pattern,
the same situation, the same key-words, recur again and again. Although
repetition diminishes the effect of surprise, it has a cumulative effect
on the emotive charge. The logical pattern is the same in each repeat,
but new tension is easily drawn into the familiar channel. It is as if
more and more liquid were big pumped into the same punctured pipeline.
Originality, Emphasis, Economy
I have discussed the logic of humour and its emotive dynamics, and
have tried to indicate how to analyse a joke. But nothing has been
said so far about the criteria which decide whether it is a good, bad,
or indifferent joke. These are, of course, partly a matter of personal
taste, partly dependent on the technique of the humorist; only the second
is our concern.
There are, I shall suggest, three main criteria of comic technique:
originality, emphasis, and economy. In the light of the previous chapters
we shall expect them to play also a significant part in the techniques
of scientific theorizing and artistic creation.
An art dealer (this story is authentic) bought a canvas signed
'Picasso' and travelled all the way to Cannes to discover whether it
was genuine. Picasso was working in his studio. He cast a single look
at the canvas and said: 'It's a fake'.
A few months later the dealer bought another canvas signed
Picasso. Again he travelled to Cannes and again Picasso, after a single
glance, grunted: 'It's a fake.'
'But cher maître,' expostulated the dealer, 'it so happens that I saw
you with my own eyes working on this very picture several years ago.'
Picasso shrugged: 'I often paint fakes.'
One measure of originality is its surprise effect. Picasso's reply --
as the Marquis' in the Chamfort story -- is truly unexpected; with
its perverse logic, it cuts through the narrative like the blade of
the guillotine.
But creative originality is not so often met with either in art or in
humour. One substitute for it is suggestiveness through emphasis . The cheap comedian piles it on; the competent craftsman plays in
a subtle way on our memories and habits of thought. Whenever in the Contes Drolatiques Balzac introduces an abbé or a monk, our
associations race ahead of the narrative in the delectable expectation
of some venal sin to be committed; yet when the point of the story is
reached we still smile, sharing the narrator's mock-indignation and
pretended surprise. In other words, anticipation of the type of joke or
point to come do not entirely destroy the comic effect, provided that
we do not know when and how exactly it will strike home. It is rather
like a game: cover my eyes and I shall pretend to be surprised. Besides,
the laughter provoked by spicy jokes is, as already said, only partly
genuine, partly a cloak to cover publicly less demonstrable emotions --
regardless whether the story in itself is comic or not.
Suggestive techniques are essential; they create suspense and
facilitate the listener's flow of associations along habit-formed
channels. A comic idea of a given logical pattern can be transposed
into any number of different settings; local colour and dialect help
to establish the atmosphere. The most effective stories are regional:
Scottish, Marseillais, Cockney; the mere mention of 'a man from Aberdeen'
establishes the matrix, the desired frame of mind. Thus suggestiveness
depends firstly on the choice of relevant stimuli -- as the
biologist would say. Next, all non-essential elements should be omitted,
even at the price of a certain sketchiness, otherwise attention will
be sidetracked, the tension frittered away: this is the technique of
simplification. In the third place the effect is increased by certain
emphatic gestures, inflections, a stress on dialect and slang: in a word,
by exaggeration. We have met these three related factors: selection,
exaggeration, simplification, in the technique of the caricature (and
of the portrait and blue-print); taken together they provide the means
of highlighting aspects
the same situation, the same key-words, recur again and again. Although
repetition diminishes the effect of surprise, it has a cumulative effect
on the emotive charge. The logical pattern is the same in each repeat,
but new tension is easily drawn into the familiar channel. It is as if
more and more liquid were big pumped into the same punctured pipeline.
Originality, Emphasis, Economy
I have discussed the logic of humour and its emotive dynamics, and
have tried to indicate how to analyse a joke. But nothing has been
said so far about the criteria which decide whether it is a good, bad,
or indifferent joke. These are, of course, partly a matter of personal
taste, partly dependent on the technique of the humorist; only the second
is our concern.
There are, I shall suggest, three main criteria of comic technique:
originality, emphasis, and economy. In the light of the previous chapters
we shall expect them to play also a significant part in the techniques
of scientific theorizing and artistic creation.
An art dealer (this story is authentic) bought a canvas signed
'Picasso' and travelled all the way to Cannes to discover whether it
was genuine. Picasso was working in his studio. He cast a single look
at the canvas and said: 'It's a fake'.
A few months later the dealer bought another canvas signed
Picasso. Again he travelled to Cannes and again Picasso, after a single
glance, grunted: 'It's a fake.'
'But cher maître,' expostulated the dealer, 'it so happens that I saw
you with my own eyes working on this very picture several years ago.'
Picasso shrugged: 'I often paint fakes.'
One measure of originality is its surprise effect. Picasso's reply --
as the Marquis' in the Chamfort story -- is truly unexpected; with
its perverse logic, it cuts through the narrative like the blade of
the guillotine.
But creative originality is not so often met with either in art or in
humour. One substitute for it is suggestiveness through emphasis . The cheap comedian piles it on; the competent craftsman plays in
a subtle way on our memories and habits of thought. Whenever in the Contes Drolatiques Balzac introduces an abbé or a monk, our
associations race ahead of the narrative in the delectable expectation
of some venal sin to be committed; yet when the point of the story is
reached we still smile, sharing the narrator's mock-indignation and
pretended surprise. In other words, anticipation of the type of joke or
point to come do not entirely destroy the comic effect, provided that
we do not know when and how exactly it will strike home. It is rather
like a game: cover my eyes and I shall pretend to be surprised. Besides,
the laughter provoked by spicy jokes is, as already said, only partly
genuine, partly a cloak to cover publicly less demonstrable emotions --
regardless whether the story in itself is comic or not.
Suggestive techniques are essential; they create suspense and
facilitate the listener's flow of associations along habit-formed
channels. A comic idea of a given logical pattern can be transposed
into any number of different settings; local colour and dialect help
to establish the atmosphere. The most effective stories are regional:
Scottish, Marseillais, Cockney; the mere mention of 'a man from Aberdeen'
establishes the matrix, the desired frame of mind. Thus suggestiveness
depends firstly on the choice of relevant stimuli -- as the
biologist would say. Next, all non-essential elements should be omitted,
even at the price of a certain sketchiness, otherwise attention will
be sidetracked, the tension frittered away: this is the technique of
simplification. In the third place the effect is increased by certain
emphatic gestures, inflections, a stress on dialect and slang: in a word,
by exaggeration. We have met these three related factors: selection,
exaggeration, simplification, in the technique of the caricature (and
of the portrait and blue-print); taken together they provide the means
of highlighting aspects
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