DOCSLIB.ORG

"Slapstick" Humor

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology Volume 4 Issue 1 Article 7 2008 Gender and the Appreciation of Physically Aggressive "Slapstick" Humor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/intuition Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation (2008) "Gender and the Appreciation of Physically Aggressive "Slapstick" Humor," Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology: Vol. 4 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/intuition/vol4/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. et al.: Slapstick Humor Intuition 2008 Vol 4, 27-32 Gender and the Appreciation of Physically Aggressive "Slapstick" Humor Terri Jorgensen, Allen Quist, Katie Steck, Kristen Terry, & Mark Taylor ABSTRACT This study investigated gender differences in violent music videos and television shows than do the appreciation ofslapstick humor. Participants included young women (Shayovits, 2006). 28 male and 29female undergraduates at Brigham Young Another form of entertainment in which gender University. Participants rated three humorous video clips (slapstick, wordplay, and non-sequitur) using afive question, differences appear is in physically aggressive humor. seven point Likert-type rating scale. The results ofthe study When asked to rate the perceived pain and funni­ supported our hypothesis that men would rate slapstick humor ness of aggressive cartoons, men and women rated as fannier than women would. This suggests that gender dif the perceived pain similarly, but women rated the ferences in physical aggression influence perception ofhumor. most painful cartoons as less funny than did men (Barrick, Hutchinson, & Deckers, 1990). Similarly, here are significant gender differences in physi­ women have shown an inverse relationship between Tcal aggression. In 2004, men were almost ten joke cruelty and joke appreciation (Herzog, Harris, times more likely than women to commit murder & Kropscott, 2006). Other studies have failed to find (U.S. Department of Justice). Moreover, men con­ significant gender differences (Henkin & Fish, 1986; sistently report more physical aggression on ques­ McCauley, Woods, Coolidge, & Kulick, 1983). tionnaires and measurement scales (Burton, Hafetz, Although previous studies have explored gender & Henninger, 2007). In addition to being more differences in appreciation of cruel and painful hu­ overtly aggressive, men are more likely to participate mor, no studies specifically deal with gender differ­ in activities with physically aggressive undertones. ences in appreciation of slapstick humor. Slapstick For example, men play more contact sports such as humor is physical, "pie in the face" humor. It is char­ lacrosse, football, ice hockey, and wrestling (Con­ acterized by an exaggerated display of violence that nell, 2000). Men are also more likely to be soldiers is not accompanied by realistic consequences (Tib­ or police officers (Connell, 2000). betts, 1973). An understanding of slapstick humor Gender differences in physical aggression may af­ is important because exposure to aggressive humor fect entertainment preferences (Fenigstein, 1979). may increase overt aggression (Baron, 1978; Baron, Entertainment preferences, especially more violent 1974). In this study, we examined whether men or preferences for males, appear early in life. By age women would find slapstick humor funnier. Instead two, some boys already demonstrate a preference of having participants rate cartoons, as several past for masculine toys such as tanks, planes, toy guns, studies have done, we had them rate a short video and male action figures (Singer & Singer, as cited in clip. A video clip, as opposed to cartoons, can more Goldstein, 1998, pp. 62-63). Boys typically prefer accurately display the exaggerated violence that violent video games like Grand Theft Auto, Counter characterizes slapstick humor. Based on previous Strike, and Call of Duty, over less aggressive games studies of gender differences in physical aggression, (Lemmens, 2006). Boys are also more likely than entertainment preferences, and specifically humor girls to enjoy a game's aggressive elements (Cantor, appreciation, we hypothesized that men would rate as cited in Goldstein, 1998). Gender differences a slapstick video clip as funnier than women would. continue into adolescence as young men prefer more 27 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 2008 1 28 Intuition,Intuition: Fall 2008 The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology, Vol. 4 [2008], Iss. 1, Art. 7 Method were instituted in order to disguise the real intent of our study. The dip types and the participants' gender were independent variables, while the mean ratings of each dip Participants were the dependent variables. Participants were 28 men and 29 women under­ graduates attending Brigham Young University, between Procedure the ages of 18-25. Most were recruited from psychology Each participant sat in front of a computer that had courses and received extra credit for their participation. the three dips downloaded onto the desktop. After sign­ All participants signed an informed consent. The study ing the informed consent, each received a packet with was approved by the Institutional Review Board. instructions informing them of the order they were to watch the clips. This order was determined by an online Materials random number generator. After reading the instruc­ The instruments were three video clips and a rating tions on the first page, participants circled whether they scale for each dip. The first clip depicted a violent scene were male or female. This packet also included the rat­ from Happy Gilmore in which actors Bob Barker and ing scales, which participants filled out immediately after Adam Sandler engage in a brawl on a golf course. The viewing each dip. Participants were excused once their fighting that occurs in this dip is extended, exaggerated, packet had been collected. Though there was no formal and neither party seems to suffer any consequences such debriefing, participants who inquired were explained the as fatigue or the presence of blood. Also, while fighting, details of the study. the pair begins to tumble down the golf course hill. This tumble is intended to be humorous. The aforementioned characteristics of the dip were intended to represent slap­ Results stick humor. The second dip illustrated wordplay humor, which the researchers define as quick whit and a play on words. Ratings of funniness and aggression were analyzed us­ It involved a scene from the television show Scrubs, in ing a repeated measures ANOVA with the following inde­ which the doctor gives his old Spanish dictionary to the pendent variables: Humor type (slapstick, wordplay, non nurse because he claims he already mastered the language. sequitur) and gender (males, females). Our alpha level The nurse thanks him in Spanish and he replies, "You're was set at 0.05. welcome-a." By the doctor's vocabulary, it shows that he There was no Gender main effect for the funniness rat­ did not, in fact, know Spanish. This dialogue represented ings of the dips [F (1, 55) = 1.381; p = 0.245] indicating a play on words. The final dip was from the movie Zool­ that the overall averages of the funniness ratings of the ander. This particular dip shows Ben Stiller watching a three dips did not differ by the participants' gender. This video intended to brainwash him. The delusions that fol­ analysis was performed to make certain that there were low are random images and ideas whose haphazard con­ not any significant differences in overall funniness ratings nectedness displays non sequitur humor. The nonsensical of the dips between the genders. content was intended to represent non sequitur humor. There was a Clip main effect for the funniness ratings The wordplay and non sequitur humor dips were used as of the dips [F (2,110) = 6.945; p = 0.001]. The funniness controls because neither dip had a physically aggressive ratings of the individual dips were different depending element. A physically aggressive element is a central ten­ upon the dip type: the slapstick dip rated as the funniest, ant of slapstick humor. the word play dip rated the second funniest, and the non We constructed a Likert-type rating scale of five items sequitur dip rated as the least funny. Thus the clips dif­ to accompany each dip. Participants rated how funny, fered in how funny the participants found them. clever, physically aggressive, entertaining, and offensive There was a Clip x Gender interaction for the fun­ each dip was on a seven-point scale; one being low and niness ratings [F (2, 11 O) = 3.186; p=0.045] (see figure seven being high. The researchers only analyzed the funni­ 1). There was a significant difference between how men ness and physical aggression ratings. The other questions and women rated the individual dips. This difference was https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/intuition/vol4/iss1/7 2 - -- -------------------- -- -- ------ - -----~------ et al.: Slapstick Humor Slapstick Humor 29 Figure 1 Figure 2 Clip x Gender interaction for funniness ratings Clip x Gender interaction for aggressiveness ratings " 7 6 6 ~ 5 "o 5 :il :il C ; 4 : 4 111Male E ~ 1 ., C • Female ~ 3 3 C ·i., 'c: E § 2 Cl LL :2 0 0 Slapstick Word play Non-sequitor Slapstick Word play Non-sequitor Clip Clip found looking at the linear component. This differs from Discussion the finding of no Gender main effect in that the Clip x Gender interaction analyzed the individual clips' funni­ The purpose of this study was to examine whether ness rather than the overall funniness. men and women would rate the funniness of slapstick There was a significant linear component for the funni­ humor differently. Specifically, we hypothesized that men ness ratings of the clip [F(l,55) = 16.411; p = 0.000] with would rate the slapstick clip funnier than women would.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • My Wonderful World of Slapstick
    THE THIS BOOK IS THE PROPERTY OF Georgia State Bo»r* of Education AN. PR,CLAun\;v eSupt of School* 150576 DECATUR -DeKALB LIBRARY REGIONAI SERVICE ROCKDALE COUNTY NEWTON COUNTY Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Media History Digital Library http://archive.org/details/mywonderfulworldOObust MY WONDERFUL WORLD OF SLAPSTICK MY WO/VDERFUL WORLD OF SLAPSTICK BUSTER KEATON WITH CHARLES SAMUELS 150576 DOVBLEW& COMPANY, lNC.,<k*D£H C(TYt HlW Yo*K DECATUR - DeKALB LIBRARY REGiOMA! $&KZ ROCKDALE COUNTY NEWTON COUNTY Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 60-5934 Copyright © i960 by Buster Keaton and Charles Samuels All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America First Edition J 6>o For Eleanor 1. THE THREE KEATONS 9 2. I BECOME A SOCIAL ISSUE 29 3. THE KEATONS INVADE ENGLAND 49 4. BACK HOME AGAIN IN GOD'S COUNTRY 65 5. ONE WAY TO GET INTO THE MOVIES 85 6. WHEN THE WORLD WAS OURS 107 7. BOFFOS BY MAN AND BEAST 123 8. THE DAY THE LAUGHTER STOPPED 145 9. MARRIAGE AND PROSPERITY SNEAK UP ON ME 163 10. MY $300,000 HOME AND SOME OTHER SEMI-TRIUMPHS 179 11. THE WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE 199 12. THE TALKIE REVOLUTION 217 13. THE CHAPTER I HATE TO WRITE 233 14. A PRATFALL CAN BE A BEAUTIFUL THING 249 15. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 267 THE THREE KeAtOnS Down through the years my face has been called a sour puss, a dead pan, a frozen face, The Great Stone Face, and, believe it or not, "a tragic mask." On the other hand that kindly critic, the late James Agee, described my face as ranking "almost with Lin- coln's as an early American archetype, it was haunting, handsome, almost beautiful." I cant imagine what the great rail splitter's reaction would have been to this, though I sure was pleased.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study Guide for Teachers
    KAPUT A STUDY GUIDE FOR TEACHERS ABOUT THE STUDY GUIDE Dear Teachers: We hope you will find this Study Guide helpful in preparing your students for what they will experience at the performance of Kaput. Filled with acrobatic thrills and silly blunders, we’re sure Kaput will delight you and your students. Throughout this Study Guide you will find topics for discussion, links to resources and activities to help facilitate discussion around physical theatre, physical comedy, and the golden age of silent films. STUDY GUIDE INDEX ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE RESOURCES AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION 1. About the Performer 1. Be the Critic 2. About the Show 2. Tell a Story Without Saying a Word 3. About Physical Theatre 3. Making a Silent Film 4. About Physical Comedy 4. Body and Expression 5. The Art of the Pratfall 5. Taking a Tour 6. The Golden Age of Silent Films (1894 – 1924) 6. Pass the Ball 7. Physical Comedy + Silent Film = Silent Comedy 7. What’s in a Gesture? Being in the Audience When you enter the theater, you enter a magical space, charged, full of energy and anticipation. Show respect by watching and listening attentively Do not distract fellow audience members or interrupt the flow of performance Applause at the end of the performance is the best way to show enthusiasm and appreciation. About The Performer Tom Flanagan is one of Australia’s youngest leading acrobatic clowns. A graduate of the internationally renowned circus school, The Flying Fruit Flies; Tom started tumbling, twisting, flying and falling at the age of six.
    [Show full text]
  • That's All Folks! Teacher Resource Pack Primary
    That’s All Folks! Teacher Resource Pack Primary INTRODUCTION Audiences have been delighted and entertained by circus and vaudeville acts for generations. The combination of short performances, showcasing music, dance, comedy and magic, was hugely successful among the working classes during the 19th century, alongside burlesque and minstrel shows, up until the 1930s. That’s’ All Folks blends the ideas from vaudeville, or short and entertaining acts, with the skills of modern circus and slapstick clowning to create an energetic show featuring separate yet interlinked routines that explore different characters and situations throughout the history of the theatre. The actors use a range of circus and clowning skills including juggling, acrobalance, bell routines, slapstick, comical routines, musical chairs, improvisation and audience participation to create an entertaining performance reminiscent of the variety shows of yesteryear. These notes are designed to give you a concise resource to use with your class and to support their experience of seeing That’s All Folks! CLASSROOM CONTENT AND CURRICULUM LINKS Essential Learnings: The Arts (Drama), SOSE (History, Culture), English Style/Form: Vaudeville, Commedia dell’Arte, Mask, Traditional and Contemporary Clowning, Melodrama, Visual Theatre, Physical Theatre, Physical Comedy, Circus, non-verbal communication and Mime, Improvisation and Slapstick. Themes and Contexts: Creativity and imagination, awareness, relationships. © 2016 Deirdre Marshall for Homunculus Theatre Co. 1 HISTORICAL CONTEXT Vaudeville Vaudeville was a uniquely American phenomenon and was the most popular form of American entertainment for around fifty years, from its rise in the 1880s, until the 1930s. It played much the same a role in people's lives that radio and later television would for later generations.
    [Show full text]
  • In My Essay I Will Be Exploring the Reasons As to Why British Comedy Is Characterized the Way It Is
    What are the British Actually Laughing At? An attempt to understand British comedy In my essay I will be exploring the reasons as to why British comedy is characterized the way it is. This will be done by taking into account the ways in which the British and American comedy industries contrast. I will evaluate the opposing commercial devices employed, the cultural differences, and the few similarities that these industries share. The British techniques, such as “sarcasm and irony”1 are vastly different to those used by the Americans who offer a more slapstick approach. This has resulted in both industries producing films and television programs that actually share little in common with each other, despite their popularity on both sides of the Atlantic. The British tend to approach situations with a mindset that comes across as significantly crude, cold and dismissive when juxtaposed with the classic American sunny disposition. I will explore this by comparing the UK and US versions of The Office. The general British national denial of emotions has moulded the route that comedy has taken, pushing comedy to become a way to stifle sentiment and a crutch for the population to lean on when feeling vulnerable. Yet interestingly, amongst both British and American audiences, an expectation appears concerning body image and weight, raising the question “are 2 comedians funnier when they are fat?”1F This has created a stereotype that links to the root of the need for comedy. The fact that both countries share this harsh stereotype lends something to the fact that all humans crave the desire to take pity upon or diminish the confidence of another through laughter, in order to feel better about oneself.
    [Show full text]
  • British Dark Comedy Television and the Bodily Aesthetics of the 'Proper Person'. Beccy Collings
    British Dark Comedy television and the bodily aesthetics of the ‘Proper person’. Beccy Collings Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK [email protected] Beccy Collings is a Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities at UEA. Her research interests include comedy, television, and celebrity studies, especially related to aesthetics and body in performance. Her recent research examines how dark comedy aesthetics work to focus humour around the fragility of the human body and mind. British Dark Comedy television and the bodily aesthetics of the “proper person”. Drawing upon Little Britain (BBC Three, 2003-2004; BBC 1 2005-2006), Tittybangbang (BBC Three, 2005-2007), Psychoville (BBC 2, 2009-2011), and Tramadol Nights (Channel 4, 2010), this article highlights dark comedy television depictions of characters failing to measure up to contemporary ideals of capability and health; whose appearances, movements or physical integrity are affected by ageing, disability, illness or accident/violence. It argues that such portrayals reflect and perpetuate various perceptions and boundaries concerning the appearance of the ‘proper person’, relying upon such perceptions for the comedy to succeed. Certain appearances, forms and behaviours are naturalised and expressed in media, medical contexts, and everyday discourse as ‘normal’. Therefore, deviation from these can lead to particular groups or individuals being considered figuratively – or even literally – as in some way incomplete or not ‘proper people’. That viewers are invited to laugh at these groups or individuals implies the characteristics are worthy of laughter, and that the ability to engage in this laughter may be assisted by a sense that the characters are not fully human.
    [Show full text]
  • Unit 2: the Art of Slapstick the Art of Slapstick
    UNIT 2:THE ART OF SLAPSTICK Unit Overview This unit explores the use of slapstick or physical humor as an important part of comedy. By learning about the history of comedy, students recognize the common stock characters that have been part of our culture for many years. This unit provides an opportunity to discuss the way in which humorous depictions of violent acts may desensitize us to empathizing with others. For thousands of years, slapstick (or physical humor) has been a part of the theater. But recently, live action films for children have been making greater use of slapstick, with more and more outrageous physical stunts involving people getting hurt in weird and horrible ways. Students look at different examples of slapstick in theater, film, television, and advertising. They learn the strategies that actors use for creating slapstick and how actors plan and reflect on physical humor. Students create their own characters using a “character wheel” to create a character sketch. By creating their own comedy characters, students learn about the important function of characterization in storytelling. Connections to Character Education can be easily incorporated in this set of activities by exploring the values that slapstick communicates using concepts like respect and compassion. The “essential questions” of this unit are: • Why do people laugh at comedic characters? • What makes slapstick funny? • How is slapstick humor constructed? • How are characters invented by authors? • How is humor used to make a serious point about a social issue? M - 39 UNIT 2:THE ART OF SLAPSTICK Discover what makes physical humor such an important tradition in storytelling, learn the secrets of creating comedy scenes, and invent your own comedy character using the character wheel.
    [Show full text]
  • Elements of Humor
    Elements of Humor Comedy Archetype Elements of Humor Incongruity Surprise Repetition Inversion Establishment of Superiority Exaggeration Slapstick Violence Incongruity The idea is that we laugh at things that surprise us because they seem out of place. Jim Gaffigan- Camping Surprise A mundane set-up followed by an unexpected conclusion. EX: My spaniel likes licking himself—lick, lick, lick—as if he were a popsicle. One day he stopped and melted. Left a poodle on the floor. Repetition A running gag where the audiences’ recognition of formula gains laughs Inversion Takes a recognizable character type or situation Gives the audience just enough to set up expectations Violates those expectations with a contradictory conclusion. EX: “I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous—everyone hasn’t met me yet.” —Rodney Dangerfield EX: I gave my cat a bath the other day. They love it. He just sat there and enjoyed it. It was fun for me. The fur kept sticking to my tongue, but other than that . (49) Establishment of Superiority Situations in which the audience feel superior to other people. Jokes at others’ expense, pranks, accidents America’s Funniest Videos Exaggeration Humor that intensifies some aspect of a character or a condition… Physical quality: “I was skinny. I’d turn sideways and disappear.”— Sherman Alexie Ability: I was such a bad student that in middle school I flunked lunch. Condition: “There were thirteen kids in my family. We were so poor we had to eat cereal with a fork, so we could pass the milk to the next kid.
    [Show full text]
  • Knockabout and Slapstick: Violence and Laughter in Nineteenth-Century Popular Theatre and Early Film
    Knockabout and Slapstick: Violence and Laughter in Nineteenth-Century Popular Theatre and Early Film by Paul Michael Walter Babiak A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies University of Toronto ©Copyright by Paul Michael Walter Babiak, 2015 Knockabout and Slapstick: Violence and Laughter in Nineteenth-Century Popular Theatre and Early Film Paul Michael Walter Babiak Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies University of Toronto 2015 Abstract This thesis examines laughter that attends violent physical comedy: the knockabout acts of the nineteenth-century variety theatres, and their putative descendants, the slapstick films of the early twentieth-century cinema. It attempts a comparative functional analysis of knockabout acts and their counterparts in slapstick film. In Chapter 1 of this thesis I outline the obstacles to this inquiry and the means I took to overcome them; in Chapter 2, I distinguish the periods when knockabout and slapstick each formed the dominant paradigm for physical comedy, and give an overview of the critical changes in the social context that separate them. In Chapter 3, I trace the gradual development of comedy films throughout the early cinema period, from the “comics” of 1900 to 1907, through the “rough house” films of the transitional era, to the emergence of the new genre in 1911-1914. ii Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7 present my comparative analyses of the workings of four representative
    [Show full text]
  • Comedy and Distinction: the Cultural Currency of a ‘Good’ Sense of Humour
    Sam Friedman Comedy and distinction: the cultural currency of a ‘good’ sense of humour Book (Accepted Version) Original citation: Comedy and distinction: the cultural currency of a ‘good’ sense of humour, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2014, 228 pages. © 2017 The Author This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/59932/ Available in LSE Research Online: September 2017 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s submitted version of the book section. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. Introduction: Funny to Whom? In January 2011, the scheduling plans of Britain’s biggest TV station, BBC 1, were leaked to the press. After the recent success of BBC comedies such as Outnumbered and My Family, BBC1 Controller Danny Cohen apparently told his team of producers that BBC Comedy was becoming ‘too middle class’, and failing in its responsibility to appeal to working class viewers (Gammell, 2011; Revoir, 2011; Leith, 2011).
    [Show full text]
  • British TV Comedies
    Copyrighted material – 978–1–137–55294–5 Introduction, editorial matter and selection © Jürgen Kamm and Birgit Neumann 2016 Individual chapters © Contributors 2016 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identifi ed as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–1–137–55294–5 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.
    [Show full text]
  • Twain: an American Humorist
    Vocabulary Twain: An American Humorist archetype: a representative pattern or model caricature: a ludicrous exaggeration or distortion of a behavioral characteristic or physical feature(s) colloquial: familiar; informal; often referring to the distinct manners and mores of a particular region deadpan: expressing something comic as if it were serious by using a monotone; in oral performance, delivering the comic in a sustained non-expressive facial mode and monotone voice fast-talker: a style of comedic delivery in which the performer will not be interrupted; connotatively, someone who has a hidden agenda in trying to sell you an idea or something material heroic ideal: beliefs and expectations of behavior, centered around such ideals as right of freedom of the individual, the challenge of adventure in new frontiers, the value of the common man, support of the underdog, loyalty to one's country, troubleshooter, exceptional courage and brave response in the face of danger, strong coping ability, etc. hyperbole: extravagant exaggeration incongruity: inconsistent with logical expectation interlocutor: in early minstrel shows, the man in the middle of a semicircle who initiates the humor by questioning the "end men." intrinsic: in the context of this lesson, the inherent personality of the teller built on firmly infixed habits and/or attitudes irony: the use of words to reveal that the intended meaning is contrary to that which is expressed, or that what happens is contrary to the expectation of what is going to happen malapropism: a blunder in the use of words; using a word in the wrong context parodied: imitated or mimicked for comic effect or ridicule prototype: an original model after which something is copied; a pattern satire: holding up human vices, follies, beliefs, behaviors, institutions, etc., to ridicule or scorn slapstick comedy: a type of comedy named after the double paddles used by comedians when "whacking" each other in performance in the 16th and 17th commedia dell'arte in France and Italy.
    [Show full text]
  • Humour and Autism Spectrum Disorders
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by OAR@UM 22 Humour and Autism Spectrum Disorders Malta Journal of Health Sciences https://www.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/402181/MJHSVol6Issue1-Text- HumourANDAUTISMSPECTRALDISORDERS280620191.pdf DOI: 10.14614/HumourAUTISM/10/19 Review article HUMOUR AND AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS 1 2 Joseph Agius and Sandra Levey 1 Department of Communication Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida, Malta 2 Lehman College of the City University of New York, Bronx New York, USA Abstract. Humour is universal and one of the most in understanding jokes could be mainly due to literal important topics in the study of communication. Humour understanding of irony and sarcasm, as well as difficulty is also a crucial and essential component in many different with resolving incongruities. contexts of everyday life. One population that encounters difficulties with humour individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This article describes the factors that 2 Humour Categories play a role in understanding humour for individuals with There are several categories of humour: puns, riddles, and ASD. A review of articles is presented that focuses on the nonsense jokes. A pun is a joke that makes use of the comprehension of humour. Humour-training intervention different possible meanings of a word (e.g., A skunk fell in for individuals with ASD is also discussed. the river and stank to the bottom). Riddles contain words that may be used in a unexpected manner (I have a face and two Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), humour, hands, but no arms or legs.
    [Show full text]