What’s So Funny?
suppressed feelings of superiority. 11 From these examples, one can rule out
superiority as a necessary condition for humor.
In addition to being unnecessary, feelings of superiority are not a sufficient
condition for humor, either. Every time we do feel superior, we do not experience
humor. When we engage in activities that help us understand our superior abilities,
such as receiving the highest test grade in the class, studying the life of an insect, or
even lending our skills and talents to someone who does not possess them, we do not
usually find such activities funny. Countless examples — most, actually — refute the
idea of superiority as the basis for humor. However, it is worthwhile to note that
neither Hobbes nor any of his like-minded counterparts stated that they believed
the theory to be definitive; that is, to provide such necessary and sufficient
conditions. Lintott arg ues that criticizing Hobbes’ in this way is a crucial
misreading of his work; that instead, Hobbes is offering a description of humor as it
relates to circumstances and may explain some components of human nature. 12
Considering this factor does not alleviate any illegitimacy from the commonly
understood notion of the Superiority Theory as a definition for humor, but it may
make Hobbes’ specific claims less deficient.
BV Theory is a much more descriptive theory for humor than the Superiority
Theory. Upon thin king through examples of “funny” situations, one can see that BV
Theory seems to support nearly all of them, whereas the Superiority Theory only
applies to a select few. When considering the same examples previously discussed,
one can concede that a pun would seem to be a benign violation of language norms,
a funny-sounding ketchup bottle to be a benign violation of farting norms, a roast to
be a benign violation of social norms, and a bowling ball in the refrigerator to be a
benign violation of refrigerator norms. Though some of these categories of norms do
sound rather humorous, this may be because they are a benign violation of normal-
11 Aaron Smuts, “Humor," Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , accessed March 28, 2023, https://iep.utm.edu/humor/. 12 Sheila Lintott, “Superiority in Humor Theory,” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 74, no. 4 (October 25, 2016): 348, https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12321.
Volume VI (2023)
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