Sunday, September 27, 2009

Immanuel Kant's Incongruity Theory

Setting aside the Superiority Theory of laughter, we then proceed to Kant's introduction to the Incongruity Theory. Kant sees humor as a healthy animation of the mind and body reacting to sensations "that have no design at their basis." Like winning the jackpot, laughter often springs from the discovery of something unexpected upon no logical reasoning. Wit performs this function, in Kant's words, "so that we can thus reach the body through the soul and use the latter as the physician of the former." Laughter exercises the mind and body.
To further exercise your mind's comparative notions of logic and ill-logic, and to perhaps exercise your body by means of laughter, I now present a brief animation of the song "Everything You Know Is Wrong," by Weird Al Yankovic.

Watch "Everything You Know Is Wrong!"

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