The Phenomenon of Humor

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There is a popular saying, "anyone can laugh at a good joke." If one was to actually ask around, he'/she would find that this is quite true. This is part of the magic of humor. Humor, as defined by The American Heritage Dictionary, is "the quality that makes something laughable." Laughter can be defined as "the co-ordinated contraction of fifteen facial muscles (Koestler ). However that definition tells how one laughs. The American Heritage Dictionary explains why we laugh by describing laughter as "the expression of delight or happiness." So therefore, it seems pretty safe to conclude that humor is used to make someone happy. But, the phenomenon of humor is not that simple.

There are many different forms of humor used by most everyone on a daily basis. Also, it would be foolish to image that each person uses the device of humor for the same purpose or in the same manner. If this were true, everyone would find the same jokes as laughable, the same movies as comical and so forth. All types of people use humor in all walks of life, and that is the true magic of humor. The trick is knowing what type of humor is being used given situation, and for what reason. In this paper I plan to present and explain various types of humor (satire, witticism, etc), giving examples when necessary, by which I will also explain the different reasons and ways a person uses humor. Through this I intend to show that it is undeniable fact that humor plays in important role in the world today, and in each individual's daily life.

As mentioned before there are various types of humor. The first that will be discussed is that of "puns." Puns are one of the most basic forms of humor. A pun is commonly defined as a "play on words." What this means is that there are two ideas connected with a word, and both ideas are used in the same expression (Swabey 5). The expression "our spacemen are heading for the lunar bin," is an example of a pun (Koestler 65). The word "lunar" is being "played on." Lunar has the obvious connection with the term "spacemen", as lunar is used to describe something associated with the moon. However, lunar also sounds quite similar to the term "loony", meaning crazy. The expression "loony bin" is a comical way of describing an asylum for the mentally ill, or crudely, "crazy people." Thus the double meaning is established, and the result comical. Comparatively, puns are a simplistic type of humor, and are therefore commonly used by children (Koestler 65).

Another type of humor often associated with puns is that of wit. As defined by The American Heritage Dictionary, with is "the ability to perceive and humorously express the relationship between seemingly incongruous [incompatible] things." While the idea of wit is similar to that of puns, they both require the linkage of two different ideas; wit is by considered a much more intelligent type of humor. Wit will often make use of puns, but for a seemingly higher, more certain purpose. Swabey, author of Comic Laughter describes wit as "coldly intellectual, intentional, creative…" (6). He goes on to explain how "the real home of wit is the witty exchange of conversation" (Swabey 7). Wit could therefore be described as a social form of humor. Wit is often described as a sport where a witty expression is thrown out like a ball, and the other players must react with their own witty expressions to keep tossing the "ball" back and forth (Swabey 75). The game of wit proves how "humor has always been a favorite pastime of intelligent people" (Reichmann 181).

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The next form of humor that will be discussed is that of impersonation. Impersonation, like wit, is a form of humor that requires an audience. Here, the impersonator is playing the role of two different people at the same time. If the result is degrading the audience will laugh (Koestler 68). The field of impersonation, with the aid of Walt Disney, has lately given way to the idea of animals impersonating the traits of people.

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