Is there some psychological reason for this? I was watching one of those video shows and saw a boy getting tripped by a dog. IMHO that isn’t funny. Being racked, slip and falling isn’t funny and yet the crowd seemed to enjoy their misfortune. Am I an oddball for not laughing? Do I need help?
Blame the Germans and their stinkin’ Schadenfreude. I think it has something to do with detachment: if it’s not happening to you or someone you care about, you respond with laughter. And then sometimes, laughter or humor are people’s ways of dealing with troubling situations; hence the phrase “gallows humor,” and the jokes that surface after tragedies like the Challenger explosion and (more recently) 9/11.
I am always shocked when I watch on that horrible show “America’s Funniest Home Videos” little kids getting hit and hurt and everybody is laughing.
Well, my guess is that Americans grew up watching cartoons like the one with Road Runner and the coyote-- always trying to eliminate each other thorough amusing acts of violence.
Mel Brooks put it best:
“Tragedy is when I get a cut on my little finger. Comedy is when YOU fall in a manhole and die.”
I’m partial to this explanation:
The problem with that is that humor of this type goes back about as far as written literature. And I don’t think Aristophanes watched any Road Runner cartoons.
Another problem is that it assumes that only Americans would laugh. That is not the case.
I think part of it has to do with the fact that on the Home Videos show and such, nobody is getting seriously injured. You might see the occasional bump or something, but I never saw anyone get so much as a broken bone on the show. Another thing to take into account is that most of the time the people on the show are receiving the just results of their own stupidity.
peepthis mentioned another phenomenon that often comes into play when something goes seriously down the toilet, that being “gallows humor.” People often use laughter in those cases as simply a way of dealing with the situation. I used to be a volunteer fireman, and some of the jokes the paid men made were certainly “inappropriate.” We laughed just the same; there wasn’t anything else you could do.
RR
I hate to admit it, but whenever my husband has taken a shot to the package, I have laughed my ass off. I mean, tears running down my face and everything.
He wonders why I would think his manhood being crushed is funny, and I have no answer, really. I’m laughing right now just thinking about it.
Is it a girl thing?
Well, a great deal of humor is in the surprise or unexpected element. Punchlines and pratfalls always succeed only if they surprise you-- if you can see it coming, it (usually) isn’t funny. People getting hurt often features a good bit of the unexpected, and sometimes the way they get hurt happens to look funny.
I remember spending many a boring college class gazing out the windows at the icy walkways outside, snickering quietly whenever anyone wiped out. It hurt whenever I wiped out, but it still looks funny, no matter how much the tailbone smarts. I wasn’t laughing because they were hurt, I was laughing at the process that led to it.
Other factors: loss of dignity (especially in someone who is perceived as too puffed up or pompous to begin with), and the element of surprise (when what happens is contrary to what is expected) are often ingredients in what’s funny.
I’m sure this question has been asked and answered on the boards more than once. I can remember offering my standard response.
I once read an article by a psychologist that suggested laughter at others misfortunes was an expression of momentary superiority. I have NO idea if this is correct. I just read it. It always struck me a sounding logical.