Martin- The Psychology of Humor.
Martin says that incongruity is the activation of two different schemas simultaneously to satisfy one idea . This simultaneous activation is the incongruity and what causes the humor.
In the movie Duck Soup, there are instances that cause the audience to entertain two different ideas at the same time. For example, in the scene when Trentino meets with Chicolini & Pinkie to see what they found out about Firefly, there are puns and visual plays on words that are incongruous and therefore, humorous, like when Trentino asks the spies if they think that they can trap Firefly and Pinkie hands over a mousetrap.
Humor In Men and Women
Rod Martin states that there is a significant difference in the way men and women use humor because of their different conversational goals. On one d, for women the primary goal of a friendly conversation is intimacy and on the other for men the goal is positive self-presentation. These different goals are reflected in the ways men and women use humor.
When men watch Dillon in TSAM, they find his character extremely amusing because he is brash, stupid and basically only wants Mary to have relations with her. He jokes about sex, belittles mentally challenged people. Mary is a lady and the femal audience finds Mary funny because she uses female humor. She is mildly nerdy, dorky and jokes around with her appearance and body language; however, she nothing Dillon always stays within the female relm. In contrast, when a woman character takes on the male role of humor it does not have the effect of humor, in fact it is not funny at all. Therefore it is true that humor achieves gender-relevant social goals.
Semantic script
Semantic script theory suggests that all content of a joke, except the punch line, works as a script. Upon hearing this “set-up”, a script of how the story would normally go is activated in one’s mind based on one’s knowledge and experience. The punch line presents a completely different perception of the event, therefore creating another script, leaving out a semantic distance between the two scripts. It is the simultaneous realization of this semantic distance that creates humor. This theory fits perfectly well into our familiar scene from Dr. Strangelove.
Mandrake has figured out the recall code for all the bombers, and needs to make a phone call to the president. With all the phone lines destroyed, his only choice is to use the phone box. In desperate need for some change in order to save the world, he asks Colonel Bat to shoot the coca-cola machine, and Bat answers: No. It is private property!
Some jokes have their punch line as an unusual perception that requires time for people to make sense of it. However, in our case, both the importance of stopping nuclear bombs and coca-cola machine as a private property are straightforward notions, but one would never put them together.
Relief theory
Relief theory maintains that laughter is a homeostatic mechanism, which psychological tension is reduced. Humor therefore for example serve to facilitate relief of the tension caused by someone’s fears. Laughter, according to relief theory, result from this release of nervous energy. Humor, according to relief theory, is used mainly to overcome sociocultural inhibitions and reveal suppressed desires. It is believed that this is the reason we laugh whilst being tickled, due to a build up of tension as the tickler “strikes”
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