I really enjoyed reading this passage from the book Only Joking. Although it was similar in content to Morreall's Comic Relief, it was much more successful, engaging, and funny in its analyzation of humor.
I found many concepts in the passage quite interesting, and the assigned section for today dealt with various theories of humor. When discussing the incongruity theory, I loved how the author said, "Laughter is essentially a wobble of uncertainty" (88).
When you actually sit and think about it, this concept is totally true especially regarding the incongruity theory. We laugh awkwardly when someone catches us by surprise or when we're stuck in a situation that makes us feel uncomfortable. We laugh if we are unsure of what we're about to say or if silence makes us nervous because we don't know what the next moments will hold. We laugh when a joke isn't what we expected.
The incongruity theory deals with ambivalence, which can be defined as "simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward an object, person, or thing." Our uncertainty towards a situation causes us to laugh, and all of us can relate in one way or another to being caught off guard. This is why the incongruity theory is such a popular and widely accepted theory of humor.
Describing laughter a "wobble of uncertainty" makes me think of a spinning top as it teeters between staying upright and toppling down. For me, this wobble usually occurs right at the moment where I'm deciding whether it would be more awkward to laugh in a particular situation or more awkward to stay silent.
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