What makes you laugh so hard you cry and your abdominal muscles aches the day after? Or maybe just makes you smile and think: “well, that was kind of funny”? How come it differs between different individuals, yet some things almost all of us find humorous? Why is it some of us find some things extremely funny but others frown and think it is mostly unpleasantly awkward?
The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines humor as:
- that quality which appeals to a sense of the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous
- the mental faculty of discovering, expressing, or appreciating the ludicrous or absurdly incongruous
- something that is or is designed to be comical or amusing
According to John Cleese, walking the line between amusing your audience or making them uncomfortable is the key to success when it comes to making people laugh. And he should know, shouldn’t he? A while back I had the opportunity to listen to Mr. Cleese give a sort of lecture about the nature of humor. Very interesting! The other major point he made, besides the one about the fine line, was that Monty Python‘s success largely depended on always pushing the limit of what was (or is) considered tabu. He used a clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail to illustrate the tabu point.
The Black Knight:
He also showed this short sketch, which I think is one of the funniest things ever – The fish slap dance:
There are many more examples, like The Ministry of Silly Walks - “the right leg isn’t silly at all” and of course The Dead Parrot sketch.
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