Lessons on "Universal Humor"

Learning about humor in this class has been really interesting because I haven’t ever really put much thought into WHY people laugh. I never realized how cultural humor is. Something big I’ve learned is this:

Laughter is universal. Humor is not.

I’ve sort of always assumed that something funny will be funny anywhere in the world, but I realize now that’s not the case. Culture has a lot to do with it, and I think that’s really interesting. This also brings even more truth to the statement ‘You know you’re truly good at a foreign language when you get jokes.’ A big part of learning a foreign language is learning about the culture behind the language as well, so this makes a lot of sense. This is a big deal to me because of my interest in French. After learning a little bit about French humor, I feel even more motivated to study and practice my French so I can learn how to understand French jokes.

I never realized how much a country or region’s origin plays into its humor, but now I understand how that makes sense. People laugh at what they know, and generally speaking, people know about where they live. If I were to make a joke about the wind in Oklahoma, you wouldn’t understand it unless you have experienced it. The same goes for anything in another country, or even a region or community. People in the TCU community would understand and laugh at a joke about the BLUU, but anyone else wouldn’t understand it.

I have really enjoyed learning this new information, and I feel like it will give me better insight into how to communicate with people from other places and cultures. I am generally the kind of person who will make a joke or sarcastic comment in a new or awkward situation. It’s really good to know now that this tactic won’t be effective with everybody, and could end up alienating the person more, rather than making him or her feel more comfortable like I intended.

Along this strand of thought, I am reminded of this quote:

“You can tell how smart people are by what they laugh at.” –Tina Fey

I like to think of this as the more educated a person is about a subject, the more jokes he or she will understand about the topic. If you make a joke about politics to someone who doesn’t know anything about politics, the person isn’t going to laugh, because he or she doesn’t understand the material. I think this works in the opposite way as well. Physical comedy is incredibly simple. It requires no outside knowledge or understanding. However, a drunk person falling might be funny to your average person, but may not be funny to an alcoholic or an addiction sponsor, because they are overly educated on the subject. It is more personal for them, so they wouldn’t laugh. You have to keep your jokes subject conscious as well as culturally conscious. The more it relates to people’s lives, the better they will understand and enjoy it.

This isn’t something I ever put much thought into before this class, and I’m so happy to have the insight now!