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45 Comments
- stann65, on 03/21/2009, -1/+23Way to take the fun out of humour.
- CrankMyBlueSax, on 03/20/2009, -0/+18I thought the fart was the basis for all humor.
- gwaggy12, on 03/20/2009, -0/+16Failed comedians take note: You too can turn your failure into a successful career as a researcher.
- konradk, on 03/21/2009, -0/+13<insert scaled positive repetition with some applicative and qualitative recontextualization here>
THAT makes me laugh! - 13373h4X0r, on 03/21/2009, -0/+12In the near future, all of the remaining humans will be laughing at jokes emitted by cybernetic comedians with source code resembling the following:
int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
....while( ! BooedOffStage() )
....{
......switch( 1 + rand() % 8 )
......{
........case 1: PositiveRepetition(); break;
........case 2: Division(); break
........case 3: Completion(); break;
........case 4: Translation(); break;
........case 5: ApplicativeRecontextualization(); break;
........case 6: QualitativeRecontextualization(); break;
........case 7: Opposition(); break;
........case 8: Scale(); break;
......}
....}
....return( 0 );
}
It will be glorious!!! - WertYui2169, on 03/20/2009, -1/+13I'm excited as the next guy that someone figured out "why" we laugh...But does the language have to lack all perceived forms of charisma?
- inactive, on 03/21/2009, -0/+10Does anyone feel any funnier after reading this?
- mangotango420, on 03/21/2009, -0/+10HAHAHA this article is hilarious
- ripple123, on 03/21/2009, -1/+9yeah well, unless he can come up with a automatic joke generator, its all sunshine and *****. really, its like someone discovering that artists only use 3 basic colors.
- thinkb4utype, on 03/21/2009, -0/+7Nothing is as dry as a serious article about humor. I need a drink.
- Slade605, on 03/21/2009, -0/+60110010011000101001100110
- vinbot, on 03/21/2009, -0/+6Henry Hill: You're a pistol, you're really funny. You're really funny.
Tommy DeVito: What do you mean I'm funny?
Henry Hill: It's funny, you know. It's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy.
[laughs]
Tommy DeVito: what do you mean, you mean the way I talk? What?
Henry Hill: It's just, you know. You're just funny, it's... funny, the way you tell the story and everything.
Tommy DeVito: [it becomes quiet] Funny how? What's funny about it?
Anthony Stabile: Tommy no, You got it all wrong.
Tommy DeVito: Oh, oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. What did ya say? Funny how?
Henry Hill: Jus...
Tommy DeVito: What?
Henry Hill: Just... ya know... you're funny.
Tommy DeVito: You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little ***** up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to *****' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?
Henry Hill: Just... you know, how you tell the story, what?
Tommy DeVito: No, no, I don't know, you said it. How do I know? You said I'm funny. How the ***** am I funny, what the ***** is so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what's funny!
Henry Hill: [long pause] Get the ***** out of here, Tommy!
Tommy DeVito: [everyone laughs] Ya *****! I almost had him, I almost had him. Ya stuttering prick ya. Frankie, was he shaking? I wonder about you sometimes, Henry. You may fold under questioning. - mechnoch, on 03/21/2009, -0/+501110111011101000110011000111111
- treskel, on 03/21/2009, -0/+5no
- Elliuotatar, on 03/21/2009, -0/+4Imagine a butt, farting on a human face, forever.
- purplesun2, on 03/21/2009, -0/+4The UK is once again gearing up for war.
The Funniest Joke in the World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gpjk_MaCGM - mike23w, on 03/21/2009, -1/+5Ironic that a humor researcher is so humorless.
It's like a weight loss researcher weighing 1,000 pounds. - BenFranklin1008, on 03/21/2009, -4/+7Clarke is a pompous humorless idiot. His theory is missing many important pieces of what is needed in any situation for it to be seen as funny. For example, his theory completely missed the fact that all humor is culture-relative, meaning that the cultural background of the perceiver controls whether one sees something as funny or not. For example: a redneck and a feminist won't always both laugh at some things because one might see an insult against someone as funny, while the other might consider it offensive. Or an atheist and a Baptist. His theory doesn't account for this. Here's another example: some people will laugh at a pun, and others won't because they don't get the connection in the pun. His theory doesn't take into account how two people's differing values affect how they see something. Also, his eight patterns don't always work, if you try to make something funny using the patterns, you cannot always be successful. This implies his theory is an incomplete model and even a broken one. Sorry to be so academic, but I'm a researcher in the same field and see what BS Clarke is.
So, these three ApplicativeRecontextualizations walked into a bar... - writ, on 03/21/2009, -0/+3Buried as false, no where did it mention mopeds, midgets or monkeys.
- GeezerD, on 03/21/2009, -0/+2So, what about when something tastes funny?
- zarex, on 03/21/2009, -0/+2He forgot poop.
- robdiggity, on 03/21/2009, -0/+2Not sure if this UK researcher has ever seen Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- thatnerdygirl, on 03/21/2009, -0/+2Schadenfreude
- treskel, on 03/21/2009, -0/+2 Don't give me that, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings!
- GordonClass, on 03/21/2009, -0/+2I fail to see the humor in this.
- vidaliasweet, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1I thought this was going to be an Onion article.
- inactive, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1All Alastair Clarke has to do to prove his theory is to make it as a stand-up comedian.
- Frostek, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1I wonder what number Charlie Chaplin kicking someone in the pants and then running away falls under?
- linagee, on 03/21/2009, -1/+2"The most basic, positive repetition, simply means that the unit is repeated in a similar form with the same purpose."
I think a fart repeated over and over on a show like Terrance and Phillip would qualify under this one. It's also something we can all relate to. I suppose that's why it's humorous. - roostersheep, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1So yesterday, I was on the bus home from work, I was on my own (I say on my own... the bus was packed, but with nobody I knew). There was this mental guy repeating "I'm going to Coventry tomorrow" in a really high voice to himself over and over again (That's repetition, right there). I thought to myself "I shouldn't laugh, he's probably brain damaged or something, it's not right to laugh at this sort of thing. So he kept saying it, and out of the blue he throws in "I'm going to Coventry tomorrow, I'm going to Coventry to get some vegetables, and some books tomorrow". For some reason, this mixed with the fact that I shouldn't find it funny made me suddenly burst out with the loudest laughter. I had to go to the lower floor of the bus to stop myself. If there's a god, I'm going to hell, and everyone on that bus knows it.
Just wanted to get that off my chest. P.S. The textarea is humping my comment. It feels good. - simon182, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1Those lines are way too wide. It's not nice to read.
- ShyGuy91284, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1So which one(s) need to be dropped out for people who don't find British humor funny?
- CyclonusRIP, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1What category does a guy getting hit in the balls fall under?
- ferrell, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1Isaac Asimov is not pleased!
(Google his short story "The Jokester" to see why this is bad news.) - Frostek, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1Well, it's either that or I'll have to refer to you to one of the German humour researchers...
- REWK, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1Why are we trusting english humor research?
- NonServium, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1Actually while the article is a little dry, the information it presents is pretty good. Now for a laugh-out-loud absolutely hilarious explanation of how the first pattern, ( repeating something otherwise completely innocuous many times to create humor), works, watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0
- swizzcheez, on 03/21/2009, -1/+2Cool. Now maybe he can explain women...
- Tairnyn, on 03/21/2009, -0/+1It's in the book.
"Farting: There are many forms of scatological humour but as a starting point, laughing at farting is generally based on one of two main forms. The first is subversion displays in which the ceremony of an occasion is minified by executive recontextualization of behaviour (based on the sonic properties of breaking wind), and an opposition similar to that of literal caught with their pants down humour between the public airing of private deeds." - GregR, on 03/21/2009, -1/+1mm.. if this were true, then jokes from 20 years ago would still be funny, but if you look at the humour section of an old source, for the most part the jokes aren't funny as they are no longer relevant.
- Drolgerg, on 04/23/2009, -0/+0Why are so many of these comments focussed on the fact that the researcher is British / English? What is your problem? You've had your independence for a few years now, get over it! Criticise the content, not the researcher's racial origin! As for instance BenFranklin1008 does really well, although even he can't resist hurling personal abuse. Maybe that highlights those cultural differences: that's not exactly what I would call 'academic'.
Does it never occur to you that Digg is for everyone not just the USA?
"What category does, "***** you, UK researcher" fall under?" That would be "Racism", 'dude'. Except I don't think that category exists here, sorry. - BenFranklin1008, on 03/25/2009, -0/+0It doesn't fall under any of Clarke's patterns. Instead, Chaplin doing this is an example of an underdog triumphing over oppression, which is part of the form of humor dealing with justice and fairness. We laugh at honorable triumph by an aggrieved party and also when done in a way that violates social norms in a silly fashion. Clarke's model does not handle this case in any way and fails because of that. But his whole model is terribly strained anyway. Another publish or perish academic loose on the world.
- posthocergo, on 03/21/2009, -0/+0I think they fail to do a bayesian analysis of the causes...
- Mockylock, on 03/21/2009, -4/+1What category does, "***** you, UK researcher" fall under?
- syntaxgs, on 03/21/2009, -6/+1ACtualy it,s not the basis of all humour there are lots of humour that have sarcasm in them or witty
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