Assignment 6 - Ted Cohen

Ted Cohen

Aesthetics class

Kerry Keith Murdock

In his statement Ted attempts to categorize, or even explain, what is listed as funny. He provides several factors, ranging from hermetic jokes to pure jokes to affective jokes and conditional jokes.

The types of jokes he seems to spotlight the most are those that involve some sort of prejudice name-calling, as though he were still battling school-yard bullies. Such a stance on humor could be considered a confession on the part of the philosopher. As it were, one might wonder if himself ever ventured farther from the concept of comedy than a “Knock, Knock” joke or repressed the urge to watch a situational comedy or even a humorous movie. If he were truly an expert on the subject then perhaps he’d consider using his full first name Theodore, as the shortened name ‘Ted’ can hardly ever be taken seriously. It is, after all, the preferred shortened given name for stuffed bears everywhere, thanks largely in part to our past president, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt.

However, he is missing a few factors, such as the types of accidental jokes made famous through America’s Funniest Home Videos. These are relatively random, and typical painful, phenomenon that make us laugh and wince at the same time. I theorize that these evoke an emotional reaction due to the unexpectedness of the situation and also because, being human, we can typically all relate. This may fall into the ‘pure joke’ section, as it is something that speaks to the part of us that is simply human. However, given that these random acts of humor are not planned they may not fall into category of ‘joke.’

Another category might be word humor, or using a play on words, in a unique manner. A quick example might be, “What do you call a real life story with no conflict? A non-friction.” Certainly one must know what the difference is between fiction and non-fiction novels and perhaps avid readers could appreciate this joke more than someone who preferred tv to books but there is no stab at any ethnicity, minority, gender, or age. It is simply something that strikes us as odd, off-the-wall, or maybe even silly.

Let’s not forget physical comedy, which like accidental humor, strikes to all those in the human race that possess the skeletal item “funny bone,” which is a joke in and of itself, since it’s called the humorous bone. I recently listed to several Jackie Chan movies while at my day assignment. Not even a chortle erupted from the back of my throat. However, I am a big Jackie Chan fan, who has made a fantastic lifetime career out of making action films with humor richly lathered throughout the action sequences. Often times the joke is on himself, sometimes it is on one of the many bad guys he is thumping on. While this may also fall into the category of ‘pure humor’ the point I am trying to convey is that these styles of humor break the language barrier. A Jackie Chan action sequence can generally still be enjoyed in his native tongue, even if you don’t speak Chinese. In fact, the greatest example of this could be the genius of Buster Keaton’s physical comedy during the silent film era.

At the same time, what is funny to one is not always funny to all. Like beauty, it is in the humorous bone of the audience. This is why professional comedians need to read their audience as to not approach a comedic topic that might be ‘below the belt.’ So, perhaps the question should not be what is funny, but perhaps the question should be what is funny to you?