TEDxBoulder - Peter McGraw - What Makes Things Funny

foreigner turn to someone they don't know and start tickling that person, although some of you may find this request a little scary, many of you are clearly amused, this is

funny

, it raises the question of

what

makes

things

funny

and answering that question is important to some. Reasons why humor is widespread in people of all ages and cultures, they experience it daily. Humor influences your choices, from the movies and television you watch to the people you date and associate with. Humor is true and humor is beneficial, it

makes

you happy and helps you cope. with pain, stress and adversity, although answering the question of

what

makes

things

fun is important, that is not why I am here today, let me explain that a few years ago I was giving a talk on moral violations and I was arguing that Moral violations cause anger. and disgust and I was motivating that case with an example a news story about a church that was raffling off an H2 Hummer truck to a lucky member of the congregation but instead of moans I got laughter and a clever member of the public raised her hand she said Pete , you said that moral violations cause disgust and yet we laugh.

Why I wanted to answer the question of what makes things fun because I didn't know the answer to the question what makes things fun. EB White says that analyzing humor is like dissecting. a frog few people are interested and the frog dies because of it, however for this purpose I created the humor or hurl research lab and in the next 10 minutes I will present a theory of humor with hurl evidence supporting the theory and I will discuss the implications. To find out how you can have a more fun life, let's start with the theory. Caleb Warren and I have developed a theory of humor that we call the Benign Rape Theory.

Benign Rape Theory integrates existing humor theory and draws on the work of Tom Veitch to say that humor. occurs when and only when three conditions are satisfied a situation is a violation the situation is benign and both evaluations occur simultaneously violations are anything that threatens the way you believe the world should be, in short, something seems wrong Violations take many forms ranging from violations of social norms, such as a Ted speaker asking people to touch each other, and violations of moral norms, such as Keith Richards claiming that he snorted, among many other things, his father's ashes. dead.

There are many ways to make a rape benign. We have studied three. The way to make a violation benign is to not be strongly committed to the violated Norm. This explains why a group of non-religious academics can laugh at a church giving away a Hummer SUV. Another way a rape can be benign is if it is psychologically distant, as if it occurred to another person that it happened a long time ago or it just doesn't seem real. Another way a violation appears benign is if there is some alternative explanation that somehow makes the violation acceptable, as in the case of play fighting and tickling.

Benign violation theory predicts that primates laugh. when they play fight or tickle because both are simulated attacks or threatening situations that also seem harmless. The theory also explains in addition to what is funny, it explains what is not funny and distinguishes between the two meanings of the term unfunny situations. that are purely benign are not fun there is no threat there and it explains why you can't tickle yourself you can try it doesn't work situations that are pure rape or what we call malignant rape are also not fun so that creepy guy who is nice to sit near you who seems very eager to tickle you there is nothing good about that situation The theory also explains other types of physical humor walking down a flight of stairs without rape it is not funny to fall down a flight of stairs but be unharmed benign rape funny fall down that flight of stairs and getting seriously hurt evil rape not funny unless it happens to someone else theory also explains why Nerds Among Us laugh at puns violations of linguistic norms that also seem okay how do you do it Isn't this fun? well you can eliminate it the violation you can also make it funny by eliminating what makes it acceptable this attempt is just confusing let's try another one just for fun I saw this on a t-shirt in Las Vegas recently benign violation how do you make it not funny? well you could just delete the rape, move down, how does it become an evil rape?

You really want me to do this, so now you can see how benign violation has great explanatory power, it explains nervous laughter, for example, like this. how such a style of tickling may make you laugh, but it is unwanted because a violation is a necessary condition for humor, you can experience the negative emotion in addition to your amusement, we have studied it in relation to benign moral violations, such as when someone is treated unfairly but probably deserves it the American who can't figure this out can probably afford to spend the extra dollar how do you make this not a violation? you just match the prices how do you make it less fun? well, you're targeting the less wealthy group our participants endorse More negative emotions and less fun in this condition, don't worry, so you can probably see how both what's funny and what's not are explained by the theory of benign rape.

Let's turn our attention to how to live a more fun life, the theory suggests. that you should pay attention to your audience and suggests that everyone has a good sense of humor in the right circumstances, what one person sees as benign, another sees as a benign violation, and another sees as a malignant violation, these people do not they will laugh at your pedophile joke, yes I was worried about that, you should also consider the situation, is the situation rape so try to make it more benign, writers, directors and comedians have long advocated for the use of distance by doing this tragedy, it's when I cut my finger comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die our participants support this idea they say that a friend who falls into an open sewer is less funny than a stranger they also find this violation more funny when perceived from a far distance which from a close distance we call this The Silverman Strategy, comedian Sarah Silverman transforms rapes into benign rapes by making racial and ethnic jokes in a sharp, non-serious and non-threatening way, but not all rapes will be made funnier by making them more distant, although Mark Twain said that humor is tragedy longer.

No one says humor is a minor misstep anymore, and our participants seem to indicate that zooming in on some minor violations makes them funnier, so tripping on a sidewalk is funnier when it happens to a friend than when it happens to a friend. strange. This is evident in the saying you had to be there and our participants also find this slight violation funnier when perceived up close than from a distant perspective, we call this the Seinfeld strategy. Seinfeld transforms normal everyday situations into benign violations by highlighting what is wrong with them, finally we suggest consider yourself if you are like Sarah Silverman Blatant exaggeration softens the situation softens the violations if you are like Seinfeld although more reserved and mild-mannered concentrate on creating these violations highlighting them so you've probably already realized that I'm not going to ask them to touch each other, but how did I know that proposition would be fun?

Well first I started with a violation, it's clearly wrong to ask you to do it, it violates a number of rules, but I had to know this was going to be benign, well, first I considered you, I thought you're a pretty open minded bunch, you're here to learn new things, experience new things, okay, I also created distance, I told you that this was going to be in the future, not in the present, and Finally, there is an alternative interpretation. I'm giving a talk about humor, so it might make sense to ask you to do this briefly to make things fun.

You want to create a benign violation which is easier said than done. However, Irma Bombeck said that there is a fine line between laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, and humor and pain thanks.