Why do Brits laugh with self-depreciation, Belgians with quirky defiance, the Dutch at others (mostly Belgians), Japanese with wordplay, and Germans not at all?
The last part is a joke based on a stereotype that isn’t true. Does that make it a bad joke? Depends. Stereotypes, satire, irony, parody, puns, self-enhancement, cynicism, comparisons, punching up, punching down, body movements, facial expressions, pacing, rhythm — all of this is important, no matter the culture you’re from, but how and why they’re used vary greatly.
Before we get into the psychology of all that, what triggered me to write this article?
In my piece “The Worst Thing About Non-Americans,” I explain how voice messages act as a cultural and linguistic equalizer but catapult me into a fury capable of beheading unfriending anyone.
“I am actually all for voice messages. They definitely can drag, and a 5-minute voice note is a definite fuck you but as someone who spends so much time away from family and friends, it is really nice to hear their voices. Also, I have a weird sense of humour, which I think comes across much better when I can put inflections and emphasis on certain words. In written form, it can often seem like I’m just being rude!”
I can forgive Mikey for having the wrong opinion.
If I delivered that comment in a dry, off-handed matter without any change in inflection, a Brit would still understand the sarcasm.
However, American millennials would too. They’ve become more sarcastic and cynical since discovering they’ll never afford a home, and their public health care ends before it starts.
When you kill a Yank’s optimism, they’re one step closer to sounding like a Brit.
Mikey was right—not about liking voice messages, of course. He was right in saying that inflections and emphasis matter. Imagine emphasizing the word Yank with disgust. That would make it sound like I think Brits are better than Americans. I mean, they are, but that’s beside the point.
I’m joking! Of course, I’m joking. They stopped being better ever since they left the EU.
Do I need to say it again?
How do we know when someone is joking?
What even is a joke?
How much do jokes vary from culture to culture?
How does culture change the way jokes affect us?
Do we need to adjust our humour when travelling?
That’s what I’m exploring for the next two weeks with my four-part series. Today, we start with “What Makes Something Funny? The Psychological Theories of Humour.”
First off, what is humour?
“1. The capacity to perceive or express the amusing aspects of a situation. There is little agreement about the essence of humour and the reasons one laughs or smiles at jokes or anecdotes. Among philosophers, both Plato (c. 427–c. 347 BCE) and Thomas Hobbes claimed that individuals laugh at people and situations that make them feel superior, whereas Immanuel Kant emphasized surprise and anticlimax: “the sudden transformation of a strained expectation to nothing.” U.S. writer Max Eastman (1883–1969) saw humour as “playful pain,” a way of taking serious things lightly and thereby triumphing over them. Sigmund Freud called attention to the many jokes (especially those having to do with sex and hostility) that enable individuals to give free expression to forbidden impulses and explained laughter in terms of a release of the energy normally employed in keeping them out of consciousness.
2. The semifluid substance that occupies the spaces in the eyeball.”
— Dictionary of Psychology1
Why do we need humour?
Humour improves immunity, facilitates creativity, saves face, relieves stress and tension, creates a more positive self-concept, improves relationships with others, lowers stress, and increases positive emotions and life satisfaction.2
What is a joke?
“A story or remark that is intended to provoke laughter”
— Dictionary of Psychology.3
But let’s take it a bit further with Freud.
According to Freud, Jokes are based on one (or more) of these six basic techniques.
Condensation. This is the fusion of two words or concepts into one, generating a potentially funny misunderstanding. When someone says, “Stop smoking,” the other person answers: “I’m an expert in quitting smoking. I’ve done it eight times already.”
Displacement. When you transfer the sense of something to something else. “Did you know that the Independents (a soccer team) want their goalkeeper to get married?” “Really? Why?” “Because it’s the only chance they’ll get to celebrate something.”
Double meaning. This is when you use the same word with a different meaning. As in this case: “It’s better to give than to receive. Yours sincerely, a boxer.”
Use of the same material. This is using the same words or expressions to generate a new meaning. An example is: “How are you?” the blind man asked the paralytic. “Can’t you see?” answered the paralytic.
Plays on words. This is where one word alludes to another. Example: “My ex-wife still misses me. But her aim is steadily improving.”
Self-contradictory. A statement is made that’s later denied. As in this case: “Not only didn’t he believe in ghosts, but he wasn’t even afraid of them.4
I usually don’t use Freud in my articles because his theories are iffy, but that’s the case with most theories about humour.
A few papers I read had more limitations than findings because most research is correlational and based on surveys. I’ll give some examples of experiments, but as the papers mention, more needs to be looked into.
The part of humour research that isn’t iffy
The same part of the brain that looks for contrasts and resolutions (left inferior frontal and posterior temporal cortices of the left brain) is activated through laughter.5
That’s it.
However, it does relate to one of the most talked about theories in humour research, the Benign Violation Theory (BVT). This theory was developed by Peter McGraw and Caleb Warren in 2010 and is based on the idea that humour arises from a combination of two factors: violation and benignity.
“The theory builds on work by a linguist, Tom Veatch, and integrates existing humour theories to propose that humour occurs when and only when three conditions are satisfied: (1) a situation is a violation, (2) the situation is benign, and (3) both perceptions occur simultaneously.”6
“According to the theory, a violation refers to anything that threatens one’s beliefs about how the world should be. That is, something seems threatening, unsettling, or wrong. From an evolutionary perspective, humorous violations likely originated as threats to physical well-being (e.g., the attacks that make up tickling, play fighting) but expanded to include threats to psychological well-being (e.g., insults, sarcasm), including behaviours that break social norms (e.g., strange behaviours, flatulence), cultural norms (e.g., unusual accents, most scenes from the movie Borat), linguistic norms (e.g., puns, malapropisms), logic norms (e.g., absurdities, non-sequiturs), and moral norms (e.g., disrespectful behaviour, bestiality).”
— Humor Research Lab7
As you’ve probably experienced, psychological distance matters when finding that sweet spot between the benign and a violation. Kant and Norman explain that the theory discerns four facets of psychological distance.8
Temporal distance denotes whether an event occurred recently or in the distant past.
Geographical distance signifies the physical proximity or distance of something.
Hypotheticality indicates whether something is real and perceived or simply imagined.
Social distance, as exemplified by Liberman et al. (2007), hinges on factors like whether an event affects oneself or others, involves someone familiar or unfamiliar or pertains to someone within or outside of one's social group. Additionally, they underscored the importance of considering social power.
Rickey Gervaise reflects much of what we’ve just learned from Freud and the Benign Violation theory in the following quote:
“Of course. And it’s still based on the same principles of what I think comedy is about. I think there’s a big difference between comedy and sense of humour. And I think a comedian’s job isn’t just to make people laugh. That’s easy; that could be a reflex.
You see some comedians; it’s the rhythm. They could even throw in a fake punch line; they get a laugh. And I think it’s about making people think about it and why it’s funny. I think comedy is about empathy. I can’t laugh with people I don’t like. I think you should know to be above the audience.
And there’s nothing remotely funny about seeing unfeasibly handsome, brilliant people come out and tell you why they’re brilliant. I want to see parts losing their way, falling over, and getting back up and dusting himself up. And you also got to see that humanity, that sort of struggle in anything, really. As opposed to changing my personality. Now, I don’t, but, of course, everything you do has got a persona.
Chat shows playing a sort of character. It’s not completely me. You know, I never let my guard down when I act. When I’m on Jon Stewart, I don’t act completely like I do with my friends. You know, you still edit yourself. You're still present.
Stand-up, again, is a persona. I play a brasher, more arrogant, more confident version of myself. And then, there’s another level on that, that I usually play the guy who says the wrong thing. The target of my stand-up scene likely soft targets, but, of course, the target is the audience’s own prejudice and middle-class angst and me. I’m always the butt of a joke. I’m ignorant. I come down on the wrong side.
Nelson Mandela, what a great guy, often gets a round of applause, incarcerated for over 25 years, released in 1990. He’s been out now for 19 years. And he hasn't reoffended. I think he’s going straight, which shows you prison does work.”
— Ricky Gervaise on Big Think9
All this helps us analyze why something is and isn’t funny, but it doesn’t explain how people from various cultures differ in their perceptions. It doesn’t help us to understand the variations in how and why humour is used.
For that, you’ll need to become a paid subscriber and tune in on Saturday. I’d love to offer all my articles for free, but I can’t sustain Born Without Borders without support.
I hope to form a stronger community of paid subscribers who want to support the project and collaborate long-term. The project is relatively new, and I’d love to have you there from the beginning.
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Dictionary of Psychology. (n.d.). APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/humor
Kuiper, N. A., and Martin, R. A. (1993). Humor and self-concept. Humor Int. J. Humor Res. 6, 251–270. doi: 10.1515/humr.1993.6.3.251
Kuiper, N. A., and Olinger, L. J. (1998). “Humor and mental health,” in Encyclopedia of Mental Health, ed. H. Friedman (San Diego, CA: Academic Press), 445–458.
Lefcourt, H. M. (2001). Humor: The Psychology of Living Buoyantly. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4615-4287-2
Liberman, N., Trope, Y., and Stephan, E. (2007). “Psychological distance” in Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. vol. 2. eds. A. W. Kruglanski, and E. T. Higgins (New York, NY: Guilford Press), 353–383.
Martin, R. A., Kuiper, N. A., Olinger, L. J., and Dance, K. A. (1993). Humor, coping with stress, self-concept, and psychological well-being. Humor Int. J. Humor Res. 6, 89–104, doi: 10.1515/humr.1993.6.1.89.
The Definition of Jokes According to Freud. (2019, December 18). Exploring Your Mind. https://exploringyourmind.com/the-definition-of-jokes-according-to-freud/
Adamczyk, P., Wyczesany, M., Domagalik, A., Daren, A., Cepuch, K., Błądziński, P., Cechnicki, A., & Marek, T. (2017, June 3). Neural circuit of verbal humor comprehension in schizophrenia - an fMRI study. PubMed Central (PMC). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2017.06.005
Benign Violation Theory - Humor Research Lab (HuRL). (n.d.). Humor Research Lab (HuRL). https://humorresearchlab.com/benign-violation-theory/
Benign Violation Theory - Humor Research Lab (HuRL). (n.d.). Humor Research Lab (HuRL). https://humorresearchlab.com/benign-violation-theory/
Kant, L., & Norman, E. (2019, May 28). You Must Be Joking! Benign Violations, Power Asymmetry, and Humor in a Broader Social Context. Frontiers. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01380
Ricky Gervais: The Principles of Comedy | Big Think. (2011, June 20). YouTube.
Firstly, how dare you. I’m fairly sure I’ve never been wrong. Not even once.
Secondly, the part I laughed at the hardest in this piece was when you insulted the British, which perhaps only reinforces the stereotype that we love self-deprecation. What really tickled me was the idea that we’re the same as Americans except super gloomy - matches so well onto our history and current politics 😂😂😂
I wish I could afford to be a subscriber right now. I at least want to say how interesting and amusing this was to read. I'm an American who lives in Portugal and I find the Portuguese sense of humor to be a delight. I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it yet, but it's like a wholesome, deadpan, "dad joke" kind of humor. I started writing down several examples of the humorous quips I've encountered here so I could remember them. I also started writing a draft article about an instance in which another American seems to have missed the sense of humor and ended up making an ignorant ass of herself as a result in a dramatic scene that made me embarrassed/ashamed to be American (which is pretty much always).