Humor Theories

It started with Humor: A Very Short Introduction by Noel Carroll. A short book assigned by Professor Williams. Beyond excited to start the year and begin my normal school year reading habits, I opened the book and anxiously began to read. One part into the book and my interest in reading quickly developed into fecklessness. I wanted none of it. The author was biased and the way in which the novel was written could have put a sixteen year old version of myself on multiple energy drinks to sleep. Aside from the boring presentation and biased writing, Humor: A Very Short Introduction by Noel Carroll did teach and inform me about a multitude of humor theories. Now in class we often asserted that the incongruity theory held the most validity of the theories. Unfortunately, as my mind often tends to react, I disagreed. The superiority theory can answer almost any counter argument even conceivable. Simply put, we laugh because we feel above or better than the experience, action or person that initiated the laughter. Knock knock, anti, and “Yo momma” jokes all work with the superiority theory. When someone says a knock knock joke, it is in an attempt to either trick or deceive the other person (Superiority) or to be extremely silly (in which the other person would laugh because they feel superior). Although the theories are interesting, they all have their flaws and to talk about which one is more correct would amount to nothing as both are still incorrect. No theory can ever be correct because it would be impossible to illustrate the infinite number of humor styles that each person has. I do find that I thought the superiority theory was the most correct interesting because I think it made me realize that deep down I am always trying to maintain or achieve superiority. It is not that I do not respect people, but to me personally, I almost always want to be the best. This is not the worst goal to have, but this desire can hold someone back in a myriad of scenarios. This semester I have worked on taking a step back and seeing what others can accomplish instead of always trying to one up the competition. Now my trial period has not ended but I am struggling to “relax” nonetheless. My father always tells me to involve myself in less activities so that I can dedicate more time to the activities I truly prefer. But the chance that I could be left with dead time kills me as I have an enormous fear or wasting time. On a side note I just looked that up in case it was on one of Professor William’s vocab hand outs and failed to find an exact name for the fear of wasting time. The closest thing I found was the fear of time itself; chronophobia. Now heading back to what I learned, aside from the fact that the fear of time itself was chronophobia, I now realize that the humor theories taught me more about myself than I still am willing to admit. Through that dreadfully bland novel I learned that the interpretation of comedy can stem from a myriad of factors. Personal development and emotional capabilities tend to illustrate one’s humor style. Sadly as I am writing this, I finally realized the fatal flaw of the superiority theory. There is a point in every person’s life in which they simply become accepting of the world around them and don’t feel the need to improve upon their current state. At that point the superiority theory could not be applicable because one is not achieving some sense of superiority but a sense of content. A good example this debate will last forever is the fact that in response one could argue that the feeling of content and lack of ambition could be one’s way of feeling superior or matured. Regardless of the validness of any of these theories, I learned through those theories to take a step back and allow life to unfold around you on occasion.