Thor and Incongruity


Why do we laugh? What makes comedy so funny? It brings me back to a time where I was watching the Avengers and Thor was acting serious and suddenly laughter erupted from the crowd. But, how can someone be so serious yet others who are watching that person from an outsider’s perspective laugh about it. The answer is simply that a person living in our world right now has been programed to understand that there are certain laws that apply to the physical world. Meaning that because Thor is in no way living like someone normal we laugh because we cannot understand it. This is a facet of incongruency which means, “two or more real objects are thought through one concept, and the identity of the concept is transferred to the objects; it then becomes strikingly apparent from the entire difference of the objects in other respects, that the concept was only applicable to them from a one-sided point of view.” Thor’s point of view could only be understood from his perspective and so the people who were watching the movie laughed because they could not understand it. For example, what if you were running down the road and something unexpected and out of the ordinary that you could not understand happened. You would probably put into a state of shock, not understanding in any way how to react to that situation. In comedy, while you are watching a movie, tv show, or reading a book, you can instantly put someone into that situation and make it appear funny because they cannot understand it. In essence, I believe that incongruity can make a person laugh by putting them into circumstances where they cannot understand what is going on.

Comments

  1. Shane HerronSeptember 7, 2018 at 10:25 AM

    Almost all superhero or sci fi movies have this gag. For example, in Star Trek 4, which isn't funny on the whole, the comic relief always comes from these brilliant people from the future seemingly suddenly stupid and confused by our cultural norms. This kind of humor is a good argument for superiority theory I think.

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