Second Post

I will admit that I find some of what others might consider rather stupid completely hilarious. Having something random and sudden happen will often send me rolling. The Theory of Incongruity is truthfully one of my preferred forms of comedy. Kant put it well, "Something absurd (something in which, therefore, the understanding can of itself find no delight) must be present in whatever is to raise a hearty convulsive laugh. Laughter is an affection arising from a strained expectation being suddenly reduced to nothing" (Lippit). I find this very interesting in that it talks of the build towards something and then a direct switch to a completely separate thought and it caused me to think of The Eric Andre Show. This show excels in incongruity comedy. For example, one of the guests on the show once was Haley Joel Osment, the child star from The Sixth Sense. Eric claimed that he was going to show a clip from Osment's new movie but when he went to show the "clip," it was just a video of a cow giving birth. After viewing this sudden change and Osment's subsequent reaction, I found myself in the clutches of uncontrollable laughter. Now obviously this joke would not appeal to everybody as it is rather crude, but as I stated earlier, these sorts of jokes are hysterical to me.  
Marie Collins Swabey said, "...sometimes the notion that things are incongruous emphasizes chiefly that they are markedly dissimilar or in contrast to one another; sometimes that they are inappropriate or unsuited to their situation..." (Lippit). Out of everything in the article, this is what stuck out to me the most. Eric Andre also does sketches where he travels into New York City and performs outlandish acts in the city. One of my favorite examples of this is when he sets up what seems to be a normal fruit stand and begins offering citizens tasty fruit smoothies. Eventually somebody asks for a mango smoothie and Eric says "okay." The next thing the patron knows, Eric has shoved his hand into the blender and screams in pain. The customer believes Eric has mutilated himself and this captures the essence of what Swabey has described perfectly; this is in no way appropriate to the situation that it happens in. However, the fact that it is so inappropriate is part of what makes this so funny.  
The Eric Andre Show might be the Theory of Incongruity on steroids, but that is what adds to the humor of it. Not everybody will find all of the theories funny because everybody's sense of humor is at least partially different, but incongruity heavily appeals to me.  

Comments

  1. Shane HerronSeptember 5, 2018 at 10:19 AM

    I love the smoothie skit. It's interesting to think of how logical incongruity compares with inappropriateness. It seems like perhaps the latter is funnier. Freud's relief theory also hits on notions of inappropriateness.

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