Page 74 - The Language of Humour

Unit five
‘Crikey, that’s a hard one!’

Psychic release
The previous unit looked at examples of humour with a target. In the
sense that it is used as a form of attack, the humour is part of a battle
between groups in society. But some say that humour expresses some
sort of battle within ourselves. According to Howard Jacobson
(Seriously Funny, Channel 4) the historical Italian drama form
Commedia del’Arte ‘jeers at all our feelings and thus releases us from
the torment of being ourselves’. Although he talked about sex and death,
much of the series was concerned with the connection between comedy
and human excreta! It seems convincing in some cases: the comedian
Jack Dee said ‘I still think there’s nothing funnier than farts.’ The psychic
release theory of humour explains the triggering of laughter by the sense
of release from a threat being overcome—such as a reduction of fears
about death and sex.
This unit looks at the areas which are taboos (set apart as sacred or
prohibited) but which may be mentioned—it is interesting, then, to see
which areas stay strictly out of bounds. Like other ways of formulating
taboos, joking helps to establish the bounds of what it is right to think
and say, by breaking some rules, but keeping some limits. What are the
taboos in this society, and are they same for all people? Have they
changed in modern times? As with the superiority theory, the response
varies according to the attitudes of the tellee—for example, older
people tend to find obscenities more shocking, but age is only one
factor. Other features make humour either acceptable or offensive:
whether the language is explicit or uses innuendo; whether the
presentation is fictional and general, or factual and specific. The first
activity asks you to begin by considering your own response.