| This podcast explains the three theories and adds the Benign Violation Theory: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whats-so-funny/id15545.... Their theory can be summed up as “something is wrong, but ok/safe”, but it takes some illustrating. I liked this skittles study, pulled from the transcript: MANDY: The skittles study goes like this. Participants go into a room to fill out a survey. There's a table and a bowl of skittles, and there's an actor posing as a research assistant. And the goal of the study is to figure out the funniest way the actor can offer the bowl of skittles. They ran this test in lots of different ways, but in the first condition: <TAPE> CALEB: The actor will say, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I'm in a couple seconds. I'm supposed to offer you these Skittles. Would you like these Skittles? MANDY: This isn't that funny. MANDY: But then, things get a little weird. In another group, the actor just flings the skittles at them. <TAPE> CALEB: Out of nowhere, they'd launch the bowl of Skittles and only afterwards say, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I was told to launch the bowl of skittles. MANDY: This is surprising but not that funny. It's a little messed up. In the last group though, the actor gives them some warning before it happens. <TAPE> CALEB: They say, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but in a few seconds I need to throw this bowl of Skittles at you. Then they launch the bowl of Skittles on the participant. MANDY: It's pretty funny. <TAPE> CALEB: there was more laughter, certainly, in both of the throwing conditions, but there was a lot more laughter when the person was told the Skittles were gonna be thrown at them first. MANDY: Under Incongruity theory, people should be more likely to laugh if there's surprise -- but that's not the case here. People are more likely to laugh when it's not a surprise, when they're warned before it happens. <TAPE> CALEB: That's because once you hear that and the Skittles get thrown, you know, it's part of the study, PETER: You're prepared CALEB: You're prepared! The point of this was to show that it's not about surprise and surprise in some cases actually hurts. MANDY: So if it's not surprise that's making people laugh when skittles are being thrown at them, what is it? This is where Peter and Caleb's own theory comes in: what they call the benign violation theory. It’s no great joke, but it serves as a nice tool to examine the theories of humor. The humor from this joke doesn’t depend on incongruity. Maybe a bit on the relief of tension, but it’s not a great explanation. And the scenario with surprise actually hurts here. |
The surprise is the realization that we’re not supposed to throw around bowls of Skittles coupled with the unacknowledged realization that this rule is just some tiny, pointless restraint. The recognition and release of this restraint allows for joy! There’s an aesthetic beauty to a rainbow of candies flying through the air, akin to fireworks or streamers, yet in daily life we choose not to throw the bowl of Skittles because we’re more focused on the imagined cleanup than the active, lived experience.