A joke is a question, short story, or depiction of a situation made with the intent of being humorous Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: umor, "body fluid"), control human health and emotion. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is an incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident meaning of words or actions, sarcasm Sarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Some authorities sharply distinguish sarcasm from irony, however others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony, word play and other devices. Jokes may have a punchline A punch line is the final part of a joke or comedy sketch, usually the word, sentence or exchange of sentences which is intended to be funny and to provoke laughter from listeners that will end the sentence to make it humorous.
A practical joke A practical joke is a trick to purposely make someone feel foolish or victimized, usually for humor. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks in that the victim finds out, or is let in on, the joke rather than being fooled into handing over money or other valuables. Practical jokes or pranks are typically lighthearted and made to make people or prank A practical joke is a mischievous trick played on a person, especially one that causes the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks in that the victim finds out, or is let in on, the joke rather than being fooled into handing over money or other valuables. Practical jokes or pranks differs from a spoken one in that the major component of the humour is physical rather than verbal (for example placing salt in the sugar bowl).
Purpose
Jokes are typically for the entertainment of friends and onlookers. The desired response is generally laughter Laughter is an audible expression or the appearance of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy . It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling or other stimuli. It is in most cases a very pleasant sensation; when this does not happen the joke is said to have "fallen flat".
However jokes have other purposes and functions, common to comedy Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was/humour Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: umor, "body fluid"), control human health and emotion/satire Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater in general.
Antiquity of jokes
Jokes have been a part of human culture since at least 1900 BC. A fart joke Flatulence humour refers to any type of joke, practical joke device, or other humor related to flatulence from ancient Sumer Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq. It is the earliest known civilization in the world and is known as the Cradle of Civilization. The Sumerian civilization spanned over 3000 years and began with the first settlement of Eridu in the Ubaid period (mid 6th millennium BC) through the Uruk period (4th is currently believed to be the world's oldest known joke[1]
A recent discovery of a document called Philogelos The collection is written in Greek, and the language used indicates that it may have been written in the 4th century AD, according to William Berg, an American classics professor. It is attributed to Hierokles and Philagrios, about whom little is known. Because the celebration of a thousand years of Rome is mentioned in joke 62, the collection (The Laughter Lover) gives us an insight into ancient humour. Written in Greek by Hierocles and Philagrius, it dates to the third or fourth century AD, and contains some 260 jokes. Considering humour from our own culture as recent as the 19th century is at times baffling to us today, the humour is surprisingly familiar. They had different stereotypes A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions, the absent-minded professor The absent-minded professor is a stock character of popular fiction, usually portrayed as a talented academic whose focus on academic matters leads them to ignore or forget their surroundings, the eunuch The term usually refers to those castrated in order to perform a specific social function, as was common historically in many societies. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the twenty-first century BC. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in, and people with hernias A hernia is the protrusion of an organ or the fascia of an organ through the wall of the cavity that normally contains it. A hiatal hernia occurs when the stomach protrudes into the mediastinum through the esophageal opening in the diaphragm or bad breath were favourites. A lot of the jokes play on the idea of knowing who characters are:
A barber, a bald man and an absent minded professor take a journey together. They have to camp overnight, so decide to take turns watching the luggage. When it's the barber's turn, he gets bored, so amuses himself by shaving the head of the professor. When the professor is woken up for his shift, he feels his head, and says "How stupid is that barber? He's woken up the bald man instead of me."
There is even a version of Monty Python Monty Python were a British comedy group that created the influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and impact, spawning's Dead Parrot The "Dead Parrot Sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop Sketch" or "Parrot Sketch", is a popular sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, and one of the most famous in the history of British television comedy. It was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman and first performed in the eighth sketch: a man buys a slave, who dies shortly afterwards. When he complains to the slave merchant, he is told: "He didn't die when I owned him." Comic Jim Bowen Jim Bowen is an English stand-up comedian and TV personality. He is best-known as the host of the ITV gameshow Bullseye, which he hosted between 1981 and 1995 has presented them to a modern audience. "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in people's acts nowadays, slightly updated. They put in a motor car instead of a chariot - some of them are Tommy Cooper Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper was a British prop comedian and magician-esque."[2]
Psychology of jokes
Why we laugh has been the subject of serious academic study, examples being:
- Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was an 18th-century German philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg. Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume, in Critique of Judgement (1790) states that "Laughter is an effect that arises if a tense expectation is transformed into nothing." Here is Kant's 220-year old joke and his analysis:
"An Englishman at an Indian's table in Surat saw a bottle of ale being opened, and all the beer, turned to froth, rushed out. The Indian, by repeated exclamations, showed his great amazement. - Well, what's so amazing in that? asked the Englishman. - Oh, but I'm not amazed at its coming out, replied the Indian, but how you managed to get it all in. - This makes us laugh, and it gives us a hearty pleasure. This is not because, say, we think we are smarter than this ignorant man, nor are we laughing at anything else here that it is our liking and that we noticed through our understanding. It is rather that we had a tense expectation that suddenly vanished..."
- Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century, in his book Le rire (Laughter, 1901), suggests that laughter evolved to make social life possible for human beings.
- Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939), was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic method of psychiatry. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression, and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopathology's "Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious Sigmund Freud established that humor might be related to unconscious content. In Jokes and Their Relation to The Unconscious as well as in Humor Freud referred to contentious jokes. He distinguishes humor in three particular forms: joke, comic and mimetic". (Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten).
- Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler CBE was an author of essays, novels and autobiographies. Koestler was born in Budapest but, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. His early career was in journalism. In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany but, disillusioned, he resigned from it in 1938 and in 1940 published a devastating anti-, in The Act of Creation The Act of Creation is a 1964 book by Arthur Koestler. It is a study of the processes of creativity and imagination in which Koestler explains that humans are most creative when rational thought is abandoned during dreams and trances. Koestler affirms that all creatures have the capacity for creative activity, frequently suppressed by the (1964), analyses humour and compares it to other creative activities, such as literature Literature , is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word literature means "acquaintance with letters" (as in the "arts and letters"). The two most basic written literary categories include fiction and nonfiction and science Science is, in its broadest sense, any systematic knowledge that is capable of resulting in a correct prediction or reliable outcome. In this sense, science may refer to a highly skilled technique, technology, or practice.
- Marvin Minsky Marvin Lee Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy in Society of Mind The Society of Mind is a book and theory of natural intelligence as written and developed by Marvin Minsky (1986).
- Marvin Minsky suggests that laughter has a specific function related to the human brain. In his opinion jokes and laughter are mechanisms for the brain to learn nonsense Nonsense (pronounced /ˈnɒnsəns/ , /ˈnɒnsɛns/ (US)) is a verbal communication or written text that is spoken or written in a human language or other symbolic system but lacks any coherent meaning. Many poets, novelists and songwriters have used nonsense in their works, often creating entire works using it. It is also an important field of. For that reason, he argues, jokes are usually not as funny when you hear them repeatedly.
- Edward de Bono Edward de Bono is a physician, author, inventor, and consultant. He is known as the originator of the term lateral thinking, wrote a best selling book Six Thinking Hats and is a proponent of the deliberate teaching of thinking as a subject in schools in "The Mechanism of the Mind The book The Mechanism of Mind details the underpinning model of mind that leads to the many thinking skills developed by Edward de Bono, including lateral thinking" (1969) and "I am Right, You are Wrong" (1990).
- Edward de Bono suggests that the mind is a pattern-matching machine, and that it works by recognising stories and behaviour and putting them into familiar patterns. When a familiar connection is disrupted A punch line is the final part of a joke or comedy sketch, usually the word, sentence or exchange of sentences which is intended to be funny and to provoke laughter from listeners and an alternative unexpected new link is made in the brain via a different route than expected, then laughter occurs as the new connection is made. This theory explains a lot about jokes. For example:
- Why jokes are only funny the first time they are told: once they are told the pattern is already there, so there can be no new connections, and so no laughter.
- Why jokes have an elaborate and often repetitive set up: The repetition establishes the familiar pattern in the brain. A common method used in jokes is to tell almost the same story twice and then deliver the punch line the third time The rule of three is a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. From slogans to films, many things are structured in threes. There were three musketeers, three little pigs, three billy goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the three the story is told. The first two tellings of the story evoke a familiar pattern in the brain, thus priming the brain for the punch line.
- Why jokes often rely on stereotypes A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions: the use of a stereotype links to familiar expected behaviour, thus saving time in the set-up.
- Why jokes are variants on well-known stories (e.g. the genie and a lamp The three wishes joke is a form of joke in which the protagonist is given three wishes by a supernatural being, and fails to make the best use of them. Common scenarios include releasing a genie from confinement - perhaps finding an old oil lamp and rubbing it; catching and agreeing to release a mermaid or magical fish; or crossing paths with the and a man walks into a bar The Bar Joke is a very common and basic type of joke. The basic syntax of this type of joke is "A man walks into a bar and <something happens here>". The initial perception of the joke is that a man is walking into a bar to have a drink, but this only lasts a few seconds as the punchline is quickly uttered. This joke has gained an): This again saves time in the set up and establishes a familiar pattern.
- In 2002, Richard Wiseman Richard Wiseman is Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Wiseman started his professional life as a magician, before graduating in Psychology from University College London and obtaining a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh conducted a study intended to discover the world's funniest joke The world's funniest joke is a term used by Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire in 2002 to summarize one of the results of his research. For his experiment, named LaughLab, he created a website where people could rate and submit jokes. Purposes of the research included discovering the joke that had the widest appeal and [1].
Laughter Laughter is an audible expression or the appearance of happiness, or an inward feeling of joy . It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling or other stimuli. It is in most cases a very pleasant sensation, the intended human reaction to jokes, is healthy in moderation, uses the stomach In some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects and molluscs, the stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as the primary organ of the digestive tract. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication (chewing). The stomach is located between the esophagus and the small muscles Muscle is the contractile tissue of animals and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to produce force and cause motion. Muscles can cause, and releases endorphins Endorphins are endogenous opioid peptides that function as neurotransmitters. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of spicy food and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a feeling of well-being, natural "feel good" chemicals, into the brain.
Jokes in organizations
Jokes can be employed by workers as a way to identify with their jobs. For example, 9-1-1 9-1-1 is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) operators often crack jokes about incongruous, threatening, or tragic situations they deal with on a daily basis.[3] This use of humor and cracking jokes helps employees differentiate themselves from the people they serve while also assisting them in identifying with their jobs.[4] In addition to employees, managers use joking, or jocularity, in strategic ways. Some managers attempt to suppress joking and humor use because they feel it relates to lower production, while others have attempted to manufacture joking through pranks, pajama or dress down days, and specific committees that are designed to increase fun in the workplace.[5]
Rules
The rules of humour are analogous to those of poetry Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns, lyrics, or prose poetry. It is published in dedicated magazines (. These common rules are mainly timing, precision, synthesis, and rhythm Rhythm is a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." In other words, rhythm is simply the timing of the musical sounds and silences. While rhythm most commonly applies to sound, such as music and spoken language, it may also refer to visual presentation, as ". French philosopher Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century has said in an essay: "In every wit there is something of a poet."[6] In this essay Bergson views the essence of humour as the encrustation of the mechanical upon the living. He used as an instance a book by an English humorist, in which an elderly woman who desired a reputation as a philanthropist provided "homes within easy hail of her mansion for the conversion of atheists who have been specially manufactured for her, so to speak, and for a number of honest folk who have been made into drunkards so that she may cure them of their failing, etc." This idea seems funny because a genuine impulse of charity as a living, vital impulse has become encrusted by a mechanical conception of how it should manifest itself.
Precision
To reach precision, the comedian must choose the words in order to provide a vivid, in-focus In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is the point where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a spatial extent, called the blur circle. This non-ideal focusing may be caused by aberrations of the imaging optics. In the absence of image, and to avoid being generic as to confuse the audience, and provide no laughter. To properly arrange the words in the sentence is also crucial to get precision. An example by Woody Allen (from Side Effects, "A Giant Step for Mankind" story [2]):
| “ | Grasping the mouse firmly by the tail, I snapped it like a small whip, and the morsel of cheese came loose. | ” |
Synthesis
That a joke is best when it expresses the maximum level of humour with a minimal number of words, is today considered one of the key technical elements of a joke.[citation needed] An example from George Carlin:
| “ | I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it.[7] | ” |
Though, the familiarity of the pattern of "brevity" has led to numerous examples of jokes where the very length is itself the pattern-breaking "punchline".[citation needed] Numerous examples from Monty Python exist, for instance, the song "I Like Traffic Lights". More recently, Family Guy often exploits such humor: for example in the episode "Wasted Talent", Peter Griffin bangs his shin, a classic slapstick routine, and tenderly nurses it whilst inhaling and exhaling to quiet the pain, for considerably longer than expected.[vague] Certain versions of the popular vaudevillian joke The Aristocrats can go on for several minutes, and it is considered an anti-joke, as the humour is more in the set-up than the punchline.[vague]
Rhythm
Main articles: Timing (linguistics) and Comic timingThe joke's content (meaning) is not what provokes the laugh, it just makes the salience of the joke and provokes a smile. What makes us laugh is the joke mechanism. Milton Berle demonstrated this with a classic theatre experiment in the 1950s: if during a series of jokes you insert phrases that are not jokes, but with the same rhythm, the audience laughs anyway. A classic is the ternary rhythm, with three beats: Introduction, premise, antithesis (with the antithesis being the punch line).
In regards to the Milton Berle experiment, they can be taken to demonstrate the concept of "breaking context" or "breaking the pattern". It is not necessarily the rhythm that caused the audience to laugh, but the disparity between the expectation of a "joke" and being instead given a non-sequitur "normal phrase." This normal phrase is, itself, unexpected, and a type of punchline.
Comic
In the comic field plays the 'economy of ideative expenditure'; in other words excessive energy is wasted or action-essential energy is saved. The profound meaning of a comic gag or a comic joke is "I'm a child"; the comic deals with the clumsy body of the child.
Laurel and Hardy are a classic example. An individual laughs because he recognises the child that is in himself. In clowns stumbling is a childish tempo. In the comic, the visual gags may be translated into a joke. For example in Side Effects (By Destiny Denied story) by Woody Allen:
| “ | "My father used to wear loafers," she confessed. "Both on the same foot". | ” |
The typical comic technique is the disproportion.
Wit
In the wit field plays the "economy of censorship expenditure"[8](Freud calls it "the economy of psychic expenditure"); usually censorship prevents some 'dangerous ideas' from reaching the conscious mind, or helps us avoid saying everything that comes to mind; adversely, the wit circumvents the censorship and brings up those ideas. Different wit techniques allow one to express them in a funny way. The profound meaning behind a wit joke is "I have dangerous ideas". An example from Woody Allen:
| “ | I contemplated suicide again - this time by inhaling next to an insurance salesman. | ” |
Or, when a bagpipe player was asked "How do you play that thing?" his answer was:
| “ | Well. | ” |
Wit is a branch of rhetoric, and there are about 200 techniques (technically they are called tropes, a particular kind of figure of speech) that can be used to make jokes.[9]
Irony can be seen as belonging to this field.
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Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:43:23 GMT+00:00
CultureMap With Jimmy Fallon strumming a guitar incessantly and telling few funny jokes , too many awards to writers and directors of obscure cable ...
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Lahna Turner singing "The Easter Song" ... Guitar Jokes comedy funny lahna lahnaturner music period turner Guitar Jokes comedy funny ... vids.myspace.com.
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hu, 01 Feb 2001 08:00:00 GM
A mom of an 8-year-old boy was awaiting her son's arrival from school. As he ran in, he said he needed to talk to her about making babies. He claimed he knew.
