What’s So Funny?
were. Humor must be able to be defined because we can undeniably distinguish our
experience of it.
Now, I anticipate critics to cite my addition of the receptivity condition and
claim it to contradict what I have just stated in the attempt to prove that even my
theory necessitates humor to be an open concept. They may find it problematic to
call receptivity an objective condition for humor because the nature of receptivity
itself seems to be subjective. A person’s receptivity can change from moment to
moment, not to mention from person to person or even culture to culture. If one can
find something humorous simply by choosing to perceive it as such, then does that
not rid the object of humor itself entirely from playing a part in the perception?
With a will to perceive something as humor, can anything then be called funny?
Firstly, it is possible for receptivity to be subjective and still exist as an
objective requirement for the experience of humor. Certainly, receptivity is
dependent upon one’s mental state, as I have described with the elements of taste,
mood, and attention level. Because humor is an experience — the result of a
perception — the merit of the object of humor must, at least in part, rely on the
perceiver. It is still possible to claim, though, that receptivity can be subjective in
form but not in definition —that is, one’s mental state, however va riable it may be,
must be able to recognize and accept a situation as a benign violation. This aligns
with the previous conditions for humor as well. For example, expectations are
certainly subjective in that they vary between persons according to individual
mental states; however, in whatever capacity they exist, they must actually be
violated. The mistake the counterargument makes is that it focuses much too
heavily on the variance in objects of humor and overlooks the conditions for the
occurrence of humor. Secondly and to directly answer the question, no, one cannot
automatically find anything humorous just by choosing to perceive it as such. The
three original conditions of BV theory, ones that do not depend upon the conscious
choice of the perceiver, must still be met. What the perceiver can do, though, is
choose to accept a benign violation should one occur. A receptive state alone does
not result in a perception of humor; it merely opens the opportunity for one.
Volume VI (2023)
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