Free Custom «Humor and Comedy in the Society» Essay Paper

Humor and comedy are terms that are used to refer to the common threads and convections that bring people together. Humor gets defined with reference to its comparison with other humors in other societies. A clear example is the various forms of humor in British Canada or United states. Humor and comedy has no social or cultural boundaries. They permeate in various social contexts. They get to be essential components of humanity. The question we should focus on is the key of humor in the society. There exist a number of reasons why people laugh. The reasons vary from physical excitements to self-conscious laughter. Comedy and humor in the society plays a vital role. They help us to determine how we think of ourselves and who we are. They also tell us how we interact with others. All the way through the development of humankind, humor and comedy have assisted in the development. They cannot be seen as a unitary function or expression. The humor literature gets divided into two categories. The first category deals with the individual perceptions. Questions about, why individuals use humor get to be analyzed in this category. The second part is the societal level.

 

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Humor can be used to pass a message to various groups of people. The communication process of humor provides a difference between social humor and psychological motivations. Humor is a way of sending a message by a person or group of persons with psychological motivations. The message is subject to interpretations by different people. This depends on the functional role and the social context of humor. When people attend a certain comic play, they have different interpretations depending on their origin. A general message can also be communicated by use of humor and comedies.

The role played by humor in the society can be analyzed. Majority of humor falls under the individual category. There have been theories developed to explain the relationship between humor and people. The theories give three reasons as to why people get encouraged to use humor. The first reason is superiority. People tend to think that by use of humor, a sense of superiority gets developed. Many people get to be comical or entertaining. They get to be seen as inferior when they are inadequate depending on the agreed-upon societal or group criteria. Superiority humor gets to seen as the laughter against others people’s inadequacies. It can also take the self-derision form. The superiority humor is one of the oldest in history. Great writers such as Aristotle and Plato wrote about humor as a way of disdain or mockery. They also directed that humor should be self-directed and at minimum levels. Humor being an expression of superiority can be traced from the writings of Thomas Hobbes. He had a personal statement about humor. He quoted that humor leads to the passion of laughter. He described laughter as the sudden glory arising from conception of some eminence within us. This happens from the comparison between infirmity and that of other people. Hobbes concepts of humor get derived from Ludovici. He argued that motivation for humor comes from superior adaptation. One develops pleasure after realizing that he or she has adapted to other social norms different from the person ridiculed. He pointed out that superiority humor is primitive in nature or a form of trashing laughter. He also viewed it as a step taken to reduce an adversary and adaptation of modernity. The second reason is that humor and comedy leads to a relief. When laughter or a joke gets used to break tension or reduce stress, it can be considered to give a relief function. People get relieved from stress through listening to comedies and humors. Using humor to be a face-saving behavior while mediating or negotiating can increase trust and reduce tension between parties. Medical professionals use relief humor to reduce emotional and physical stress among patients. While laughing, a complex body movement gets to be experienced by the person laughing. This leads to easement of the muscles, reducing spasm-pain cycles, mucus plugs, clear ventilations and increase in oxygen flow in the body. Some people like Spencer described laughter saying that it is a result of physical energy overflowing into the nervous systems of the body. The effect relief functions of laughter can be likened to the opening of safety valves in steam pipes. It can also be likened to primate facial expressions that get used to reduce or ease tension. The last reason is the sense of incongruity. Humor can be viewed as an interpretation of incongruity. Laughter or a joke may develop on the realization of something inconsistent with normal environment. Something can be perceived as funny when it has a paradoxical, irrational, incoherent, or inappropriate. Humor as an interpretation of incongruity does not eliminate the relief or superiority functions of humor. It only insists that humor is an intellectual activity that leads to superiority and relieve of tensions. Incongruity humor is psychologically motivated and, it gets based on physical needs. Humor is a cognitively based activity since it depends on individual perception. It also depends on individual views of what is typical or not. If a humorist discovers any discrepancy, he or she will apply the incongruity on the perceived event and, the expectations. Humor as an incongruity can be seen as an affectation from sudden transformation. It arises from strained expectations to nothing. These get to be termed as wide use of humor. Many have come out strongly to oppose these proponents arguing that there is misuse of humor in many parts.

There are two identifiable types of humor in the society. The first category is the differentiation or identification humor. It happens when an individual develops an internal perception that promotes in-group cohesiveness. It excludes those without knowledge of the group’s structure or reference. This humor expresses the boundaries existing between social groups such as race, nationality, occupational position or religion among others. The other humor is resistance or control humor. Humor gets to be seen to be a resistance and control simultaneously. Resistance humor gets the characteristics of a safety valve. This humor gets regarded as a model of sociological humor.

Writing of comedies takes various forms. It can take the form of sitcom writing, stand-up comedy, comedy screen writing or political satire among others. Many forms of creative writing could be improved by humor. Many story writers have enhanced their writing through humor. They have achieved a lot. Some of them include Shakespeare, Rabelais and Cervantes among others. Various researches have shown the link between psychological well-being and humor. There has also a positive link between physical fitness and humor.

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Humor cannot be separated from people. The comedies get done by people for the sake of entertaining others. Others species such as animals cannot be crack jokes to human beings. This is one reason why referring to comedy and humor is like referring to people. Only man can be able to speak and entertain a fellow man. Other people may see this as controversial. It is beneficial to appreciate comedians who give us humor. It is wise to refer to comedy and humor as if we are referring to human beings.

Stand-up comedy occupies a comedic art form. Despite the comedies taking the name stand-up, it is not obvious that the comedian will stand up. Some may decide to sit on a chair or a stool. This has led to a development of a pejorative term ‘sit-down comic. Comedians get to perform in a live audience where they speak directly to them. Their stage performances can be recorded and filmed later via the internet, televisions among other ways. In those comedies, the comedian gets to recite a fast-paced humorous story. They also recite short jokes commonly known as bits. Some of these comedies incorporate music, magic tricks or props to improve their acts. They are mainly performed at neo-burlesques, comedy clubs and bars, theaters or in colleges. However, there are no restrictions on where they can be performed. They get performed by comedians who are professionals outside traditional venues. They do perform in charity fund raising events, conferences, churches or in temples. The comedies get devoted to getting immediate feedback in a form of laughter from the audience. People have collectively welcomed the stand-up comedies. Most of people who access the modern technology such as watching television or surfing the internet enjoy stand-up comedies. If the comedian cannot make the crowd laugh, he may be harassed by the same crowd through heckling. Youthful people do enjoy the comedy more than the elderly people. The comedian must be updated on the current issues. He must also be aware of the cultural practices of the crowd he or she is entertaining. Some basic cultural practices get observed by the comedian so as not to go against a community cultural practice. Some of the things done in the stand-up comedies get absorbed into the cultural practices while others get discarded.