Humor as a Technique of Social Influence

"Humor as a Technique of Social Influence," an article by Karen O'Quin and Joel Aronoff, focuses on a social experiment intended to discover whether humor can persuade its audience. Results seemed to show that, indeed, "humor increases the likeability of a communicator." And who couldn't be persuaded by likeability? I found this ad that, ironically, produces humor and promotes the "coldness" of Guinness beer. Likeability increases through its humorous form of being cold.

Research Topic

I’ve chosen the fresh (only in its fifth season this fall), yet quite successful FX comedy series, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, for my research topic in Rhetoric of Laughter for several reasons. First of all, it is a contemporary show. The fifth season currently airs every Thursday night. Issues raised within its episodes are issues prominent in America right now. Second, these issues are most often controversial, but it is strictly because of the developed personalities of each character that any audience can easily find humor in these taboos. Third, I simply admire the style of the show’s writers (also its three main actors). They seamlessly connect each character’s plot in a culminating climax, giving every episode the proper elements required of short stories to achieve a certain “artistic unity.” I am sure that through research and close study of one specific episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I can prove these reasons for the show’s significance and perhaps discover more along the way.

Bergson, on Comedy

Comedy, according to Henri Bergson, is strictly human. "You may laugh at an animal, but only because you have detected in it some human attitude or expression." In order to laugh, however, one must be indifferent to the situation, for, as Bergson would express, "laughter has no greater foe than emotion." To explain this point, I would refer back to the comedy of Jerry Seinfeld. In the final Seinfeld episode, the four friends stand by and observe a mugger attacking a rather large man. The man, we can see, is under a great deal of stress as he pulls out his wallet for the mugger, whose involved emotion in one of anger and agitation. The four main characters stand back and laugh at the situation. They have no involvement, in their minds.

Herbert Spencer's Humor

Herbert Spencer utilizes a great deal of his philosophy on laughter in describing the physiology of laughter itself. He describes it as a "reflex action." Repressed "[emotions reflect back, accumulate, and intensify.]" What Spencer states here is that laughter arises through certain thoughts. Muscular movements then cease the mental thought. Such reflex is caused by expectations of descending incongruity, meaning, "consciousness is unawares transferred from great things to small." Let's say, for instance, that your brother, whom you often worry about, informs you that he lost his job, that's why he isn't at work when he should be. Thoughts begin to plague your mind: what will he do now? He has to feed his two children, how will he find another job? His whole family will starve; they're going to lose the house--"Just kidding," he says, suddenly, "I took the afternoon off." You feel relieved, but all that "nervous energy" must be released. Therefore, you laugh...or smack him.

Freud's Vision of Laughter

Sigmund Freud sees humor as a process: either the object of laughter generates its own "humorous attitude," or the spectator (subject) finds humor in the unknowing object. Laughter best arises, says Freud, "from the saving of expenditure in feeling that the hearer derives the humorous satisfaction." But how does it travel from one person to another? That's where rhetoric comes in to play: "we may suppose there is only an echo, a copy of this unknown process." (above mentioned) Freud brings in his usual philosophy to explain some of the characteristics of humor. Describing it as a "liberating element," he says that humor is, "the ego's victorious assertion of its own invulnerability."