from the Nilsens

1. 1
Humor Theories
by Don L. F. Nilsen and
Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. WHIMSY
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3. Whimsical Don and Alleen
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4. 4

5. Allen Klein’s “Good Humor”
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6. 6
THE NATURE OF HUMOR
• FEATURES = CHARACTERISTICS
• FUNCTIONS = THE PURPOSE(S)
• SUBJECTS = THE TOPIC(S)

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AN IMPORTANT FEATURE OF
HUMOR IS INCONGRUITY AND
INCONGRUITY RES0LUTION
• Consider an umbrella in a severe
rain and wind storm.
• We feel tension until we put things
right—at least in our mind’s eye—
as with the kitten on the next slide.

8. Machinification: Monorail LOL Cat
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9. Other Features of Humor
• Ambiguity
• Exaggeration
• Understatement
• Hostility
• Incongruity or
Irony
• Situation-Insight
• Sudden Insight
• Superiority
• Surprise or Shock
• Tension and
Relief
• A Trick or Twist
• Word Play
• Visual Imagery
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10. Metaphor: “Pool Table”
Features:
•Ambiguity
•Sudden Insight
•Surprise
•Visual Imagery
•Word Play
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11. Pun: “Eye Pod”
Features
•Ambiguity
•Incongruity
•Surprise
•Visual Imagery
•Word Play
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Philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s “Superiority Theory”
said that we laugh at someone else’s inferiority.
• Later philosophers, including Frances Hutcheson, argued that
what we are really laughing about is incongruity.
• We don’t go to asylums to laugh at the “inferior” beings, nor do
we laugh at animals unless they resemble human beings.
• We laugh at someone who slips on a banana peel not because
we feel superior, but because of the incongruity between our
expectations and the sudden insight.
• And if the person who slips on a banana peel is pretentious,
and is not seriously injured, we laugh even harder.

13. “The Rule of Three” is another common feature
of humor illustrated in this cartoon.
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14. Another Rule of Three Joke
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15. Incongruity and
Incongruity Resolution
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16. Dog-Related Incongruity
and Incongruity Resolution
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17. Functions of Humor
PSYCHOLOGICAL
•To amuse
•To establish
superiority
•To gain control
•To persuade
•To save face
•To test limits
•To inbond/outbond
INTELLECTUAL
•To amuse
•To teach
•To make connections
•To compare two
scripts—one
metaphorical, one
straight-forward
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An Important Literary Function
relates to Double Entendre.
• Salvatore Attardo and Victor Raskin say that the text
of a joke is always more or less compatible with two
distinct scripts and the two scripts are opposed to
each other in a special way.
• It is often the punch line that triggers the switch
from the mundane script to the dramatic script.
• The punch line makes the hearer backtrack and
realize that a different interpretation [of the joke] was
possible from the very beginning.

19. A Real-Life Example of the
Usefulness of Two Scripts
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20. Accidental humor occurs when the creator and
the receiver have different scripts in mind.
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21. The impossibility in this picture causes
tension, until we realize that it is a joke.
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The Function of Disparaging
Oneself.
On the surface, Self Disparagement appears to be
humbling oneself, but the mock-humility really puts the
speaker in a position of power as in these
commercials:
•Terminex Pest Control: “When you think of
pests, think of us.”
•Twist Lemon-Menthol Cigarettes: “Our new
menthol is a lemon.”

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• Champion International Trend Carpet:
“Eight million people walked all over us.
And they don’t even know our name.”
• Quaker Oats as a diet food: “Quaker
Oats: Breakfast of losers.”
• Simmons bunk beds: “Simmons beds are a
lot of bunk.”

24. Educators Use Humor To:
• Relax Students
• Teach Facts
• Argue and Persuade
• Teach Vocabulary
Concepts
• Teach Careful
Observation
• Model Problem
Solving
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25. This Egg-to-Bird picture first causes tension,
followed by a smile of relief as we “catch on.”
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26. Real vs. Unreal
• This is an amusing
lesson in careful
observation.
• What are the clues
that it is a painting?
• Were such paintings
precursors to
today’s PhotoShop
fun?
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JONATHAN WINTERS--STICK PROP:
http://biggeekdad.com/2013/04/jonathan-winters-stick/#.UXfWSphGZzg.email

28. SUBJECTS OF HUMOR
We joke about the
subjects that we
hesitate to talk
about.
To test out the
attitudes of new
friends, we often
send up “trial
balloons” disguised
as jokes.
– TABOO SUBJECTS
– Ethnic Identification
– Politics
– Sexual Roles and
Scatology
– Occupations
– Religion and Belief
Systems 28

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What subjects do the two fish
shapes on this car speak to?

30. Jokes Reveal Current Areas of
Social Discomfort
OLD TABOOS
•Vulgarities
•Swear Words
•Body Parts
•Sex
•Religion
•Obscenities
NEW TABOOS
•Lack of Patriotism
•GLBTQ Issues
•Disabilities
•Ethnicities
•Old People
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31. Hot Potato Humor—Based on Metaphors
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32. Canadians joke that this maple leaf design is really
Jack and Jacque arguing over English vs. French.
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33. Humor Theory:
The Sciences vs. The Humanities
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35. Hate Speech Vs. Humor
• The subject matter that people choose to joke about
goes a long ways in determining whether they are
using humor as a release of moderate levels of
discomfort, or whether they are really engaging in
“hate-speech” disguised as humor.
• The important question to ask is whether the humor
is used to weaken the target or strengthen the target.
• M.I.C.H. (Moderate Intergroup Conflict Humor) is a
humor theory that stresses moderation. Tension is
necessary, but not too much.
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36. Humane Humor Rules
• Never target the victim.
• Don’t joke too soon about tragedies.
• Never target a quality the target can’t change.
• Target only a person’s best qualities, not their worst
qualities.
• Joke only about your own gender, ethnicity, religion,
appearance, etc.
• If you want to hurt or disempower someone, then
break all of these rules. Use the following rule:
“What would Trump do?”
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37. In conclusion
Here are two paradigm Shifts
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