Oct. 3, 2006 — Laughter involves a unique form of consciousness, says an Australian researcher who is trying to unravel the thought patterns that underpin humor.
Ann Hale, a medical anthropologist from the University of Sydney, spoke about the social and cultural context of laughter at a recent conference of the Australian Anthropological Society in Cairns.
She believes jokes rely on the juxtapositioning of two mismatched or incompatible concepts.
For example, she tells the joke about the prisoner who plays cards with his wardens. But the prisoner cheats, so they kick him out of prison.
"Prisons have rules that they lock you up," Hale said. "But if you cheat you get kicked out. So you have two concepts there."
The same applies to slapstick humor, she says.
When we laugh at someone falling over, it's not the process of falling that tickles our funny bone but the attempt to stay upright.
"What makes people laugh at slapstick is not falling off the tightrope, but what you do to stay on," she said.
"We've got an idea that this is what you look like when you're upright and here's somebody trying to stay upright.
"It's within the same concept but it's incongruous, it's the mismatch ... it's not the fact that you've fallen onto your backside."
