Inside JokesCh.

4: A Brief History of Humor Theories

A.
YOUR TEAM QUOTE FROM P.39
Play theories on the whole tend to focus on the connection between
laughternot humorand play. More recently, though, theorists have
claimed that the laughter from humor is associated with the laughter
from tickling (the natural bridging-concept between play and humor).
There is no suggestion within these theories that play is humor, just that
humor evolved out of play and has thus maintained the similar
expression.
B.
YOUR TEAM QUOTE FROM P.41
Certainly a vast quantity of jokes and social instances of laughter fit well
under this rubric. We often laugh at people. And the implied superiority
is what makes sense of the familiar disclaimer: I'm not laughing at you;
I'm laughing with you (or: I'm laughing at myself, or: at the situation). The
pleasure of trouncing of an opponent in competition is often expressed
with a triumphant laugh. We laugh at the behavior or drunkards or fools,
and ignorant and ill-mannered folks are known to laugh at the plight of
the disabled[...] Laughing, especially in social settings, typically does
imply membership in an elite groupthose who laugh at this matter in
some way, in contrast to those whose acts and circumstances are the
occasion for the laughter.
C
YOUR TEAM QUOTE FROM P.43
Still, the motivation for the superiority theory is a good one. It reminds
us that we do feel pleasure in humorlaughing is not like a reflex kneejerk, however automatic it may be. And it highlights the fact that humor
is used competitively, even if this was not its original or grounding
function. Humor points out failure, as Aristotle told us; we use it to point
out each others' failures, and perhaps the competitive nature of humans
that has always existed for other reasons co-opted humor for this
purpose.

D.
YOUR TEAM QUOTE FROM P.44
Release theories construe humor as a form of relief from excessive
nervous arousal. Keith-Spiegel separates the psychoanalytic theory of
humor from release theories, but we will discuss them together. In
general, release theories claim that tension from thought can build up,
and when this tension is released by a positive emotion that results from
further thought, the energy is transformed into (or spent by) laughing.
Herbert Spencer's version of this theory spoke of purposeless nervous
energy that needed an outlet. Freud's version works on the principle that
certain events create repressed sexual and/or aggressive energy, and
when that tension is undone in a dramatic way, rather than gradually, the
nervous energy is released, and relief ensues in the form of humor.
E.
YOUR TEAM QUOTE FROM P.53
Some theories claim that surprise is at least a necessary feature of humor,
if not sufficient. Descartes claimed that humor was a mixture of joy and
shock. Our release theorists required that the tension be undone
"suddenly and surprisingly." Surprise is mentioned by both our
incongruity theorists and our superiority theorists: Hobbes, as noted,
said laughter is due to a "sudden glory" and Schopenhauer often
stressed the occurrence of the elements of surprise in the resolution.
Aristotle noted, when speaking of riddles and "novelties" that "In these
the thought is startling", and, as Theodorus puts it, does not fit in with the
ideas you already have...The effect is produced even by jokes
depending upon changes of the letters of a word; this too is a surprise.
F.
YOUR TEAM QUOTE FROM P. 54
Bergson said that "society will be suspicious of an inelasticity of
character." A body, mind, or a society that is inadaptable is given
respectively to infirmity, mental deficiency, or misery or crime. So,
Bergson suggests, a mechanism that enforces adaptability would be a
solution to all of these problems. It is rigidity that causes humor,
according to Bergson, or rather: Humor is the solution to rigidity.
Laughter acts as a "social corrective." If one's behavior is inelastic,
laughter from others reminds one of this and acts as a pressure to cause
one to behave more adaptively.