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The Superiority Theory Of Humor

Decent Essays

There are many ways that people use humor. It has been used both in positive and negative ways. The negative, or more aggressive, view of humor is “evident in ancient writings” and “in the merciless teasing that children inflict on one another.”, However, in modern times, humor is now commonly seen as a positive aspect and that the laughter that arises is the “expression [an] incongruity.” Because of these two conflicting view of humor, there have been multiple theories proposed to explain it.
There are two major theories in explaining humor. The first is the superiority theory. In line with the past views on humor, the superiority theory takes on a much more negative, serious, and intense take on how humor functions and why we laugh. The …show more content…

This theory focuses “more specifically on the cognition and [gives] less attention to the social and emotional aspects of humor.” The incongruity-resolution theory can be applied to many forms of humor. One example is visual incongruities. We laugh when we see a young child try to act like an adult around an even younger child. The incongruity is we expect the young child to still act immaturely around the small child but does not. The resolution is that the young child is playing make-believe or somehow trying to impress the younger child.
The second type of incongruity is through wordplay. Prime examples are puns. For example, George Carlin said, “Atheism is a non-prophet institution.” The incongruity is found in the meaning of non-prophet and nonprofit. Atheism is known as the lack of belief or denial of a higher being/God/religion. So, non-prophet relates to the meaning of atheism. However, non-prophet also sounds a lot like nonprofit. In the pun, atheism is called an institution. Based off how prophet and profit sound the same, atheism could also be considered a nonprofit institution. It is, in the pun, both an institution that does not believe in God and an institution whose primary goal is not to make money. Unlike the superiority theory, the incongruity-resolution theory makes it explicit that these examples of humor are all in a safe environment or

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