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Did you see The Simpsons episode where Homer makes a toast to alcohol?:
“To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”
There are a few reasons why we might find this funny. First there’s the inherently ridiculous contradiction—the recognition of absurdity is often funny.
Or it might be the surprise factor: Homer using alcohol to toast…alcohol!
But another possibility is that it’s funny because it’s true.
And those who find it particularly funny might be those who’ve actually experienced both claims (booze wreaks havoc in their lives, but they also drink to ease their pain).
In fact much of what we find humorous can reveal our beliefs. Since laughter is typically an unconscious, automatic response it is a useful measure for laying bare individual biases.
This month in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior Robert Lynch of Rutgers University published the first scientific evidence for the conventional folk wisdom: it’s funny because it’s true. But Lynch is not referring to objective truth, rather what we think is true.
Nearly 60 students were tested for their personal gender and racial biases, of which they might be quite unaware.
Then they watched comedian Bill Burr do a 30-minute stand up. Lynch measured the amount of laughter as well as more subtle—and automatic—facial expressions.
Those who found Burr’s racially charged jokes most funny (one about Burr, who is white, being afraid in black neighborhoods) also had shown a significant preference for whites. And those who laughed most at Burr’s gender based jokes (one about how men should make more money than women) also preferred more traditional gender stereotypes.
But Lynch notes that his findings are not about, “sexists like sexist jokes, and racists like racist jokes,” but rather the conclusions show that laughter often acts as a hard-to-fake signal of the somewhat unconscious beliefs we all hold, whatever those beliefs are.
So remember, something may indeed be funny because it’s true—about the way you think.
—Christie Nicholson
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21 Comments
Add CommentThis article is frightening. When I think of the things I truly laugh at, I wonder what it really says about me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am not talking about a mild smile or a witticism that brings a sardonic look to my face, but I think back to those moments that genuinely caused uncontrollable side- splitting laughter. For me, a sixty-six year old, the funniest and most endurable, is the scene in "The Gods Must Be Crazy" when the rhinoceros comes charging out of the bush and stamps out Xi's fire. Unfortunately for me most humour seems to leave me with a feeling of "Been there, done that" -- no surprises or hidden truths left.
When I go over in my mind the best funny moments, I find almost anything with anthropological animal descriptions, pictures, caricatures or captions but not funny paper or comics cartoons.
Does this mean I enjoy cruelty to animals?
I am going to assume that the SiAm audience is a more mature, educated, sophisticated audience (read stodgy) than most blogs. I would be curious to know what the last thing you found falling down, uncontrollably, perhaps childishly, funny.
Yes, please convince the world to stop laughing, and teach them what is "right" to laugh at. You can no longer laugh for the sake of a joke that is a joke and NOT REALITY. There will be no more laughing in the world unless it's scientifically sanctioned by a special committee. Stop laughing, seriously, your thinking wrong...what are you laughing at? No, stop it. There will be no more laughing. It's not healthy. Oh wait..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDan Quayle would be very proud of this article. This article made me laugh, because I think it's BS.
So if me, a white person, laughs at a joke a black person makes about white people, does that mean I wish I were black? This research is meaningless and I hope it never makes it to mainstream thought.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislol sounds like some of the comments are from people that either didn't carefully read the article or just took from it what they wanted rather than what was said.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is nothing in it telling people what "should" be funny, or saying science should dictate anything to them, It simply says that there is some evidence that the various things people find funny tend to be influenced by their pre-existing biases. I don't see anything shocking or crazy in that finding, and it certainly doesn't make any value judgements about what people "should" find only, only helps illuminate one more thing about the sources of human behavior.
One more bone on the pile of "we don't know that much about anything, after all. And that's a fact."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDid you hear about he guy who walked into the Library and said "I'd like a BURGER, FRIES, and a COKE."
Sir!" the Librarian responded, "this is a LIBRARY."
Oh, I'm sorry," he said with a whisper "I'd like a burger, fries, and a coke."
I'm starting to understand.
Actually, I admire the work and wish these researchers the best. Thanks for digging in.
There were 2 cows in a bathtub
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe first cow said "Pass the soap."
The second cow said "No soap, radio!"
So, I instinctively find more funny a joke which ridicules someone I like to ridicule, than one which ridicules me? Impressive, keep up the good job.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisResearch generates progress? I don't think so.
Good research does.
Every one's sense of humor is different. I sometimes hear my wife blurting out spontaneous laughter from the bedroom while she reads a Chelsea Handler book. For me, laughter is something I share with others. I can't break out in laughter when alone watching even a hilarious comedian. My funniest moment was when my 11 year old nicknamed our neighbors the "Real Family of Genius" and imitated the Bud Light radio commercial. We laughed till we cried.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't think it surprising that bias and prejudice affect our sense of humor. Seems natural to me. What seems unnatural is that some people have no sense of humor at all. I feel sorry for them. How about when GWB makes fun of himself for not being able to say "nuclear"? Could it be that he knows deep inside that he is an idiot? (pause....NOT!!!). Long live Borat and Napoleon Dynamite!!!
mirror scene in Marx brothers Duck Soup
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismirror scene in Marx brothers Duck Soup
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismirror scene in Marx brothers Duck Soup
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat about the distinct possibility that a joke is funny because it's true about what other people think they have successfully kept hidden?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, if you are a racist you might laugh at a joke that was about someone's hypocrisy there, but not necessarily admit to yourself that it was about you as well - because a non-racist may laugh at the same joke for essentially the same reasons.
I fart, therefore I am....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfunny.
(Just ask my wife :-) )
(my 3rd grader just thinks I'm a gas bag hero)
It think it was Sigmund Freud who wrote about "Jokes and their connection to unconscious" or something like. Nihil novum sub sole.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDuring group practice, it's better to be convincingly wrong on occasion, share the gaffe, and to move on and still be able to laugh with rather than at.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI found the scene of Hugh Grant attempting a New Yorker accent in Mickey Blue Eyes hilariously funny. Even the 3rd or 4th time round.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi think that this research is very interesting in that it provides scientific support for why we laugh in the first place. nothing provides quite as much pleasure as laughing, and for me at least it also provides a type of psychological affirmation of insight, intelligence, etc, in that I am often surprised that what i find as funny is actually very base, hidden and revealing. nice job
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis isnt't science; it is common sense. People laugh at things they can relate to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishalf the people who have commented on this article don't seem to have understood it. maybe they didn't read it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthesis: things we find funny are things we also believe (somewhere) are true.
not too difficult.
many of the people commenting on this article don't seem to have understood it. maybe they didn't read it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTHESIS: people find something funny that some part of them also believes is true
not too difficult.
Yes, and some other ideas that were common sense at one time and therefore did not need scientific efforts to validate/invalidate them were "the earth is flat" and "the Sun revolves around the earth." Here's another that many people still get wrong: "Do heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones?" Clearly, we do not need science to tell us what we already "know."
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