Humour is weirdly variable in both people and cultures. I recall a fellow teacher observing this after he spent a year as an exchange teacher in Switzerland.
I've never spent time in another culture, but I do observe a significant variation between people.
The other night on fb an ac acquaintance posted this, and it absolutely cracked me up.
Sue tends to laugh at visual humour: slapstick, for example. Somebody falling down or hitting their head tends to crack her up.
I seem to be tickled by juxtaposition, for want of a better descriptor. I think that's where word humour comes into play: when you might expect one word, but a different one is used. There is cleverness involved in word humour: a surprise because what you experience is not what you expect.
I find a juxtaposition in the owl photo. I don't expect an owl to remind him of his mother, for it makes it seem like his mother was an owl. I do know what he meant, but his clumsy wording (there we go again with the word play theme) invokes a very different idea, There is a twist: a juxtaposition between mother and owl. It is hard to explain, for it either tickles you funny bone or not.
So, what tickles your funny bone?
This picture did nothing for me on the humor front. However it really is a gorgeous shot.
ReplyDeletePuns. Oh my gosh, how I love a good pun.
I don’t see the humour with that photo and caption but it is a beauty. My husband has to explain jokes to me so I am not a good one to judge the funnies.
ReplyDeleteWord play, always. Visual humour, sometimes. Slapstick, no. Your puns - should be punishable by jail time on bread and water. (;-D)
ReplyDeleteNot to long ago, somebody on Facebook Marketplace near where my brother lives was selling a "John Dear" lawnmower. That tickled my funny bone.
ReplyDeleteIt's a beautiful photograph but I can't quite see the humour.
ReplyDeleteHmmm if there is any humor of comparison to be seen in that photo, it has escaped me as well, so you may need a follow-up post. I am easily amused by so many things as you may well know from my Friday Funnies posts of things seem by many others but passed by.
ReplyDeleteI love the owl photo but don't get the humor. I do enjoy a sarcastic quip, a misspelling that is inadvertently funny or a meme that uses word play. I don't always understand them though.
ReplyDeleteI really like that photo but fail to see the humor. I really don't like slapstick humor but really enjoy wordplay.
ReplyDeleteDidn't get the owl joke either.
ReplyDeleteHere's a story that tickled me and my husband. My brother in law is in hospital. My two other brothers in law (Dennis and Darren) went to visit. In telling his wife about the visit Dennis said "I was the only jack ass there." Debbie responded "Didn't Darren go too?" (Debbie walked back her comment claiming she wasn't referring to Darren as a jack ass too.). But it sure sounded like a Gracie Allen quip to the rest of us.
It's a beautiful photo.
ReplyDeleteI find it mildly funny. The all hovering mother....powerful and ready to whatever.....but that's all I can come up with. Ha.
ReplyDeleteJust made me wonder why...but I automatically jumped to maybe his mom collected owl do-dads and paraphernalia like my aunt did. I just am enthralled by the owl photo.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see it as humour, but more as sad and longing. But it's a fabulous owl.
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