Thoughts about Humor

I recently read a post in MEDIUM in which some young person was complaining that her generation is subjected to a lot of bad humor from Boomers, who apparently think it amusing that they love their cell phones too much.

What follows was an off-the-cuff response. I omit some initial persiflage and begin where I get to my point.

--------------------

Humor in its essence involves the juxtaposition of the living and the mechanical, the organic and the inorganic. Two quick (and timeless) examples: first, the pun. Why are puns funny? Because they use the vital/organic instrument of language in the most mechanical possible way. The vital way of understanding a word — by its meaning. The mechanical way — by its sound. So even simple puns can be funny.

Another example: the ol’ slip on a banana peel. Comedian, or unwilling victim, slips on the peel and immediately begins trying to regain his equilibrium. Arms flail about. In desperation to avoid a fall, even a usually graceful person can become someone/something quite mechanical.

This is the reason that the latest technology is always a subject of humor. The latest technology, whatever it is, is always the zone where the juxtapositions of vital and mechanical are most jarring. What did the boomers find funny in the ‘60s? Duck and cover drills were always the subject of (a rather grim sort of) humor. The prospect of Armageddon soon to be produced by our own mechanisms, the product as they were of such geniuses as Fermi and Oppenheimer: THAT was funny in a vital-to-be-wiped-out-by-mechanical sort of way.

You mention steam engines in this context. Aren’t they “technically” technology, you ask, then move on in your restless way to something else. Well, let’s pause and answer that one. Of course they are technology! And I’m sure they produced some rib-tickling humor, too. The phrase the “iron horse” for locomotives might have seemed an amusing contradiction of terms back in the days of steam.

Knock knock. Who’s there. Canal. Canal who? Can Al come out and play?

Ahhh, canal building. THAT was a funny technology.

And don’t get me started on this new thing of sharpening your rock before hunting prey….

The latest technology and humor are naturally intertwined because they both address the same fact, the ever-changing human/machine interface.

So the next time someone of any age picks on the fact that people, usually younger ones, stare at their small glowing screens a lot, consider this. Staring at a glowing rectangle, from an exterior point of view, looks like a very mechanical, and even a very static, fact, which may contrast with a lot of hustle and bustle going on around the person staring.

Meanwhile, yes, something vital is also going on. The person staring is acquiring information. And perhaps sharing some. If I am right that humor is in the juxtaposition, then an acknowledgement of that vital aspect is implicit in the use of the image for purposes of humor.

Your article was certainly “successful” in setting off what now seems like a rather long lecture from me. Happy Holidays.

A Story About Coleridge

This is a quote from a memoir by Dorothy Wordsworth, reflecting on a trip she took with two famous poets, her brother, William Wordsworth, and their similarly gifted companion, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. We sat upon a bench, placed for the sake of one of these views, whence we looked down upon the waterfall, and over the open country ... A lady and gentleman, more expeditious tourists than ourselves, came to the spot; they left us at the seat, and we found them again at another station above the Falls. Coleridge, who is always good-natured enough to enter into conversation with anybody whom he meets in his way, began to talk with the gentleman, who observed that it was a majestic waterfall. Coleridge was delighted with the accuracy of the epithet, particularly as he had been settling in his own mind the precise meaning of the words grand, majestic, sublime, etc., and had discussed the subject with William at some length the day before. “Yes, sir,” says Coleridge, “it is a maj...

Searle: The Chinese Room

John Searle has become the object of accusations of improper conduct. These accusations even have some people in the world of academic philosophy saying that instructors in that world should try to avoid teaching Searle's views. That is an odd contention, and has given rise to heated exchanges in certain corners of the blogosphere. At Leiter Reports, I encountered a comment from someone describing himself as "grad student drop out." GSDO said: " This is a side question (and not at all an attempt to answer the question BL posed): How important is John Searle's work? Are people still working on speech act theory or is that just another dead end in the history of 20th century philosophy? My impression is that his reputation is somewhat inflated from all of his speaking engagements and NYRoB reviews. The Chinese room argument is a classic, but is there much more to his work than that?" I took it upon myself to answer that on LR. But here I'll tak...

Recent Controversies Involving Nassim Taleb, Part I

I've written about Nassim Taleb on earlier occasions in this blog. I'll let you do the search yourself, dear reader, for the full background. The short answer to the question "who is Taleb?" is this: he is a 57 year old man born in Lebanon, educated in France, who has been both a hedge fund manager and a derivatives trader. He retired from active participation from the financial world sometime between 2004 and 2006, and has been a full-time writer and provocateur ever since. Taleb's writings for the general public began where one might expect -- in the field where he had made his money -- and he explained certain financial issues to a broad audiences in a very dramatic non-technical way. Since then, he has widened has fields of study, writing about just about everything, applying the intellectual tools he honed in that earlier work. As you might have gather from the above, I respect Taleb, though I have sometimes been critical of him when my own writing ab...

Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

Search This Blog