Jul 20, 2004 20:39
About a week ago, I had the strange thought that all comedy involves some sort of self-reference. I think everything that is interesting and worthwhile involves self-reference. Maybe nothing that humans do is free of self-reference. So how does comedy involve S-R?
TEACHER: Willie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.
WILLIE: Me!
Why is this funny? Because Willie sees the world in terms of self.
From the comedy channel via Woz, via Robert.
Q: What's the difference between a Jewish woman and a 747?
A: The 747 stops whining when it lands in Miami.
Why is this funny? Hell if I know. So much for my theory. Maybe there the S-R is in the fact that two things are landing in Miami, and therefore the mind is racing back and forth between the 747 and the woman and the difference in meaning for “lands.” So the S-R would be with the Jewish woman to 747, back to 747 and then Jewish Woman. I’m convinced. I’m right so don’t try to talk me out of it.
I will think about this one more.
The central idea is that everything we are interested in is really about us. Us as person, us as group, us as nation, us as humanity. Comedy comes in when there is a short circuit that brings us to the realization that we must be bigger than we suppose. In both of these instances, the person is bigger that a person is suppose to be. They are full of themselves in some way.
r.slime
comedy,
self-reference