Humor at 20,000 Feet

Humor, as the reading points out, may be the most elusive forms of the human psyche to study and analyze. Growing up, my dad had a habit of saying “Humor is like a frog – once you dissect it, it's already dead.” The statement holds weight – as soon as one looks directly at humor, puts it under the microscope, it almost always disappears. How, then, can we study humor in an academic way? Movies may provide our best options.

Movies, and other pieces of humor-related art, capture humor in a way that can be experienced over and over. While some might find a joke or funny scene less comical after viewing it many times, the original source of mirth is still perfectly preserved, making movies an ideal place to study humor without the risk of it slipping away or altering itself while it is observed.

One of the most classic humor movies, Airplane, is a prime example of humor captured. The movie's humor is based on the absurd, the unexpected, and the classic disconnect between one character and another. Puns feature strongly in the movie, and at every turn creative use of juxtaposition creates a humor in scene that might otherwise seem normal.

One of the movie's most famous lines is as follows: A crewmember says to the pilot, “Surely you can't be serious.” The pilot replies, “Of course I'm serious – and don't call my Shirley.” The viewer begins the scene from the perspective of the crewmember, hearing the word “Surely” and seeing it spelled that way in their mind. However, the pilot's obvious misunderstanding of the homophone suddenly turns the perspective of the situation, and the humor lies in how the pilot has focused on an a seemingly irrelevant part of the sentence rather than the matter at hand. The pilot's comment also diffuses the serious tone of the situation. As the reading discusses, humor is considered by some philosophers (Freud included) to be nothing more than the pent-up release of emotion, an expression of relief. Indeed, humor can often ease tensions in certain situations.

Airplane also creates humor through juxtaposition, and does so quite well. Kareem Abdul Jabaar has a role in the movie, but many times it's difficult to tell if his role is a cameo or whether he's playing a character. Perhaps most humorously, many of the characters don't seem to recognize him as a professional basketball player (despite him being an obvious misfit). This suspension of disbelief from the the viewer's point of view is a source of humor commonly found in all types of comedy.

The movie also creates humor through use of reaffirming or toying with societal stereotypes, an entire genre of humor according to the reading. At many points gender roles are made fun of, and the tongue-in-cheek scenes involving over-sexualized characters are often the source of the movie's genius. However, the movie does a particularly good job of presenting these situations and types of jokes in an ironic fashion, and the humor is derived from acknowledging that such imbalanced discourses exist within our society. That said, only some small changes would be necessary for the humor to be based on reaffirming stereotypes (both ethnic and gender-related) in order to maintain the power discourse in our society as opposed to pointing out it's flaws. Humor in this sense is based on power, the reading notes, and many people have found it effective in preying on other's weaknesses or by using it as a tool to leverage themselves higher in the society that they happen to exist in.

Airplane also focuses on slapstick humor, or humor based on physical events. Slapstick humor has been a popular form of humor for centuries, and is often based on watching others in pain. However, slapstick humor can only work if the pain is moderate to light, otherwise the viewer begins to feel uncomfortable. However, the humor doesn't have to be solely based on pain to be considered slapstick. In airplane, one the most memorable scene results when the two main character are shown kissing romantically in the waves. During this seemingly perfect scene, instead of the waves lapping gently over them, a giant wave full of seaweed drenches them and ruins the moment. Not only does this occurrence add to the humor in the scene, but the scene also plays off of making a slight alteration to a commonly known scene. Because the beach make-out has been used in other movies in a serious sense, by parodying this situation through a slightly different outcome the scene becomes far funnier than if hadn't already been a known cultural icon. Often times, as the reading suggests, humor is found in taking an event or phrase usually presented in a serious fashion and changing it slightly to make it seem ridiculous and therefore play off of it's initial serious. The humor in the above scene, for instance, wouldn't work if the scene hadn't began as one that was intensely romantic and seemingly far from the realm of humor.