Blog Post #2

Within comedy, there are three theories that try and explain the essence of comedy. These theories explain when we laugh and why we find things funny. The three theories are, the incongruity theory, the superiority theory, and the relief theory. The relief theory provides relief to the viewers, usually reliving a fear or nervous energy. The Superiority theory is when people laugh at one's misfortunes. Usually when someone gets hurt. It dates back to Plato and Aristotle. The Incongruity theory helps explain the main reason why we laugh at jokes. It usually explains that we laugh at two things that don’t really go together. Something weird and crazy has to happen for us to laugh.

There are many persuasive accounts to help explain this theory but I think the account that best fits it is Kant’s account. In the reading of Lippitt, he states that laughter is something that arises out of something unexpected. He also explains that usually it is reduced to nothing. So us as the viewers may be thinking that the joke is going one way but we realize at the end of it, it went a completely different way. This is usually what makes it so funny, because we realize that the joke took a different turn. Making it unexpected. (Lippitt intro) There are many different types of comedies all around us that follow this incongruity theory. For instance look at The Office or Modern Family. Some scenes in the show we think it is going to go one way but by the end of the scene we are laughing because it was totally unexpected. A lot of times when we watch these shows we don’t understand why we are laughing. This is why it supports the incongruity theory.

I think that all of theories do support each other in a way. They all come very close to the essence. Each theory explains a different part of comedy and why we laugh but I do not think they could explain the essence on their own. Each of them hold a different part with in the essence where they almost work together. Not each theory is funny because it depends on the person. Some people may not understand references to the jokes on The Office or Modern Family because they do not know the background on it. It depends on the person and how they read the humor. Each theory is taken in differently by each person. Not everyone finds everything funny. Some people may find one theory more humorous than another.