The Humor of Caddyshack

Caddyshack, the slapstick comedy revolving around a golf course and the rivalry between the owner, Judge Smails, and the eccentric guest, Al, played by Rodney Dangerfield, merges perfect two of  the three theories of humor presented by Critchley. The two theories merged are those of the ancient theory of superiority humor, and that of the incongruity theory.

            The first theory, that of the superiority theory, proposed by philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Hobbes, states that we find humor in our feelings of superiority over other people. We find humor in the “suddaine Glory arising from suddaine Conception of some Eminency in our selves, by Comparison with the Infirmityes of others, or with our owne formerly.” In Caddyshack, this is achieved in a number of ways. First, through Rodney Dangerfield’s character. In his character, we can reflect not only on how civil we are and his antics make us feel like we are better than him, but also through a more unique way. When Al interacts with the owner of Bushwood, his antics, though goofy and seemingly inferior to the self-absorbed “superior” judge, the difference between the two make us reflect upon our own character and see how we are superior to both, even though we relate more with Al. Through the character of Al, we get the feeling of superiority, and within his interactions and challenges of Bushwood’s owner, we get this feeling even more and the humor within it.
            The second theory of humor utilized in Caddyshack is the incongruity theory. As Lowell wrote on this idea, “Humor in its first analysis is a perception of the incongruous.” That is, to say, when an experience of felt incongruity between what we know or expect to be the case, and the actual outcome of the joke. In Caddyshack, this is the main operator of humor, whether it be Al’s antics or that of the battle between the gopher and the groundskeeper, or arguable the movie’s most famous scene, where one of the characters drops a BabyRuth candy bar in the pool. Everyone in the pool thinks it is not candy, but a piece of human excrement, and panic, and pandemonium breaks out. After this, the groundskeeper is cleaning the pool in a hazmat suit, and when he picks up the bar, sniffs it, and realizes it is a candy bar, takes a bite out of it. While this does not necessary cause the incongruity in the viewer, a club member is watching him do this, and thinking it is a piece of excrement, passes out when she sees him take a bite. It is this incongruity, between the club member’s expectations and reality, that causes the humor. Another example of this type of humor in Caddyshack is the final attempt of the groundskeeper (Bill Murray), to rid the golfcourse of the gopher that has been plaguing it. He rigs the gopher’s holes he has dug with dynamite, and ignites it. When he ignites it, the movie is at a pivotal moment in the golf match between the Bushwood owner and Dangerfield’s character, and the putt is on the edge of going in, and the explosions, while ruining the golf course, also cause the ball to fall in to the dismay of the owner. It is also this twist of unexpected outcomes that cause humor.

            Caddyshack, in it’s entirety, utilizes the superiority idea of humor, whether it be between the owner of Bushwood and his new troublesome member, or the caddies themselves, and the interactions they go through with the club members. The question I have, then, is whether or Caddyshack also uses the “relief theory” of humor. While it is true that it does cause laughter, is this laughter the release of pent-up nervous energy? From the very beginning, Caddyshack is not a stressful or nerve-racking film, so does it cause the necessary nervous energy or situation needed for the laughing to be a release of this type of energy, or does the nature of the film itself prevent this from happening?