Analyzing Humor?

 By Bruce Shawkey

It is said that nothing is drier than trying to analyze humor. Humor, in its many forms, just is. Once you try to analyze it, it goes away. There is nothing LESS funny than trying to analyze humor. Yet that doesn't stop people from trying. Here we have a book, "The Psychology of Humor," written by Rod A. Martin, a Canadian with no claim to fame, other than he is a psychologist and his some academic prowess and has written one other book about humor. The Psychology of Humor is published by an academic publishing company. Copies are available at Amazon for between $30 and $50. I got mine for free on the Internet Archive. 

Here is an except from the Introduction:

Humor is a human activity that occurs in all types of social interaction. Most of us laugh at something funny many times during the course of a typical day. Although it is a form of play, humor serves a number of "serious" social, cognitive, and emotional functions. Fascinating questions about humor and laughter touch on every area of psychology. Surprisingly,

 however, despite its obvious importance in human behavior, humor and related topics like laughter, irony, and mirth are hardly ever mentioned in psychology texts and other scholarly books. Although there is a sizable and continually expanding research literature on this subject, most psychologists seem to have little systematic knowledge of it.

The main purpose of this book, then, is to provide an integrative review of theory and research findings in all areas of the psychology of humor, with one chapter devoted to each branch of the discipline (cognitive, social, biologic, personality, developmental, clinical, etc.).

 The book is designed in part to be used as a textbook for senior undergraduate- or graduate-level courses in the psychology of humor. Although such courses are not currently part of the curriculum in most psychology departments, it is my hope that the availability of this book will encourage instructors to consider offering one. This course, like the book, would typically be organized around the different areas of psychology, with a week or two spent on each chapter.

YAWN. I'll take a good fart any day. I never laughed so hard as the campfire farting scene in Mel Brooks' masterpiece, Blazing Saddles.

I'll get my yucks for free watching an old 3 Stooges movie, or an old episode of Seinfeld, or hanging out with my buddies at the Cottage Grove breakfast club.

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