The Globe and Mail: Why do jokes sometimes fall flat?
Laughter may be the best medicine. But how do you administer it?
Scientists have long recognized the wide-ranging health benefits of humour, from reducing stress and improving morale to even decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Yet pinpointing what actually makes things funny has been elusive thus far.
At the University of Colorado, Boulder, marketing and psychology professor Peter McGraw has been mulling over this puzzle since 2008 and at last, he and his fellow researchers have put a finger on an answer: Humour equals tragedy plus time. ...
... In the study, McGraw and his team discovered that severe violations are funniest when they are temporally, socially or spatially distant, whereas mild violations are funniest when they are psychologically close. For example, a joke about a relatively severe violation such as the photos of the Duchess of Cambridge’s bare breasts would be far better received by those who don’t personally know her than by members of the Royal Family. Yet the Duchess herself may eventually laugh about it when enough time has passed.
On the other hand, a minor mishap like slipping on a banana peel is only funny immediately – and it is likely to elicit maximum chuckles if it happens to you or to someone you know. Over time, such mishaps lose their humour. ...
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