YouTube link: Beyond a Joke, Beyond a Genre | Sketch #2
This week’s focus was relief and benign violation. Benign violation, as described by Caleb Warren and A. Peter McGraw in their paper, ‘Benign Violation Theory’, suggests that this humour-inducing phenomenon occurs when: “(1) a circumstance is appraised as a violation, (2) the circumstance is appraised as benign, and (3) both appraisals occur simultaneously” (2015:1). While I had a horror-comedy sketch in mind following this idea, I simply ran out of time and couldn’t find the punchline. Instead, I focused on relief. According to the book, ‘No Laughing Matter: The Traditional Rejection of Humour and Traditional Theories of Humour’, author John Morreal outlines the ‘Relief Theory’. The relief theory, as per Morreal’s outline, ‘arose alongside the Incongruity Theory [and] its focus was on the physical phenomenon of laughter, especially its relation to the nervous system’ (2011:15). Essentially, to me, the relief theory refers to the idea that laughter is triggered (much like last week’s theory) by the quashing of expectations. Except, unlike the incongruity theory, comedy that utilises suspense to create nervousness as opposed to an expectation (right?).
Regardless, my goal was to apply the relief theory to this week’s sketch. As part of our classes this week, we watched a few silent-comedy films/clips, namely those of Buster Keaton. There was one scene in which Keaton steps just over a banana peel. I, wrongly, thought he would slip on the banana peel, because funny. He did not. In my sketch, I attempted to recreate this nervousness and sense of relief. And, while I don’t think my execution was particularly expert (it wasn’t funny), I do think the idea is there. Especially as a more modern interpretation of an old gag. I ultimately think I could’ve done better this week, had I found the funny in my first idea, or simply executed my video better.
Warren, C. & McGraw, A.P. (2015), “Benign Violation Theory” in Attardo, S. (ed), Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Los Angeles: SAGE Reference.
Morreall, J. (2009), “No Laughing Matter: The Traditional Rejection of Humor and Traditional Theories of Humor” in Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 1–26.