Lately I've been trying to categorize humor in an attempt to understand the principles behind it and while I was on google searching for types of humor, this guy came up:
http://www.alastairclarke.net/publications.html
He has published two books with two contrasting stances. Here's a quote from the site:
Quote:Clarke’s two main books on humour examine the subject from contrary stances, one suggesting that humour is a creative, adaptive faculty responsible for the ingenuity of the human race, the other that it is instead a system for bolstering the brain’s defences against misinformation that might otherwise harm the individual’s chances of survival. Although the theories differ in many aspects, both propose that humour has proven of vital importance in the unique intellectual development that sets the species apart from all others.
I'm just super excited because I was looking for
exactly theories of humor.
I also found an article that talks a bit about the Pattern Recognition Theory. Here are some quotes:
Quote:Humour is not about comedy it is about a fundamental cognitive function. Clarke explains: “An ability to recognize patterns instantly and unconsciously has proved a fundamental weapon in the cognitive arsenal of human beings.” Recognising patterns enables us to quickly understand our environment and function effectively within it: language, which is unique to humans, is based on patterns.
Quote:A common form of humour is the juxtaposition of two pictures, normally of people, in whom we recognize a similarity. What we are witnessing here is spatial repetition, a simple two-term pattern featuring the outline or the features of the first repeated in those of the second. If the pattern is sufficiently convincing (as in the degree to which we perceive repetition), and we are surprised by recognizing it, we will find the stimulus amusing.
Quote:As a second example, related to the first but in a different medium, stand-up comedy regularly features what we might call the It’s so true form of humour. As with the first example, the brain recognizes a two-term pattern of repetition between the comedian’s depiction and its retained mental image, and if the recognition is surprising, it will be found amusing. The individual may be surprised to hear such things being talked about in public, perhaps because they are taboo, or because the individual has never heard them being articulated before. The only difference between the two examples is that in the first the pattern is recognized between one photograph and the next, and in the second it occurs between the comedian’s words and the mental image retained by the individual of the matter being portrayed.
I'm sorry if this is old news for anybody. His second book,
The Attractive Error, came out recently. I'm super excited and I thought that you guys might be just as curious to read Clarke's work. It's one of those rare times I've been really excited to read a book like this.
I'll be sure to post a review when I get them. Right now I have to go about buying them, but I really wanted to share it here.
Oh and here's the link for the article if you guys want to read it completely:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200...150144.htm
