How much of comedy is based on misery and failure?

[naudiz]

Today's random thought to keep me from getting any actual work done: so how about it?

Example: say you've got a story about an aspiring artist who works, slaves, struggles, and connives his way into talking a prominent dealer into giving him a chance to display his mojo. If he's a great artist, it's the feel good story of the year. If he couldn't paint stick figures without fucking them up, it's funny.

A scene where two people fall into each others' arms in a passionate embrace is romance. If the guy gets his hand stuck in the woman's bra, and she trips over a nightstand trying to writhe her way out of the contraption, it's comedy.

Are things funny when bad things happen to people who aren't you? I think so, but I'm also kind of a mean-spirited bastard.

 

[Monazwx]

Originally posted by Naudiz
Are things funny when bad things happen to people who aren't you?

Yep, 100%.
Nothing that's really cute and happy, but funny gets remembered.
Sad, but true.

 

[kotori]

yeah, but it's that nervous kinda laugh, as in "that might have been me, but..." laughing at other people's misfortune is a way of warding it from ourselves.

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

Comedy definitely needs drama to be effective.

Aside from "chicken cross the road" jokes, most humor is based on tragedy, pain, clumsiness etc...

 

[naudiz]

I was dating a guy who tripped and fell, smashing his face against the corner of a desk, and I busted out laughing. While he was curled up on the floor groaning in pain, I was clutching my sides, giggling, and trying to explain I was deeply concerned for his well-being and terribly nervous. But man, I could not stop laughing.

So why does a nervous reflex feel so damned good?

 

[Nora]

I'm pretty sure it was Mel Brooks who said, "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."

Personally, I think it depends on the situation. I'm not overly fond of humor that's at someone else's expense, but within a fantasy setting (movies, books, tv) when it's not really a tragedy with real life consequences, it probably is funny to me.

 

[peachykeen]

There is evidence to suggest that humans evolved the smile as a means of appeasement and protection - the drawing back of the lips to expose the teeth being entirely like a handshake (feeling the other person's hand ensures it does not contain a weapon). Laughing a bit at the small misfortunes of another person is a way of reassuring ourselves that we are 'ok' because at the same time we can think "Oh jeez that poor bastard, I'm so glad that's not me." It takes the sting out of our everyday foibles.

Related to this I think is the fact that a huge proportion of comics/comedians have come from tragic or disadvantged backgrounds and ahve used humour as their means of coping with their circumstances, to the point of turning it into a career.

 

[sufisaint]

we laugh about our own misery too. All the drunk college stories...puking, fighting, starving, waking up in strange beds, ect...were really miserable things...but looking back they are funny and you say boy I miss those days...

 

[MunchinMark]

Yes, a lot of humour is about bad things happening to other people. Stand up comedians often make themselves the butt of the joke (remember, even in all those mother-in-law jokes, it's the joker who has that awful woman for amother-in-law).

A lot of the situations in comedy are exaggerated and ridiculous. That way it is unrealistic. It's OK to laugh at the guy on TV who falls over when trying to get a girls attention, but in real life you should go see how he is.

There are other types of humour, but they don't quite tickle our funny bone as when things go wrong. Clever word play abounds, but its the situations that make the laughs.

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

I never hesitate to laugh in real life...I do not laugh at other people's misery or the misfortunate, but other than that, everything's fair game. If it strikes me as funny, I laugh.

When my wife was in labor with our third child, my mother-in-law was in the room with us. My wife was on Stadol (sp?) so she was feeling no pain...and was in and out of sleep. When a contraction would hit, she would sit up...eyes wide open. Then when the contraction would pass, she would go back to sleep. After the third or fourth contraction, I laughed. My mother-in-law got all upset.

Needless to say, she wasn't there for the birth of our fourth child.

 

[naudiz]

I laugh at my own misfortune, because it's funny. Sometimes, I can't get around so well, so I'm in a wheelchair. This is great fun at the mall, because people treat me like I'm retarded and might fly into a gibbering mania at the slightest provocation. It's especially funny when Mr. Naudiz says things like, "Shut up, bitch, or I'll break your other hip." Okay, maybe we're not laughing at my misfortune so much as the look of shock on the faces of people who speak to me verrrrry sloooooowly or talk about 'that crippled girl' when I'm sitting roughly two feet away and can hear every word.

Mocking other people's discomfort? Comedy gold.