For my topic proposal I choose the subject on way the main reason people laugh is when they are surprised. I agree because according to many sources of text people are proven to laugh when something happens out of the ordinary. People don’t expect anything out of the ordinary to happen so when something does occur that is not normal their first reaction is to laugh. I want to support this idea of the main reason people do laugh is because they are surprised. There are many different types of evidence presented to support this theory. Some examples of evidence include going back to the primitive ages, your first laugh as a baby, and a scientific study. The evidence begins with talking about the generally accepted notion of evolutionary expansion the evidence is then supported with an example story. The next evidence presented is with a story of when you were first a child and you had your first laugh. Another piece of evidence describes an experiment performed on brain patterns. The final evidence given talks about the classic joke structure which makes people laugh. The author presents himself as trustworthy by supporting his evidence and his argument with examples of why people would laugh in certain situations. The writer also gave evidence not only by describing scenarios but by also proving scientifically the main reason people laugh. By having these explanations supported by all this evidence it is clear why the reason people do laugh is because they are surprised.

Blogg 3

One main point seen throughout the readings so far is that we laugh when we are surprised. This interests me because when I think of someone being surprised I think of people having the opposite reaction of laughter, usually being scared. When someone is surprised they are not expecting what happens and thus they are upset or angry that such an event would happen. Being surprised according to the book “Comedy Writing Secrets” is one of the main reasons as to why we laugh. According to the book people laugh when they are surprised to cover their feelings of embarrassment. The book states that you cannot be funny without the element of surprise. In my opinion I think the writer has left out the fact that when people are surprised most of the time their feelings consist of horror, scared or nervous, not instant laughter.

In this video there is a surprise ending that really makes the video funny. The ending is something that is completely unexpected that the audience did not see coming. I believe that at the end of a joke or humorous play if the actor does something out of the ordinary then the audience will laugh because they were not expecting the act to occur. This is what is explained in some of the previous readings, if something out of the ordinary occurs then the audiences reaction would be to laugh.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/16388/saturday-night-live-surprise-party

Blogg 2

In Laughing Matters the author compares human laughter with animals that laugh, mainly gorillas and apes. The author goes into the idea of how do we really know that animals are laughing instead of using some different form of communication with one another. The author takes a look into scientific research conducted in order to conclude what is considered laughter by animals. They talk about what causes humans to laugh and that laughter is a release of tension from a fearful situation. It talks about how scientist have studied why people laugh and what are the health benefits from laughing, if there are any. Then they talk about a guy names Tim Vine who is in the Guinness Book of World Records because he can say the most jokes in on hour. Then they go into the machine called STANDUP. This machine was built to make jokes in a certain format. STANDUP is an acronym for System to Augment Non-speakers Dialogue Using Puns. This machine was mainly built for children who have disease that enables their speaking abilities to learn how to speak and tell jokes. Chapter 2 in Comedy Writing talks about the 8 main reasons of why we laugh: Surprise, superiority, instinct, incongruity, ambivalence, release, puzzle solving, and regression. The element of surprise makes us laugh in the sense that we do not know what to expect in the joke so we wait for the punch line to occur. Making jokes boost peoples confidence if the audience laughs at their jokes. This causes comedians to feel superior of the audience thinking they have control over them. Laughing has become instinct to humans where you do not think about laughing before you do so. Incongruity is when you laugh when something is inconsistent with its self. When something or someone is doing something they do not normally do in the real world. Ambivalence is where you have an experience out of the ordinary from the real world. We laugh when we want to release some tension or get nervous. When you solve a puzzle you want people to know so they will think better of you and in order to do this you start to laugh. Regression is similar to release as to where you need to release feelings you don’t know any other way to do but laugh.
I do not understand how scientists are able to “study” laughter and how people tell jokes affects an audience. Everyone is different which causes the experiments to never be able to repeat the same thing over again on different subjects. I agree with the essay where it talks about how laughter is good for the body and releases endorphins to make people happier. I understand how scientist can study laughter in that since. But to me I do not understand how laughter can be measured or studied in laboratory. I do not believe that laughing can help cure people by realizing so much endorphins and I do not believe such a study can be conducted. I agree with Comedy Writing where they talk about the reasons people laugh but I do also think there are other reasons people laugh for as well. In chapter 2 the subject of testing humor waves in the brain to see what people think is funny is mentioned as well as the fact that people have different views of what is funny and what isn’t. I do not agree with sick humor but I do find myself thinking oh that’s finny but then at the same time saying to myself I shouldn’t laugh at that its morally wrong.
Question: Do you think studying humor in a laboratory is accurate?

Reading Response 1

In Comedy writing chapter one you learn the fundamentals of how to start being funny, whether writing or speaking. You learn about the three R’s: respect, remembrance, and rewards. All of these are said to benefit you as a humorist. You then learn of the map to being a successful humorist. This map is a triangle between material, performer and the audience. All of which rely on each other to be successful. Finally you learn how that it is important to read your audience and the type of people present. In Laughing Matters by Bergson he compares a human being with a machine and how humor is parallel to how a machine works. In Laughing Matters by Hemley he talks about different stories he thinks are funny that he has either created through imagination or that he has experienced in life. He talks about life stories with his daughter and friends who have helped him grow famous as well as how daydreaming and fantasies have also helped his writing be humorous. He ends with talking about surprising oneself is what makes things funny. How humorist will take something simple and twist it into something of the unknown which makes us laugh and think it’s funny.
I really enjoyed reading “Relaxing the Rules of Reason”. Although I do not completely follow what the rules of reason are or why exactly they need to be relaxed I did find the essay to be the most interesting of all the readings. Hemely gave examples of how humorists work in order to create humorous stories or essays. He gave example of real life situations where he finds humor as well as in his daydreaming where he makes up fantasies. He also helped break down the works of Bergson which completely confused me. I did not understand at all what he was talking about most of the time. I did not understand how he was making a connection with humans being funny with a machine. He would continue to talk about human worlds such as soul, rigid, tension, elasticity which would confuse me as to what they pertain to.

Question: What was Bergson talking about in his essay?