The European Journal of Humour Research

Vol 2, No 3 (2014)

Understanding obscenity and offensive humour: What’s funny?

Rohit Revi

Abstract

Humourisation of the offensive occupies a position of distinctive prominence in our study of how we experience humour. The offensive is often found to be closely linked with obscene expressions and the mind’s response towards them. This correlation between the obscene and the offensive is explored. “Being offended” is treated as a psychological state that comes into being when a sacrosanct mental territory is threatened by external, unsolicited experiences. The function of obscenity in delivering offence is explained through the subversive ability of the obscene in the context of class conflict, anthropomorphisation of obscene words and images and the strengthening of illocutionary acts. The humorous effect of delivered offence is investigated through superiority theory (laughter as dissidence and disobedience), relief theory, Bergson’s mechanical theory and a theory of trivialisation is further proposed.

References

Asquith, P. J. (1984). ‘The inevitability and utility of anthropomorphism in description of primate behaviour’, in Harrè, R. & Reynolds, V. (eds.), The Meaning of Primate Signals, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 30-61.

Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do Things with Words. (2nd edition). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bergson, H. (1911). Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic. Translated by Brereton, C. & Rothwell, F. New York: Macmillan.

Chafe, W. L. (2007). The Importance of Not Being Earnest: The Feeling behind Laughter and Humor. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Eco, U. (2007). On Ugliness. New York: Rizzoli.

Hayes, R. (1992). ‘Lenny Bruce: Saint, martyr or satirist? 25 years after his death, comic’s early records are being reissued’. Chicago Tribunal, 17 May.

Heider, F. & Simmel, M. (1944). ‘An experimental study of apparent behavior’. The American Journal of Psychology 57, pp. 243-259.

Hitchens, C. (2007). ‘Why women aren’t funny’. Vanity Fair, January, p. 54.

Horowitz, A. C. & Bekoff, M. (2007). ‘Naturalizing anthropomorphism: Behavioral prompts to our humanizing of animals’. Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People & Animals 20 (1), pp. 23-35.

Hurley, M. M., Dennett, D. C. & Adams, R. B. (2011). Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kennedy, J. S. (1992). The New Anthropomorphism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Linder, D. (2007). ‘The trials of Lenny Bruce’. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1029392 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1029392

Lucaites, J. L. (1976). ‘Lenny Bruce: A rhetoric of social criticism’. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern States Speech Association, San Antonio, Texas, 7-9 April. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED120831.pdf

Olson, E. D. (2007). The Horror of Humor: Tension, Dehumanization, and Related Observations. Minnesota: Gustavus Adolphus College Senior thesis.

Ramachandran, V. S. (1998). ‘Consciousness and body image: Lessons from phantom limbs, Capgras syndrome and pain asymbolia’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 353 (1377), pp. 1851-1859.

Searle, J. R. & Vanderveken, D. (1985). Foundations of Illocutionary Logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Seizer, S. (2011). ‘On the uses of obscenity in live stand-up comedy’. Anthropological Quarterly 84 (1), pp. 209-234.