Comic Relief Take Aways

First off, some good old honors college humor, because to ease the stresses of reading Morreall, everybody needs a good hearty laugh.

Now sadly, the serious stuff. Overall, I despised Comic Relief and had to fight through every page. However, Morreall did manage to present a few valid points.

1. The biggest take away that I got out of reading Comic Relief is that humor is good for your health. For years, people have told me that I don’t take life seriously and that life isn't one big joke and my rebuttal would be “well at least I won’t have ulcers when I’m older.” As it turns out, I just might have been right. From now on, I will be sure to use Morreall to validate my ever present sense of humor. After all, “the playful, imaginative attitude fostered by comedy not only feels better, but makes us healthier psychologically and physically.”  Laughter causes a reduction in “stress chemicals…muscle tension, blood pressure, and heart rate.” So, instead of taking a variety of pills to combat heart issues, just take a few minutes to joke around with friends or peruse funny pictures on the internet. After all, it’s good for your health!
2. The second take away that I got from Morreall is the concept of joke versus wit (this is one of the very few arguments that I agree with him 100% on). How many times have you heard an entire room get silent to listen to a joke and then, once the joke teller finishes, everyone looks at each other for a second and the room is overcome with awkward silence? On the other hand, how many times have you been out to dinner with friends where everyone is having a great conversation and then one of the friends responds to a question with an answer full of sarcasm or irony and the entire table bursts into laughter? This is the number one reason why I agree with Morreall on the issue of joke versus wit. “Joke telling interrupts a conversation” while wit enhances it. Instead of having to halt the conversation to listen to a joke that 95% of the time isn't funny, wit fits right in with the conversation and often enhances it.
3. The third take away that I got from Comic Relief, and probably the most pertinent to the class, is the idea of the cognitive shift. “A cognitive shift involves a set-up and a punch…which is what causes our thoughts and attitudes to change quickly.” I feel like a large majority of humor, whether it’s skits, jokes, movies, or online videos, utilizes the cognitive shift. When I think of humor, the first thing that comes to mind is stand-up comedians and they use this approach all the time. They always tell stories that they lead you to believe are going to end one way, and then at the very last second they hit you with an ending that you would have never expected. Sometimes, even if the outcome isn’t funny, you laugh purely because the outcome was so unexpected. Comedians and comic writers are true masters of the cognitive shift. I believe that the cognitive shift, the element of surprise, will be very helpful in providing insight as to what truly makes people laugh.

Even though I didn’t enjoy Morreall and felt like ever page was an absolute beating, there are clearly a few aspects that have some value and will be frequently applied to our exploration of what makes people laugh.