Mind's Eye Re: Humour

I was thinking about "men and big girls don't cry" and how that it's
sometimes diverted. But I agree with you about our response to comedy.

On Dec 1, 7:47 am, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On cultural expectations - I have seen comedians getting the crowd
> roaring whilst I have been left cold and even revolted.  Teenagers in
> particular laugh at what's been deemed funny by peers.  Undergraduate
> classes miss many visual jokes and comedic themes that more mature
> students get immediately.
>
> On 1 Dec, 13:27, rigsy03 <rigs...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Another thought is how the emotion is diverted into another response
> > because of cultural expectations.
>
> > On Nov 30, 9:04 pm, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Me too Molly - I wonder what the term 'I didn't know whether to laugh
> > > or cry' means?
>
> > > On 1 Dec, 00:06, Molly <mollyb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > would much rather be laughing.
>
> > > > On Friday, November 30, 2012 6:29:50 AM UTC-5, andrew vecsey wrote:
>
> > > > > What In find interesting is how it is almost impossible to see the
> > > > > physical difference of someone laughing his head off and someone crying his
> > > > > heart out. Both are a result of a sudden unexpected disclosure of truth..
>
> > > > > On Saturday, November 24, 2012 7:51:00 PM UTC+1, archytas wrote:
>
> > > > >> While there is only speculation about how humor developed in early
> > > > >> humans, we know that by the 6th century BCE the Greeks had
> > > > >> institutionalized it in the ritual known as comedy, and that it was
> > > > >> performed with a contrasting dramatic form known as tragedy. Both were
> > > > >> based on the violation of mental patterns and expectations, and in
> > > > >> both the world is a tangle of conflicting systems where humans live in
> > > > >> the shadow of failure, folly, and death. Like tragedy, comedy
> > > > >> represents life as full of tension, danger, and struggle, with success
> > > > >> or failure often depending on chance factors. Where they differ is in
> > > > >> the responses of the lead characters to life's incongruities.
> > > > >> Identifying with these characters, audiences at comedies and tragedies
> > > > >> have contrasting responses to events in the dramas. And because these
> > > > >> responses carry over to similar situations in life, comedy and tragedy
> > > > >> embody contrasting responses to the incongruities in life.
>
> > > > >> Tragedy valorizes serious, emotional engagement with life's problems,
> > > > >> even struggle to the death. Along with epic, it is part of the Western
> > > > >> heroic tradition that extols ideals, the willingness to fight for
> > > > >> them, and honor. The tragic ethos is linked to patriarchy and
> > > > >> militarism—many of its heroes are kings and conquerors—and it
> > > > >> valorizes what Conrad Hyers (1996) calls Warrior Virtues—blind
> > > > >> obedience, the willingness to kill or die on command, unquestioning
> > > > >> loyalty, single-mindedness, resoluteness of purpose, and pride.
>
> > > > >> Comedy, by contrast, embodies an anti-heroic, pragmatic attitude
> > > > >> toward life's incongruities. From Aristophanes' Lysistrata to Charlie
> > > > >> Chaplin's The Great Dictator to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11,
> > > > >> comedy has mocked the irrationality of militarism and blind respect
> > > > >> for authority. Its own methods of handling conflict include deal-
> > > > >> making, trickery, getting an enemy drunk, and running away. As the
> > > > >> Irish saying goes, you're only a coward for a moment, but you're dead
> > > > >> for the rest of your life. In place of Warrior Virtues, it extols
> > > > >> critical thinking, cleverness, adaptability, and an appreciation of
> > > > >> physical pleasures like eating, drinking, and sex.
>
> > > > >> Much humour is cruel - but try and read cruelty in to 'Doctor, doctor,
> > > > >> I've lost an electron'.  'Are you sure'?  'Yes, I'm positive'.
>
> > > > >> What do we think humour is?- Hide quoted text -
>
> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

--