Zoe's Humor Blog

    It has been a whole semester in the making, but after learning an incredible amount on this very subject throughout this spring term I am finally ready to tackle this question... So, what is humor?  Humor does not equal laughter (which for some reason is the number one thing from Dr. Hubbard's lectures that pops up in my brain when the topic of humor is brought up, haha). It is, as I like to describe it in the simplest of terms, a capacity to perceive or express what is funny.  There are four different functions that humor serves in communication: identification, enforcement, clarification, and differentiation. There are three different theories of humor: relief, incongruity, and superiority. These functions and theories serve as a mechanism to better describe and analyze the role that humor has in our lives and the instances in which it is used/found. Humor is a language that practically everyone can understand. Humor plays a large role in effective communicatio...

I have been on a binge watching fest of The Simpsons as one of my goals has been to watch all seasons of the show up until the newest episodes (which honestly has been a looooong ride since there are about a bajillion seasons🤣). I recently watched the crossover episode featuring Family Guy called , " The Simpsons Guy" and this scene stood out to me:   In the scene innocent bystander, Ralph Wiggum, watches on as Peter and Homer begin brawling on the moving bus, which then results in Ralph's nervous chuckle (and a very memeable moment) as he realizes the danger he is in. Ultimately, Ralph ends up being hurtled out of a window as the bus crashes due to the negligence of Peter and Homer to take control of the moving vehicle. This particular moment in the episode reminded me of relief theory. Relief theory is described as a theory in which humor is utilized as a mechanism by which psychological stress is diminished. Laughter in this theory is a result of the release of ps...

One of the many pitfalls of humor is self-deprecation and I used to know it very well. Too well (sadly).  Self-mockery is often a very overlooked facet of the downsides of humor. We often think of aggression or the use of unhealthy humor to mask as a coping mechanism, but self-mockery never really enters the chat. It is almost like a silent pitfall because it can be an uncomfortable topic to address amongst people. I have always been known for my humor and people always remark about how funny I am and how I use humor to find the light in bad situations. But when I was a teenager, I had a very unhealthy tendency to utilize self-deprecation as my main source of humor in order to conceal how terribly bad I felt about myself. My confidence was low because I did not like the way I looked and I thought that by making fun of myself, others would not notice the flaws that I perceived about myself. I used self-deprecating humor as a means to distract, when in reality I was undervaluing myse...