Status:: #🟥 Tags:: #concept Links:: [[Comedy]] # Benign violation theory of humor The benign violation theory states that comedy states that things are funny when they are: 1. Benign 2. A violation of something 3. These two things happen simultaneously For example, the statement the talker opens the talk with is in the next five seconds I want all of you to begin tickling your closest neighbor. This is benign because it's inside of a TED talk and people understand it's likely part of the talk; tickling also isn't that bad. It's a violation for so many reasons. And they happen simultaneously. This theory works with most comedy. The problem is this theory doesn’t explain what differentiates the benign violations that are funny from those that aren’t. There are three other reasons that could explain why we find a certain benign violation funny: - The joke commentates on a power structure in society and has deeper meaning aside from just being funny - The joke is funny for its absurdism alone and isn’t meant to comment on anything - *My thoughts are the joke relieves tension. We laugh while watching stand up often on cue, even when we don’t get the joke.* - *my thoughts laughter connects groups together. For example, we laugh much more often in a group setting then 1 on 1.* - The joke is made for the jokes sake. We laugh for laughing sake. Like we don’t only use our eyes when we must see we can laugh for no other reason than to laugh. However, understanding a universal theory of comedy, while helpful, doesn't give the full picture. The map is not the territory. It's still super useful to understand the individual first principles of what makes something funny as it's in the working of these first principles and combination of them that the funniest jokes are made. This came from [[What makes things funny Peter McGraw TEDxBoulder]].