Yet another type of humor comes from those who do it for a living, namely, comedians. Out of the many only a few stand out as delivering somewhat intelligent commentary on humankind and society. George Carlin comes to mind, and although his language can be rather crude and abrasive at times, his monologues on language and language use are often hilariously insightful. Rather than poking fun at errors, he does a great job at pointing out the somewhat bizarre consequences of the way meanings become permanently situated in the language we use, including psychologists. For example, (and there are many others) how what was once simply and succintly called "shell shock" evolved to a term that has "eight syllabes"..."posttraumtic stress disorder".
On Thu, 13 Dec 2001, Paul Brandon wrote: > At 12:57 PM -0800 12/13/01, David Campbell wrote: > >Re: Louis and his supporters-- > > Let's face it. Nearly all humor has a negative basis. > > Especially situational humor based on human acts: we are always > >laughing at the person who in some silly or unexpected way "slipped up" > >(including situations in which we laugh at ourselves). The only > >exception I can think of is humor based on a play on words (like puns). > > Are we to drop all humorous banter and be left only with bad puns? > > There is another type of humor -- that based on incongruity. > The best example that I can think of is the music of PDQ Bach (Peter > Schickele). > It's based on parodies of classical music in various unexpected ways, and > can be funny in a completely nonverbal manner. An example: a Gilbert and > Sullivanish number based on "Barnacle Bill the Sailor". > > * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * > * Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato * > * 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 * > * http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html * > > Mike Lee, MA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dept of Psych http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~mdlee U of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB, Canada --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
