Post No.: 0948
Fluffystealthkitten says:
Humour is arguably about holding a mirror up to society and pointing out what things are like and what they ought to be like. Wit is a sharp, clever cross-connection between two diverse thoughts.
Extending on what Furrywisepuppy wrote way back in Post No.: 0324, all humour is based on illogical sequences or outcomes but, in cartoons, there’s something called ‘cartoon logic’ – no matter how wild a gag is, there has to be at least a grain of sense or real physics to it. In comedy, rules are made to be broken, but nonsense isn’t a random affair – it can only exist in rebellion to those rules. So we first need to know what the rules are before we can break them.
One can be funny by surprising the audience with an illogical – thus unexpected – response to a logical question or idea. Always aim to put the funny part – the punchline or physical payoff – at the very end of the sentence, gag or practical joke, or as late as possible, though because the funny concept should be the last thing the audience thinks about before laughing. This principle is also true of any dramatic dialogue or moment – end a speech or scene with the most dramatic concept being communicated so that the moment isn’t diluted or masked.
Comedy – especially visual gags – is generally fast-paced. Although if too fast, a gag won’t be fully grasped or there may not even be enough time for the audience to laugh at it. Lack of punctuation is problematic – when a stand-up comedian tells a joke, they set it up, pause, then deliver the punchline, wait for the laughter to die down, then continue with their routine. These pauses are crucial otherwise the audience may miss the punchline. So there’s often a lull before a gag to set up the anticipation, then a lull straight after to allow the audience to react. Punctuation is vital for us to determine the meanings of things – whether it’s the paws of a comma, full stop of a period, or excitement of an exclamation mark! (Emojis can also help convey intended meanings, like to differentiate a tease from something serious.)
The time-tested way to make the most of any gag is to escalate it a second or third time, then capping it off with a hilarious twist at the end, like when poor Homer Simpson keeps falling down Springfield Gorge!
Know your audience – they need to understand what’s logical before they know and can laugh at what isn’t. This is why visual and physical slapstick generates the most laughs from youngsters, as well as extremely simple play-on-word verbal jokes.
Humour can be droll or risqué :P, childish or cerebral. Types of humour include exaggerations that paint a wild visual image, or alternatively understatements. Surprises can be caused by leading people one way then quickly taking them 180º in the other direction with a sharp punchline :O.
There are visual puns, misfits, opposites, things not as what they seem that cause us to perform a double take. There are verbal puns that play on words, like using the same words or substituting words with ones that sound almost identical but twisted out of context or taken figuratively. Take a flexible approach to the conventional and assumed meanings of things. Don’t go too far though otherwise you might get charged for excess gaggage or gross negligee.
Don’t forget plain silliness, cheekiness, pranks, slapstick, physical shtick, horseplay, acting crazy, being cute :3, messy fun, clumsiness, harmless mistakes, lapses or slips, pulling faces, funny noise jokes and illogical things. Start with something logical then twist it into something illogical, such as when, where or how something happens or doesn’t when it’s supposed to.
How about some funny perspectives on real life, parodies or satire, or clever gags with everyday objects or improv sketches.
And of course there are conventional jokes, nimble witticisms, one-liners, tongue-in-cheek sarcasm, non-serious (self-)put-downs, teasing and mimicking.
Comedy can come easier to some but it can be crafted and rehearsed like any other skill. Jokes can come from real personal experiences and may start off with a true story – although most jokes are total fabrications.
Conventional jokes are actually 10% inspiration, 90% crafting and honing into a neat package. The punchline is typically sorted out first. The punchline is always unexpected and clever. An unexpected surprise is the fundamental joke mechanism unless the audience is in on a joke. The punchline cannot be too small a step otherwise there’ll be no surprise yet it mustn’t be too great a leap otherwise people won’t get it. Nothing kills a joke more than having to explain it!
The setup subtly builds up the narrative tension (any story creates tension until it’s resolved really) and the punchline resolves it in an unforeseen way; forcing us to reinterpret all the information delivered before it.
‘Pull back/reveal’ sums up many jokes – you metaphorically or literally focus the audience on a particular angle or detail of the scene, then suddenly pan out to reveal the whole, unexpected, picture. A funny story or joke is often a function of verbal economy – the skill can be in what’s unsaid.
Like the way many pop songs have an ABABCBB structure, because it works – popular jokes have a basic structure that involve a setup and punchline. Yet like not all songs follow that formula, not all jokes need a punchline, like in-jokes/inside jokes, where so much is implied and doesn’t have to be said. Be aware though that in-jokes (or things like film quotes that some get and others don’t because they’re not aware of the reference) bind those who get them but alienate those who don’t. So if you don’t intend to alienate parts of your audience – do explain them.
Swearing grabs attention and surprise, but only use it as a device to draw people in, if you use it at ****ing all! Meow.
Since laughter is a social signal – creating an atmosphere of community in the room is almost as vital as having well-crafted punchlines.
The delivery is key. By definition, jokes aren’t to be taken seriously thus are best delivered lightly and off-the-cuff. They cannot be forced. The surprise requires effective timing. Those pauses are therefore vital. The rhythm and intonation of the delivery is particularly critical to imply innuendos. The delivery, tone, emphasis and timing can make or break a joke. (However, even if the exact same jokes are competently delivered in the same way, we’ll tend to find a known comedian funnier than a non-comedian. This might be due to priming or expectations.) And when a joke fails, it fails hard – it’s like promising something would be rib-tickling then breaking that promise :(.
Pick your moments – it’s easier to tell a joke that lands when everyone’s relaxed and enjoying themselves. Telling a joke to relieve tension is a high-risk strategy but potentially hilarious and could defuse that tension.
Know where you’re going before you start – hopefully in the direction of the punchline! This sounds obvious but it’s amazing how often we launch blithely into a joke we think we know without rehearsing the all-important ending, only to find ourselves completely lost!
Don’t be tempted to over-elaborate – using fewer words often works better. Some people can carry off long setups but one person’s surreal flight of fancy is another’s rambling, incoherent humiliation :$.
Project a demeanour of relaxed confidence – it gives your listener permission to laugh. You can try being deadpan if you like :|, but normal social joke-telling usually requires the teller to laugh too xD.
And enjoy it – if you’re all tense and competitive about sharing a joke, or if your entire self-esteem appears to rest upon its reception, then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
A recipient needs to be aware that a joke is coming before they can laugh at it. Having said that, the purpose of joking between friends isn’t to judge the quality of a joke but to laugh together; signalling how much everybody is enjoying each other’s company.
Some jokes don’t age very well as we (as individuals or together culturally) learn and become wiser. This doesn’t mean our sense of humour degrades as we become wiser – it just means the standard of japes needs to be higher.
But jokes are sometimes deliberately used to shock – to dip our toes experimentally into the forbidden or taboo. They can test the edges of moral or intellectual acceptability and decency because we can use the defence of ‘it was only a joke’. Hilarity allows the everyday to collide with the outlandish; letting us fondle with dangerous notions in a relatively safe way. They’re used to subvert authority and injustice. We laugh at what we fear, what’s unknown, to try to psychologically diffuse their threat. Jokes render scary things harmless, at least momentarily. We relish the temporary sense of release from restrictive social rules and supposed norms. They give our powers of reason and logic a break, and the release is palpable. Satire is a jocular outlet for the frustrations we experience against those in power. A joke is the defiant weapon of the undercat. We find it hard to feel anger when we’re laughing.
A downside however is that no one has ever been drawn to meaningful action or change through humour i.e. there are times when anger is more appropriate to motivate us to seek justice instead of trying to minify our dissatisfactions so that we can feel a tad better about those foibles and learn to accept them. Protest rallies have never been less than serious.
So humour can be a safety valve to help us endure the perceived exasperations of the status quo. They hold a mirror to the actual truth of a situation so that we can hopefully do something about it. But although comedy may offer us a peaceful outlet – amusement doesn’t actually effectively rally people to a cause. Jokes can uncover absurd truths but they severely lack a call-to-action. They actually trivialise issues i.e. if something’s comical then it’s not taken seriously enough. Laughter can relieve our stresses and calm us down, but we shouldn’t be trying to laugh some things off.
Yet joking is a coping mechanism for realists because it acknowledges what a mess some things are! Laughter is for our mental health, through rich or poor, sickness or health. It’s a choice so we might as well choose it. You can fight, flight or joke! When under stress, there can be an awfully fine line between cracking a joke and cracking up. Being funny isn’t mutually exclusive to being serious – it isn’t always childish or evasive to the issues. But there are times to be solemn and times to jest.
…Does trying to understand jokes, songs or other creative works from a more technical level ruin our enjoyment of them? Does understanding Chekhov’s gun and other rules of cinema ruin our enjoyment of movies or alternatively add another layer of interest and appreciation for them?
As E. B. White remarked, “Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.” Yet after a joke has been heard once, one won’t likely chuckle at it again because now we know what to expect, thus after that time, the luckless frog is expendable anyway(!) (Salience generally reduces the more we hear about anything unless it reaches a key milestone like a round number or new record.)
Jokes have their basis on the sinister as well as bright side of life. They’re bitter and sweet in equal measure; generating tears of pain and joy. Without the dark, there’s no comprehension of light. They, like we, mean everything yet nothing – a bubble thrown up by the creative chaos of consciousness.
I once told my parents I wanted to be a comedian…
They laughed.
Meow. Parents are so supportive :D!
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