Lunchbox7

I cant define what funny is. I challenge anyone to adequately define 'humour'. "Humour is whats funny" is not an adequate definition.

rsl12

humour is the attempt to evoke the emotion that makes you laugh.

?? not too sure why you think it's hard to define? if you mean that you don't laugh at everything that's humorous, I'd equate that to saying that you don't cry every time you hear a sad story.

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Nafter

2: a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter [syn: wit, humor, witticism, wittiness]

straight from good ol' dictionary.com, i feel rsl12 has pretty much covered it.

As a sidenote, is humour spelt "humour" or "humor" in the states? I always thought that humor was the correct spelling for the states and humour for the uk but i maybe wrong Im not up on the differences between the two.

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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

Lunchbox7

That doesnt adequatly define humour. It is like saying a good footballer is someone who plays good football. It explains nothing. It only states the obvious. What I want to know is why is something funny. Is there an equation which is used in all aspects of humour to illicitate the behaviour of laughing. Why is the same joke told twice by the same person in the same way funny one time but not another? What criteria must be filled for us to percieve something as funny? Again. Define humour. As previously said "Humour is whats funny" is not an adequate definition.

CSflim

You'd be probably better off posting such a question on the philosophy board. Tilted Knowledge is for questions that have an answer!

It is an interesting question though.

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nash

I think humour has a lot to do with irony and similar qualities. Many funny punchlines, jokes, situations are unexpected (or improbable) and/or are opposite what you would "normally" expect.

rsl12

btw, not to be a stick in the mud, but you're not looking for a definition. your question is better phrased as, 'why are funny things funny?' or 'why do we laugh at funny things?'

i'm sure all humor stems from making connections between two things that seem incongruous, whether it be puns or sophisticated irony. my guess is that sending nervous impulses through unexpected regions of the brain 'tickles' it.

ps. 'humour' is indeed spelled 'humor' in the states. my own spelling of things has been warped due to living in jamaica a couple of years.

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la petite moi

"The key element in any attempt at humour is conflict. Our brain is suddenly jolted into trying to accept something that is unacceptable. The punch line of a joke is the part that conflicts with the first part, thereby surprising us and throwing our synapses into some kind of fire drill."
-Gary Larson.

Eugeni

In my opinion it's all about the surprise. I really can't define humour but it happens when something unexpected shows up. Think of any joke.

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titular

tooth

If it is all about the surprise, then how can I hear the same joke, watch the same movie or TV show, etc. and still find it funny?

I won't dispute that surprise can play a role, or that it can make us laugh whether or not something is actually "funny". There just has to be more to it.

kinsaj

I have actually been trying to answer this question myself, recently. Everything that i have come up with can be proven wrong with counterexamples...
It seems that there are so many levels of humor which just get jammed into one category.

BTW... this is probobly better placed in Tilted Philosophy.

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boom

MSD

A measure of the momentary suspension of disbelief caused by irony, wit, surprise, shock, or schadenfreude paired with an appropriate mechanism of delivery to the human senses and adequate capacity of the recipient to comprehend the concept.