How Do We Define Humor?

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    Our discussion in class this past week about humor and satire had me wondering - how is humor defined? The dictionary would say that it is the quality of being amusing or comic, but why is it that if something is defined by “amusing or comic” that not everyone laughs? 

When being introduced to the idea of satire within literature, we were shown a series of videos that demonstrated humor in a certain way. Some clips, such as the princess bride, displayed an underlying, somewhat ridiculous humor. The expressions, the nonsense ideas, and the tone created by the characters is what ultimately made the clip humorous to some. It was nondirect and took the idea of humor to more of a discrete level. Other clips, such as the SNL clip about sarcasm, presented a very upright, straight-forward type of humor. As an audience member, you can tell that the skit was meant to be outwardly humorous.

    Throughout these variations of scenes and skits, (this may sound creepy), but I remember looking back and forth between the videos being shown and gallery view on zoom to see if my reaction to certain videos were similar to my peers. For instance, the princess bride video was one that I didn’t gain much humor from. Although, I went back to gallery view and a few of my classmates were laughing so hard that they were dodging out of the camera lens, or even shifting their videos up towards the ceiling. On the other hand, the SNL skit was one that I found to be very humorous. I was laughing after every joke and sarcastic remark that I had to cover my mouth with my hand at one point. To reassure myself that I wasn’t the only one finding the skit comical, I once again checked back at gallery view to find some laughing and others holding a straight face. 

When I wasn’t laughing and another one of my peers was, I recall asking myself if I was missing anything. When I was laughing and another one of my peers wasn’t, I questioned if I picked up on something they didn’t. This alludes back to my original question of what defines humor and why is that definition different for everyone? The answer is something I don’t know, but as we surge into our satire unit a bit more I hope to find it. 

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