Friday, August 05, 2005

Conference on laughter


Seriously. See this story in the Economist [link via Tyler Cowen]. You really have to love the reporter for writing this:

[the incongruity theory] says that all written jokes and many other humorous situations are based on an incongruity—something that is not quite right. In many jokes, the teller sets up the story with this incongruity present and the punch line then resolves it, in a way people do not expect. Alternatively, the very last words of the story may introduce the absurdity and leave the listeners with the task of reconciling it. For instance, many people find it funny that a conference on humour could take place in Germany.

;-)

1 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    That's a damn funny post post..I've read in a long time :) thank you!