Dishigrikyan 1

Grigor Dishigrikyan
Professor Turner
English 114A
27 September 2016
Humor and Its Significance (Essay #1 Revised)
Humor is a very tricky topic. It can be used to make a persons great day go
terrible, or even make your saddest day the happiest. Humor can bring joy to your day or
can make it be filled with tears. What I am trying to say is that humor is a certain topic
that could be used in a number of ways in various environments. The two readings I
chose in specific were The Comic in General- The Comic Element in Forms and
Movements-Expansive Force of the Comic by Henri Bergson, and The Value of
Humor by Robin Tapley. A common idea I saw in the two readings were how both the
authors tried to get their point across that something doesnt have to have a specific
requirement to be funny humor can have many different perspectives. The two authors
argue about how people try to pinpoint a certain definition to humor. They explain that
you cannot do such a thing because ones perspective towards something being funny
could be different from yours. I will be discussing the social, cultural, and gender aspect
of humor, and how they are all correlated to affecting your views towards humor.
Humor is such a powerful topic that it cannot only put a smile on ones face but it
could also destroy someones self-confidence. Tapley mentions in her article No one
would deny that humor could be used badly, with negative intentions. Humor can be
manipulative, hurtful, or degrading. What she is saying is completely true because
someone can verbally or physically hurt someone in the form of humor. For example,

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when you tell somebody a joke it could possibly ruin their day and at the same time that
joke can make someone laugh. There have been plenty of times where somebody
presented a joke to me that I laughed at, and when I repeated the same joke to a different
crowd I humiliated myself because they didnt find it funny. For example, my friend had
told me an interesting anecdote in which a couple of friends and I found to be funny, but
when I repeated it to some school friends they looked at me with blank faces. When an
individual does or says something to a group of people in which they are expecting
laughter in return, they should always take in consideration on whom they are presenting
it to and where they might be coming from.
Humor comes in different styles and can be used in a variety of ways. One way
humor can be used is aggressively. When used aggressively, one can upset, manipulate or
threat somebody. Looking back into your school years, one might be able to identify that
specific kid in class who would constantly make jokes targeting kids who are less likely
to protect themselves. Another style easily recognized is self-enhancing humor. Selfenhancing humor is when a person has the tendency to amuse their self by various things
throughout the day (Pluta, 2). It helps deal with stressful situations because it gives an
individual a positive perspective towards something. Trying to find the humor in things
instead of the negatives throughout the day will definitely make you a more cheerful
individual.
Social environment has a lot to do with the way one would broadcast and present
humor. For example, you would want to filter and reword the different kinds of jokes you
would say in a classroom whereas saying those jokes in the hallway. In The Comic in
General he mentions A landscape may be beautiful, charming, and sublime, or

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insignificant and ugly; it will never be laughable. The point that the author is trying to
get across is that what you find to be funny will always correspond to human aspects.
Although what you might find to be funny will relate to some kind of human aspects,
humor is still socially constructed. For example, you may laugh at a dog, but only
because you have detected it in some human expression or attitude. You may laugh at a
coat, but what you are making fun of in this scenario is not the fabric consisted to make
it, but the shape that men have given it (Tapley 46). Personally, before telling a joke, I
make sure I am aware of my surroundings and the people consisting in them. I would
hate to be that guy who cracks the joke at an inappropriate time. At the same time, that
has a lot to do with your joke being successful or not. Telling a knock knock joke to a
group of young kids would be highly more successful then telling that same joke to a
group of high school students.
You can find humor in all human groups, but its content varies significantly
across cultures. What Im trying to say is that what is viewed funny in one culture may
not be amusing in another. Plenty of jokes dont translate properly, or at all, because of
the many differences in social structure. There is no joke that is considered funny to all
cultures. For instance, Armenians have a specific type of inside joke revolving around a
unique group of people who are widely known in the Armenian culture. These jokes are
constructed revolving around people who come from a place called Abarn, a Spanish
district located in the province of Murcia. Only someone who has an Armenian
background will understand this type of joke. There are, however, some universally
appreciated aspects of humor. For example, people of all cultures laugh at incongruities
and their resolutions. It has been proven over and over again that humor techniques such

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as sarcasm, exaggeration, and understatement are consistently funny in different regions
of the world.

Gender plays its own role in humor. There are plenty of incidents where
something happens in which case a man might find funny whereas a woman would think
totally the opposite. That goes vice versa for women as well. What one person might find
to be funny could be different from anothers. Depending on where the person comes
from or thinks would be the reasoning as to why one might laugh. Keep in mind that
humor could be socially constructed in some situations. Each gender has particular
things in which they would find humorous. In some cultures, it is noticeable that males
will pertain themselves from saying a joke around women. This is due to the fact that the
men believe some jokes are inappropriate.
Both Robin Tapley and Henri Bergson made it clear that humor has a lot to do
with ones perspective. The way you view things can determine whether or not you find
something funny. Ones social environment could have a huge impact on the way they
look at things. This is a topic that is brought up commonly in our society nowadays.
Everybody has different views towards things, which is why humor can be such a
misunderstood topic. The three different ways of viewing the aspect of humor are looking
at it in a social, gender, or cultural way. These three things are easily correlated to humor
because they are common factors expressed in our daily lives.

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Work cited
Tapley, Robin. The Social Value of Humor (New York: State University of
New York, 1983)
Bergson, Henri, Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the comic
(1911)
Pluta, Piotr, October 21, 2014 at 9:06 Am. "Nida Hasan." Psychology of
Humor RSS2. n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.