AUSSIE HUMOUR - More Techniques and FormsContributed by Ian M Johnstone
Surprise and ‘Pleasure in Others’ Misfortunes!’ Two common characteristics of humour are surprise and schadenfreude, or pleasure in others’ misfortunes. The definition offered by Thomas Hobbes in his book, Human Nature, written in 1650 includes these two elements.
Similarly, James Thurber wrote in the New York Post 29 February 1960 ‘Humour is emotional chaos remembered in tranquillity.’ It is worth recalling that we use the same word funny to mean both laughable and odd. Ian Hay pointed this out when he wrote in The Housemaster in 1938. ‘What do you mean, funny? Funny-peculiar or funny ha-ha?’ Pleasure in Others’ MisfortunesThe element of schadenfreude has often been remarked upon. For example, Jane Austen, wrote in Pride and Prejudice in 1813 ‘For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?’ Similarly, Will Rogers wrote in The Illiterate Digest in 1924: ‘Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else’. Brevity and IndirectnessTwo of humour’s basic techniques are brevity and indirectness. Humour hints and is economical. It is mostly pithy with implications, solid with innuendoes and terse with inferences. It is, at the same time, concise and succinct but circuitous, oblique and roundabout. Thus John Eales, current captain of the Australian Wallabies Rugby Union Team is called ‘Nobody’ because ‘Nobody’s perfect’. Was there ever a more flattering and amusing compliment ever paid? Stupidity (of Other Races)The two main subjects of humour, apart from sex, are stupidity and meanness. It is very common for these topics to get mixed up with racial intolerance. Typically, Australians make jokes about the stupidity of the Irish and the meanness of the Scots. In USA stupidity is attributed to the Poles. Apparently in Holland the Belgians are paid out for being dumb, and the Germans for being ungenerous. Consider these examples:
or,
|
HUMOUR |