Comedy

[Vandiablo]

MY THEORY ON HOW HUMOR EVOLVED -- Mankind, as we evolved from monkeys to humans, were and still are always trying to outdo one-another and in this quest for supremacy, someone has to fail. I'm suggesting that in early humans when situations arose in which two or more humans (probably male) were competing for the same goal, and one of the humans could not complete the objective due to something unexpected - such as falling down or getting hit over the head - the remaining humans primitive brains realized their goal was now much easier to attain, thus provoking good feelings. Natural Selection choose the winners of these repetitive tasks, thus these impulses evolved to help us survive. Over time, these impulses slowly turned into laughter, jokes were made, and the basis of what we now know as humor was formed.

That's some good shit. Here, "good" means "pure".

Ha.

So what does this mean? That humor originated from - and is still largely due in part to - the misfortune of others, as I've been saying all along.

I might concur that your logic is comical, but unfortunately it is not amusing.

This does not change that the majority of the humor I've seen and heard (I'd wager close to 90% of it) is negative in some way or another

There it is. It's your worldview based on your experiences. You may have been exposed to other forms of humor, but failed to recognize them. There are many forms of humor, and some portion would fit your criteria: slapstick, ethnic "jokes", insult humor (many varieties). But not all.

and I believe this is because of our nature as humans to like, enjoy, or even want to see others fail in some way.

One of my sons fits that bill. At age six, he is already working on being the world's best insult comic. His twin brother does not. They have the same parents. The insulting behavior contributes to a higher, not lower, chance of meeting an unfortunate early demise.

I have unfortunately been exposed to many ethnic jokes through the years, and in that case, it's not a "misfortune" thing, it's a "superiority of us over them" thing.

Consider this joke:
Q: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
.
.
A: That's not funny.

Even though every other "joke" in this category is not funny, this particular one is dear to me, though I have trouble figuring out why. I guess it's because it's not really about feminists, it's about people who are overly self-righteous (a subset of just about all groups of people), and the punchline pre-empts the self-righteousness, without actually delivering anything offensive (except the notion that feminists are more self-righteous than other groups). (I'm an unread feminist myself, so it's okay.)

Note that the question was not "How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Unfortunately, I have used up my naughty talk allotment on this post, so I can't answer that question.

But alas, all comedy is not tragedy,

Alas? Alackaday? Woe is me!

Comedy, tragedy, I don't think any story should be classified as either. A good story has elements of both.

If I ever put on a show that had Oedipus as a character, I would have to, I would HAVE to, feature someone asking "Say, Oedipus, have you ever returned to where you were born?" Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk as one of the slapstick gods would say. That one would indeed be at O's expense.

and I was wrong.

You are a big man. (---insert riposte here---)

We have evolved, and so have I in this thread. Yay for forums !

Nobody evolved during this thread. Not in the naturalist sense, anyway.

I have come across the "All humor is malicious" before. It always seems to be made by people who grew up with cruel older brothers, or people who were forced to remain in the company of those "aggressive joking" males. Yes, there are many, many people who frequently or constantly use derision to belittle those around them, but it is a stretch to apply the psyche of these bullies to all humor. Here is where the "all sex is rape" comparison applies -- if all you know about sex is that you've been raped for years, you could honestly believe that all sex is rape. And yes, so far, it's unfortunately true for your own life -- but that doesn't make it true for the world, does it? Okay, that's a harsh comparison -- maybe I should change it to "all poetry is torture" ... hmmm ....

-V