Sunday, April 1, 2012


What's so Funny?: The Theory of Funny


So the other day I was thinking to my self. And I started to wonder, why are things considered "funny". Why do people laugh? Or rather what causes people to laugh? I'm not studying psychology and I'm not studying anatomy of the brain - but here's my take on it. Let me repeat "my take on it". This is not a challenge, I don't want to debate with anyone who thinks differently. It's not a law or religion, it's a theory. It's something to perhaps expand off of, or get you think. Purely just of interest. All kicks and giggles. 


No, Really, what's so funny?


There are laws, laws of the universe that is. Not laws as in "Free Speech" (which is a joke by the way, laugh with me, it's part of the comedy). But we learn and development and understand through these laws. For example, if you're trying to fix something on your roof, you can't just float up there and do it (well most of us can't), due to the law of gravity. Such and such there are more examples that neither you want to read about and I frankly don't give a crap to write about. Seriously, that's just boring. 


Our mind is almost programmed with "how to get along (in life)" and what we have to complete to achieve our task/goal. There's a door - open it by using the handle. It's the norm, success, carry on. But then here's where we start to get off the norm. There's a door - RAM THE INFIDEL DOWN! And clearly that's not how (most) people's thought process works. It's astray from the norm, it's (here's the key word) 'ridiculous'. 


Now we can actually perceive different things as ridiculous since we all have different mind-sets. If it's not serious, it's ridiculous. If I'm not opening the door the way its meant to be opened, that's ridiculous! Slapstick, ridiculous! Pun, ridiculous! Sarcasm, ridiculous! Anticlimactic, ridiculous! Abrupt happenstance, ridiculous! And so on. 


So when something is 'ridiculous' it triggers a "da fuq?" moment where what should have happened, didn't. Then we think "Quite humorous! Such as that was not as expected!" Or, erm, maybe in a slightly different way? And from there it gets into feelings "That wasn't supposed to happen. Non-serious things don't apply by the laws I live by. Escape from reality! No restrictions! Yay! Happiness!" But it's so sudden it comes out in bursts of laughter. Laughing because of the ridiculous, we call it "funny". 


Oh, that's what's funny. 


And that's where I concluded my wondering: Ridiculous = Funny.
Just my take on it of course.


Thanks for reading, feel free to comment or send me an email with the link below! じゃね!


You can contact me at TreuCritique@yahoo.com




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