong. Those words came to me from one of my dissertation advisors. This isnt to say that those forms of art are not complex, its just to highlight that humor is of a different sort of experience; one that requires knowledge, expectation, and belief to typically be experienced as such. Ghayas, S., & Malik, F. (2013). We realize that something doesn't match up. Ongoing research is beginning to recognize that the feelings associated with losing a [], Each grief experience is unique, yet we share the need to have it witnessed without someone attempting to lessen it or find ways to reframe [], Every day, millions of people are affected by the loss of a loved one. But if you recall the definition of IT, it simply states that incongruities will be found funny. Here are 10 examples: As humor represents an important aspect of positive psychology, here at PositivePsychology.com, we have described several ways in which humor contributes to positive wellbeing. If an incongruity is experienced in a relaxed or playful setting, if the incongruity is not one that should require serious attention, or if there are no pressing concerns at that time, the incongruity will be one experienced as humorous. To do this, we will discuss the ideas of the leading thinker behind this theorya man called Arthur Schopenhaeur (he explains his theory in his work The World as Will and Idea, but you don't have to read that text to understand this article). We hope you enjoyed reading this article. This is witwhere a joker starts out with two pieces of sensuous knowledge and intentionally groups them under one piece of abstract knowledge, as they are aware it is only our human ideas that prevent our words for items in fact relating to lots of different similar things. This example also helps us to see the unexpected nature of the incongruous. They are reviewed along with neurolinguistic approaches, evolutionary theories of humor and a few mixed and partial theories that have been presented. Having the ability to appreciate and comprehend humor is an interesting aspect of human behavior, and the trait is considered an attribute unique to human beings (Nahemow, 1986).Suls (1972) proposed incongruity-resolution theory and suggested that the cognitive processing aspects of a . Interestingly, those who were higher in humor scores were also found to have increased immune functioning (Bennett et al., 2003). Understanding humor based on the incongruity theory and the cooperative principle. And so, with laughter and love, we lived happily ever after. According to incongruity theory, things that are funnyor 'ludicrous'show us the differences between how we perceive the world and how it in fact exists. From the audience, you shout "You're on fire!" Talbot, L., & Lumden, D. (2000). Patient: Bullets!. Askildson, L. (2005). They ignore this fact and so foolishly use one as the other. The joke uses the idea of a surrealist (artists who tried to pair together ideas that were often extremely different) in order to get the listener to be prepared for absurdities. But not for them. The superiority theory is concerned with the affective response Whereas the previous examples involved. While more research is sorely needed, extant literature suggests that humor may have many benefits among patients, such as enhanced immunity and positive emotions, improved interpersonal relationships, reduced pain, and increased positive emotions (Gelkopf, 2011). In-congruity theories are essentially cognitive, i.e. However, most evidence proposing a link between humor and improved health is anecdotal. The difference between your own perception of the world and the world as it is from a neutral perspective has been pointed out to you. Another way to think about this playful or non-serious approach to incongruity is to think about the difference in a dead-pan performance versus a clown. 1 : the quality or state of being incongruous 2 : something that is incongruous Synonyms contradiction dichotomy paradox See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus Example Sentences she's an incongruity: an impeccably groomed woman who keeps a messy house Peterson and Seligman (2004) propose six virtues and 24 character strengths that fall within each virtue category (a few examples below): Proposed links between humor and positive wellbeing are intuitive; it makes sense that those with a good sense of humor will be in a better position to weather difficult situations, enjoy more cohesive relationships, find humor in all sorts of experiences, and benefit from more positive mental and physical health (Martin, 2019). Its not like a piece of music. Explaining the absurd is a bitabsurd. Your friend welcomes you to their home for the first time and says "Let me introduce you to my furry little friend" before opening another door onto their bearded husband, where they had led you to expect a dog. By filling out your name and email address below. Wit and folly simply allow us to account for the two different types of humour this theory allows us to model. Realising that this more 'natural', instinctive way of seeing the world is in this moment a better way of seeing things as they really are gives us pleasure. Incongruity denotes the incoherence between the interpretation of two parts of a joke, namely, its setup and punchline. Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and laughter abundant. Sign on a repair shop door: We Can Repair Anything. The humor in both of these examples relies on incongruous interpretations . The concept of defense mechanisms originated in psychoanalytic theory. You tell your friend to 'Look up the answer'. Low, L., Goodenough, B., Fletcher, J., Xu, K., Casey, A., Chenoweth, L., Brodaty, H. (2014). In previous studies, most researchers used two-element jokes (setup and punch line) as stimuli, based on experimental methods, to explore the humor process. The relief theory ar-gues that laughter serves to facilitate the relief of pressure for the nervous system (Morreall,2020). Truth plays an important role as well: The juxtaposition of the two things often gives people a new insight into a familiar situation, he notes. Humor has been reported as among the top eight of 24 character strengths and is associated with increased life satisfaction, life engagement, and life pleasure (Samson & Antonelli, 2013). Have a shot at working that one out. An offshoot of the theory states that we laugh when the incongruity is resolved, but this is also insufficient for humor and mostly just pertains to the structure of a certain kind of verbal joke . Animal Spirits Gases and liquids that were thought to be carried by the body through the nervous system. (2003). for an online course and found your article really helpful.Would love to hear your thoughts on current humour in the present climate of political correctness ,cancel culture,snowflakes,fear of giving /receiving offence etc? Contemporary Theories of Humor Referring to the Concept of Incongruity Contemporary literature on the subject provides numerous examples of the theory of humor in which the theme of incongruity (conflict, contradiction, incompatibility, paradox) dominates. These science-based tools will help you move yourself or others through grief in a compassionate way. Here we share defense mechanism worksheets as tools for practitioners. The joke teller does not do as expected and supplies a clever homonym to who in the sound hoo. Im writing an essay about humor and wanted to relate it to building relationships within sports, like volleyball. 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. The joke makes sense, if in a different or atypical way. Research supports this connection. The child will continue playing with that rhyme substituting words here and there both with others and by themselves. Three traditional theories of laughter and humor are examined, along with the theory that humor evolved from mock-aggressive play in apes. A comprehensive look at how children are impacted by the experience of humor is described by Hogan (2003), who noted that humor benefits children in terms of enhanced social bonding, stress relief, and pain coping. Your perception of the item is incomplete. IT is often the starting point for much research into the other disciplines beyond philosophy/psychology/cognitive science. Mauriello, M., & McConatha, J. T. (2007). The incongruity theory purports to define the for-mal object of comic amusement, which it locates in certain kinds of incongruity. It surely has some and we will briefly cover those next. Hi Heather, Superiority, relief, and incongruity theories of humor are unified under . Your friend, who exhibited the wit, of course knew this from the beginning. Samson, A., Glassco, A., Lee, I., & Gross, J. Humor, stress, and coping strategies. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle have been trying to explain humor since ancient times. Analysis of any joke or bit of humor generally, if not nearly always, makes the jokes not funny. Bennett et al., 2003 ) me from one of my dissertation advisors along the! Reply with `` Why, am I marrying her? and email address below on this, in a comedy! 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incongruity theory of humor examples