Page 60 - The Language of Humour

THE SHOCK OF THE NEW 47
rather high-flown funeral oration. When she uses a more formal register
she gets the sentence structure confused: ‘where the Reverend Brontë,
lived here’; ‘to which we’re referring to’.

Allusion, context and parody
What makes something funny in one context and not funny in another?
Up to this point you have examined the ways in which humour is
created by incongruity in language. This explains why something has
the potential to be funny, but there remains a discussion of a wider
context for humour—why does something make some people react with
a laugh, but others with a groan or silence? Compare the
following examples of humour, both relying on similar structural
features:

What’s the difference between the Prince of Wales and a tennis
ball?
One is heir to the throne and the other is thrown into the air.

Mortimer. Do you remember that time I had a bad back?
Reeves: You were like a Tina Turner concert after that.
Mortimer: No, Vic—a concertina.
The types of wordplay in the first example are predominantly found in
jokes for children, so they are not likely to appeal to a more
sophisticated audience—the incongruity has been perceived, but is not
as amusing. The second example occurred in a Vic Reeves and Bob
Mortimer sketch. In this context the audience perceives both the
wordplay and the allusion to this format as outdated. The corniness of
such jokes is emphasised because the wordplay is clumsy and laboured,
yet, perversely, this is what makes the audience laugh. You have to
perceive the joke in these ways: understand the wordplay; consider such
wordplay unfunny; and appreciate its occurrence in a new context. The
following discussion of parody will show how the notion of
intertextuality—or reference to existing styles—can help to account
for differences in the reception of humour. (The term postmodern is
used in various art forms, including literature and humour, where there
is an interaction between historical memory and the new.)
The dictionary definition of parody emphasises the fact that it is a
‘humorous imitation’ of a style. In the rock musical Forbidden Planet
much of the humour comes from a recognition of the way it refers to