FYW Blog Week 2

While all three theories of humor are different in their own respects, it seems to me that a lot of times some of the theories are blended together, and not exclusively used individually. Out of the three theories, I think the incongruity theory is the most persuasive and effective. This theory seems to be used most frequently, and according to Lippitt’s “Humour and Incongruity” article, it is believed by many to encompass all of humor.
Dave Chappelle’s “Clayton Bigsby” sketches are very good examples of the incongruity theory at work. In this controversial skit, Chappelle portrays a blind African-American man by the name of Clayton Bigsby. Unaware of his own skin color, Bigsby is a very influential member of the Ku Klux Klan. These two contrasting ideas are so different, yet Chappelle is able to fuse them together into an ironic comedy sketch.
To an extent, the three theories cover different types of comedy, but they are often combined together or used together in some aspect. For the most part, when dealing with something that is intended to be comedic but just isn’t funny, the three theories of humor have similar reason. In my opinion, jokes aren’t funny because they take a controversial issue too far, or they just deal with a topic that isn’t very funny in the first place. It is also important to know one’s audience when attempting to be comedic, because not everyone has the same sense of humor. 
Out of all three theories, the incongruity theory is able to get closer to the essence of humor just because it has the widest variety of humor. Superiority and relief just don’t quite encompass as many comedic opportunities as the incongruity theory.

Comments

  1. Shane HerronSeptember 5, 2018 at 10:07 AM

    I think that there does seem to be a general consensus that while incongruity doesn't explain everything about comedy, it is usually present in comedy. Comedy and humor are kinds of incongruity even if not all incongruity is comedy.

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