What
is the Joke? A Dialogue
Dissecting the Frog reader and comic presence in his own right, Neil Wates, writes:
Interested to read your deconstruction of the Joke - something a
lot of people (including myself) have been trying to get their heads round. I
like your approach very much, particularly the point about subverting audience
expectations, which reminds me of this masterful, masterful effort from Plum
Wodehouse:
"Mr. Wooster, how would you support a wife?"
"Well, I suppose it depends on who's wife it
was. A little gentle pressure beneath the elbow while crossing a busy
street usually fits the bill."
The point I am interested in is what I am loosely terming the 'mood' of
a joke (for now). Some of Frankie Boyle's worst stuff uses exactly the same
linguistic and comedic conventions as the above, but the darker subject matter
makes it a) seem like a different beast altogether and b) slightly funnier/less
funny, dependant on your point of view. I guess what I am loosely grabbing at
is that in the subjective world of jokes, there seems to be an equation going
on where X = effectiveness of wordplay (into which we incorporate subversion of
expectation, maybe), Y = subject matter, Z= Mood (or attitude toward subject
matter). So, X+(Y*Z) = Joke, perhaps? Does that work?
I've been thinking about the linguistic value of some forms of comedy, not because I want to come up with some breakthrough theory or anything - just because it tends to ameliorate the joke if there is an evaluated extra level of cleverness (is this part of what we call ‘wit’?), though this is often one of the intangible/abstract reasons why one joke is supposedly 'better' than another. This is often completely separate from subject matter, which is noteworthy. I am not ignoring the completely wonderful subjectivity involved in all this, in fact I am trying to work out why linguistic layout effects jokes precisely because different people find different things funny. A fool’s errand it may be, but I have often wondered if there are one or two constants in the equation alongside the subjective variables of sense of humour, recipient's mood, context, experience etc etc.
It also hasn't escaped my notice that true to beautiful ironic absurdity
there is some kind of Heisenberg uncertainty principle effect: The
more the linguistic tricks are appreciated the less obvious humour therein (for
most except the nerdiest of nerds like you and I). Heisenberg's unfunny
principle? Who knows.
Neil Wates runs Monster Comedy, which has disappointingly little to do with monsters.
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