Ellen’s humor has the same pain-discomfort-embarassment, etc elements as all the rest we’ve talked about. She’s a deeply kind person, there’s no darkness in her work, but the fundamental joke structures are no different.
Yes, I see that. I am always astonished though at just how deeply kind she is.
The pattern recognition theory of humor:
I think of it as a higher cognitive level of what happens when we flip on those figure ground illusions, you know the vase versus faces or old woman versus young woman ones? Those are basic perceptual surprising new pattern double takes; humor is the same at a higher cognitive level, recognizing a pattern and predicting how it continues and then recognizing that a different pattern also applies and applies somehow “better” and having to reorient the previous data. Now what does that “better” mean? Triggers off some anxiety that you can control (breaking rules or norms), or in-group identity, are common but not exclusive ones. “Meanness” as defined by the op can fit in that group but is not all that does.
Seriously, two days and no one has given the correct response to this??
“Goodnight, Gracie!” .
I thought you all were better than this;)
What’s brown and sticky?
A stick
How is that joke mean? It’s kind of a stretch to say that the joke is mean because we feel a sense of superiority when we get the hidden connection.
The joke isn’t funny because we feel superior. The joke is funny because we get a sudden unexpected insight. The same way we feel pleasure when we’re looking for something and finally see it. Ah, there it is!
Or maybe the joke isn’t funny. I find jokes of this kind endlessly funny, and the less funny they are the more I like them.
I know exactly what it would be like to live with you.
Well, that’s true, if you really stretch the definition of “mean”. But mean is the second cheapest form of humor.
Cosby’s humor is not laughing at a person, it’s laughing at a situation.
And ‘black humor’ is always situational not personal.
Even Black Adder, which was most definitely mean and cruel and personal, was funniest when it addressed the general misuse of power rather than the personal idiocy of the powerful.
Pain, discomfort, embarrassment is not the same as meanness, though.
Right. And we’ve been expanding and clarifying beyond simple “meanness” since the OP:
Yes, I know. I’ve been following along. I was replying specifically to the comment
It seemed to me that the fundamental structure you were discussing, even if expanded was about meanness. If that’s not true, feel free to ignore my post.