Gruner’s Discussion Of Humor, Aggressiveness And Subjects’ Responses To Rating Humor

Gruner’s position on humor and its application in the various spheres of life is built on a critical analysis of facts and events that surround its use in the respective contexts. In trying to understand the usage of humor under the various scenarios stipulated in different scenarios, it is perhaps worth to explain what humor is. According to Gruner (11), adopting the explanation of humor from Sigmund Freud could represent humor as a form of wit. The author adopts descriptions such as tendency wit which is usually directed at a party as well as harmless wit targeted at no particular party or thing. In both scenarios, laughter is evoked which qualifies the wit to be humor. Humor is therefore a funny feeling arousing comment which is made to generate laughter rather than disillusionment which follows in many cases. In certain cases, humor does not achieve its purpose in a generalized manner. Offensive effects of humor are felt in some sections of the audience. Humor made is not equally effective since some cases of humor are exceptionally aggressive in making laughter while others are gentle and subtle. Since humor faces different audiences, it is prone to judgment and rating where the offended lot rates it lowest. In this discourse, various aspects of humor are discussed in an attempt to understand its application in the society.

Gruner (22) explains that theory applies in the study of humor just as any empirical study would. One of the most appropriate theories that the author uses is superiority theory which links humor to aggression. By attaching the aggression tag to the art of humor, Gruner introduces juxtaposition regarding the impact of humor to various groups. While one group bears the blunt of the humor, the other seems to enjoy in laughter. If aggression can be found in a laughter causing context, it follows that some form of rating for the humorous devise takes place effectively diving the audience into two groups, one happy one and a disillusioned one. On the same weight, humor elicits feelings of rating among the audience where some sections feel sexually infuriated due to sexual content in the humor. Indecency is usually a common area where sexual attachment dubs the humorous comment sexually offensive.

Humor on commercial advertisement equally faces a controversial ground with all manner of reactions. While some commercials auger well with a little infiltration of humor, a well designed commercial with little diversion from offensive attachments achieves its intention better than one without. Gruner (30) reckons that there are some channels that present clearly well audience targeted commercials to effectively cover the specific market without many issues (Attardo, 5). Devoting an entire channel for instance would increase chances of a commercial reaching it targeted market. Inclusion of humor that takes into consideration the interest of the particular group of audience watching the specific channel reduces chances of offensive results.

Sexual humor incorporates sexual themes in the platform across which the humor is being communicated. Being a field with a huge following, such humor usually reaches its intended audience as an important ingredient (Gruner 127). The author points at the entertaining nature of the sexual theme inside the sexual humor. Sexual humor is however likely to cause problems with moralists who find the themes rather inappropriate in a moral society. Entertainment platforms continue to exploit the strength possessed by sexual humor than most other forms of humor to play their roles. Apparently, the complementation of sexual humor by aggression drives the intended message faster home than through many other combinations. Use of sex humor in adult materials is usually equally deemed successful in capturing the attention of the audience. The use of humor as a game perhaps enables the humor artists to skillfully introduce topics of any nature to a communication platform and increase it intended use. Most entertainment channels use humor well but commercials are economically turning things around in the world of advertising.

Difference in aggressiveness of responses made by the audience and parties to a humorous comment seems to a fact. Involvement of humor in rather criminal offenses seems to lower the perception that the parties to a crime have on that particular crime (Gruner 11). This differential rating perception usually results from the concept of a perceived differential feeling from the audience that is divided into various perception groups. Neutral parties neither find the humorous too humorous nor do they find it offensive. While others find some humor sexually offensive, still others find it subtly involved and rather inconsequential. In gender sensitive cases, some find humorous instances as either favorable or neutral while a section also finds it aggressive. Humor is like a game.

Works Cited

Gruner, Charles R. The game of humor: a comprehensive theory of why we laugh. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2000. Print

Attardo, Salvatore. Linguistics theories of humor. Berlin, Germany: Walter De Gruyter, 1994. Print

Attardo, Salvatore. Humorous texts: a semantic and pragmatic analysis. Berlin, Germany: Walter De Gruyter, 1994. Print

Chapman, Antony J. & Foot, Hugh C. Humor and Laughter: theory, research and applications. New York, NY: Wiley and Sons, 1976. Print