Probing the punchline: what jokes tell us about ourselves
‘Jokes are a way into profound truths about how we think, how we live with each other, and even about philosophy.’ Martin Cohen, philosopher
The novelist, essayist and social critic George Orwell once wrote that ‘Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie …’
At the time, he was writing about the graphic artist Donald McGill, famous for the genre of saucy seaside postcards, a form of humour which today would fall under the ‘incongruity’ theory, while the custard pie would probably fall under the ‘superiority’ theory.
These are two of the three main theories of humour today, the former being about the diversion of expectation against a norm, such as a play on words, and the latter about the misfortune of others (an idea going back to Plato and Aristotle). The other main theory is that of ‘relief’, in terms of the release of emotion or tension.
Studies have shown that laughter has great therapeutic value, with social, quality of life, psychological and even spiritual benefits (more on this later), yet the actual cause of humour remains a subject of controversy. The merits of the theories of humour have been debated vigorously as standalone arguments, despite their overlap and possible combinations.
