The Lowest Form of Humor

Aug 31, 01:53 PM

The importance of having a sense of humor should never be underestimated. Very often, humor is cast aside as a light subject and isn’t very closely examined by most people. That’s probably because we all believe that we have a pretty good understanding of what humor is. Every individual believes that he or she has a good sense of humor (whether it’s true or not, not unlike believing you’re a safe driver). Being accused of not having a sense of humor is considered by most to be a slight or an outright insult.

But it is a fact that some people have a better sense of humor than others, so it’s quite possible that there can be a disconnect in some people who can’t distinguish what is actually funny or what isn’t. So what does it mean to have a sense of humor? I thought about this for a while and came to the conclusion that having a ‘sense of humor’ is exactly as it is worded. It is a sense. Not unlike sight, hearing or taste. Certain people have a keen awareness of what constitutes good humor and can recognize it immediately and respond appropriately. Others may have a handicapped sense that throws off their perspective or leaves them completely blind to what is funny and what isn’t.

A sense of humor is exhibited in two very basic ways: the ability to recognize external sources of humor and the ability for an individual to generate humor. Most people have a natural propensity for the former. A much smaller number possess the latter. Problems arise when either is somehow diminished and can be further exasperated when a person doesn’t accept or recognize their own ‘disability’.

These disabilities manifest themselves in various ways. Examples include: laughing at the misfortune of others; making jokes that show insensitivity to listeners; missing out on jokes; feeling slighted or insulted by another person’s innocent jabbing; telling a joke that falls flat; taking one’s self way too seriously; building a reputation as a person who thinks they’re funny when they’re not; comedy television shows or movies that do well without having any genuine wit; comedy television shows or movies that do poorly despite having wit because a mass audience isn’t sophisticated enough to perceive nuance; starting wars; and on and on.

Comedy is a commodity in modern twenty-first century life. It comes in many quickly and easily consumable forms: jokes on your cell phone (a modern version of dial-a-joke); viral humor spread through email; Comedy Central and other cable outlets; websites; books; movies; television sitcoms; water cooler jokes. It’s everywhere, just like junk food. Accessible and cheap.

But who comes up with all this stuff? And who actually likes this stuff? Why do some people adore The Simpsons while others find the show completely idiotic? It makes me wonder what constitutes quality humor as opposed to the rest of the stuff that is just terrible. The fact that there is so much of it out there, especially in the broadcast, film and internet media, points to the notion that there are a lot of humor generators out there publishing, writing and filming comedy on a huge scale. And just like manufacturers, there are probably a lot of low-brow jokesmiths just pumping out tons of content believing their material is mind-blowingly hilarious.

Humor is often also referred to as wit, which implies that there is a combination of smarts and creativity involved. Yet, I stubbornly refuse to believe there are that many comedic giants out there creating masterpieces of hilarity. Thus, the subject of this article.

Most people have heard the term, ‘lowest form of humor’ (I ask my fellow Canadians to excuse my use of the American spelling). I’ve heard different interpretations of that moniker. Some say it’s sarcasm. Others say it’s racial humor. Others believe the lowest form is the dirty joke or blue humor. Then there’s satire, parody, slapstick and the ever notorious shock humor. Interestingly, there’s a common thread that unites all of these these seemingly disparate forms together.

They’re easy.

It’s not so much the content, because each can vary one from the other. And sensitivity to certain subject matter can differ between persons, cultures and even time periods (ever hear someone follow a flatly received joke with, “What? Too soon?”). What places humor on a low level is the very simplicity with which it is generated. Whether it’s racist, sexist, dirty, imitative, sarcastic or parodying, low-brow humor comes easy because it really doesn’t require much effort, talent, vision, wit or creativity. Each has a formula that only requires a template into which differing components can easily be plugged in. And the subject need not be controversial at all. In fact, a very funny, witty joke can contain sexual or racial subject matter so long as it’s done with some keen smarts and points out ironies that are not immediately obvious except as it is revealed by a great mind who can verbalize and encapsulate them perfectly for an audience sophisticated enough to ‘get it’.

By the same token, innocuous or uncontroversial subject matter can be made dreadfully unfunny by falling back on uninspired clichés posing as humor. Though parody and satire have existed for centuries in literature and more recently in electronic media, modern technology has enabled people to sample and edit existing material with ease so that anything can be turned into a parody.

When The Blair Witch Project came out in theaters (a highly successful horror movie filmed on a shoestring budget with a camcorder) and made huge box office, people picked up their own home video equipment and started to mock the movie with their own send ups. They of course just imitated well-remembered scenes and switched the dialog around and even changed the title slightly to establish a theme à la Mad Magazine (_Bare Witch Project, Wary Bitch Project,_ etc.). This was done in prolific fashion with movie franchises like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (there are entire sites devoted to SW fan films) and many others. And one can watch these and see that the truly remarkable and genuinely funny examples are extremely rare.

Sarcasm simply requires the speaker to say the exact opposite of what they mean and make it painfully obvious to everyone listening. No need for creativity here. The same with dirty, sexual, racial, sexist or otherwise controversial subject matter. The pure shock value is enough to convince a few people that therein lies a giddy form of humor that celebrates a defiance of puritanical, repressive rules. The problem of course is that boldly proclaiming words that make most people uncomfortable isn’t so much funny as it is gutsy. Mistaking one for the other is a mistake usually made by people whose sense of humor is impaired both by perpetrators as well as audience members who just eat up that stuff. Gasping and laughing are not the same thing, though their autonomic response may seem similar to the unsophisticated listener.

Don’t get me wrong. I am no prude. Subject matter is not a deal breaker for me when deciding whether something is funny or not. Be it sex, religion, race, politics, money, authority. Anything and everything should be open to humor. Humor is a survival mechanism that allows people to cope with situations that otherwise may be unbearable, horrifying or debilitating. The world needs less seriousness and more levity. But humor is impoverished by those who take the easy way out, who cheapen its life-saving, life-enriching powers by reducing it to a set of fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice exercises of mind-numbing mediocrity. Humor should be living, free, creative, inspired observations of the seeming contradictions of the human experience in all its forms, big, small, important or trivial. Truly great humor reveals the ironies of life that we in our limited understanding can only deal with when we approach them with a positive attitude and a joy that rises above any circumstance.

Wow. That took a lot longer than I thought it would (that’s what she said).