Humor is something that is very
individual. What comes off as funny varies from person to person. Why you find
certain things funny has to do with many things. A joke can speak to your
experiences, the situations and settings that you have lived, and the things
you are knowledgeable of. If a joke alludes to a familiar situation, setting, a
song or phrase that you’ve heard, or a movie you’ve seen, the joke will be
funnier to you. What makes you laugh can say a thing or two about you. I will
use myself as an example of this.
For
the shaggy dog stories, I ranked the third story as the funniest, the first
story as the second funniest, the second story as the third funniest, the
fourth story as the fourth funniest, and the fifth story the least funny. What
made the panda in NYC story the funniest of all for me were the ironic contrast
and the familiarity with the setting. Pandas are associated with being warm
cuddly, so reading about this panda busting out a gun and shooting people was
unexpected. There was an element of surprise for me in the ironic contrast.
This happens in a restaurant in New York, and I’m familiar with the city, since
I was born and live in north New Jersey, just ten minutes from the George
Washington Bridge. I frequently visit Manhattan and New York City. Picturing
this story was so funny to me. The story was visualizing something absurd
happening in a familiar setting, which was humorous. The double meaning of “He
eats shoots and leaves” was also very funny to me.
The
snake called Nate story was the second funniest to me. The story with animal
personification being my top two funniest stories isn’t exactly a coincidence. When
non-human things are given human characteristics is very humorous to me. I like
the sense of stepping away from reality, which makes the joke entertaining to
me. I’ve heard the phrase “better late than never”, so the word play made a connection
with me. This is a phrase that has been used widely, so most people have heard
it. However, if you have never heard the phrase this story would have been
dumb.
The
features that made me laugh in the second story, again, were the element of the
unexpected. I was surprised to read that florist goes to the extent of violence
to resolve his benign problem. The injecting of violence as an element of
surprise made me laugh. The
two stories that I found the least funny, the Crusoe story and the chess story,
didn’t connect with me. This was because there wasn’t much I could relate to in
these stories. For example, I’m not too familiar with Robinson Crusoe. As for
the chess story, I’m not a fan of chess, and have barely ever played. When the
stories were ranked in class, some found the chess story to be one of the
funnier ones, and those people expressed they were chess players and liked to
play. So it connected with them.
The
features I found funny in these stories speak to my experiences and
preferences. It’s entertaining to me when non-human creatures or objects are
given human characteristics. I relate to urban settings because I live in those
settings. I like to escape reality from time to time when I am being entertained,
so the absurdities make a connection. Since I’ve seen the Smokey bear ads, and
have heard the phrases “better late than never” and “thank god it’s Friday” ,
and have heard the “chestnuts roasting by and open fire” song lyrics, I was
able to understand the pun of the story, even when the story wasn’t too funny
to me overall. Since I don’t play chess, the last story didn’t make a
connection with me, so I didn’t really laugh. What is funny depends on the
listener, their experiences, and their preferences.
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