Humour

Humour

There are endless definitions of humour, but there is one thing in common: humour is based on something unusual, whether it is behavior, size, shape, time, or place. In language humour is achieved through unpredictability, a contrast between what we expect and what we get.

There are a lot of stylistic devices through which humour is achieved: a metaphor, parody, irony, pun, zeugma, synecdoche, hyperbole, grotesque, etc.

In Scotland I often heard the following greeting of friends: “Underworked and overpaid?” This is a parody on an set expression.

Another device is paradox. G.K.Chesterton was called a prince of paradox. He employed paradox, while making serious comments on the world, and many other topics. When The Times invited several eminent authors to write essays on the theme "What's Wrong with the World?" Chesterton's contribution took the form of a letter:

Dear Sirs,

I am.

Sincerely yours,

G. K. Chesterton[11]

Here is an example of wordplay based on the same pronunciation of two different words. I remember posters all over Ipswich warning the drink drivers: “Caught on Friday? Court on Monday.” By the way, it wouldn’t sound funny in America due to a different pronunciation of the word “court”.

Another example of word play is based on the literal understanding of an English set expression by a foreigner. A French gentleman comes to visit his friend in England. He is informed by a butler, that “Mr Smith isn’t up yet”. Two hours later the French learns that “Mr. Smith isn’t down yet”. “If he isn’t up, and he isn’t down – where is he?”

An angry customer of a cheap hotel composes another pun. While he is eating some unappetizing soup, the waiter makes a polite observation: “It looks like rain”. “And it tastes like rain, too”, says the dissatisfied customer. The latter comment refers to the soup.

Another form of humour is a wit. Glaswegian taxi drivers are famous for their wit, and I’ll cite one of them as an example. A visitor to Glasgow hires a taxi. While waiting at the traffic lights, he sees a long queue on the pavement. He asks the taxi driver for an explanation. The driver shouts out of the window:

• What are you queuing for?

No answer.

He asks again. No answer.

• Must be for hearing aids, he says to the passenger.

Irony is rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. I once had a few visitors in Glasgow, most of whom were Scottish. One of the guests asked me how he could dispose of a tea bag, and his friend said, “A true Scot will put it in the pocket and take home to use it again.”

An example of Irish humour: a driver sees a herd of pigs on the road. He asks the swineherd how far he is going to drive them. It turns out, for twenty miles.

• But look, says the upset driver, wouldn’t it be much faster to load the pigs into a lorry and take them to the required destination.

• Of course it would be much easier, says the swineherd. But if you think of it: what’s time to pigs?

A humorous situation arises when the figurative meaning is taken literally, for example by children. In Russian there is an idiom: to depend on someone without doing anything in return is called “sitting on somebody’s neck”. A little girl came to see her aunt. After carefully observing her aunt and uncle, she exclaimed: “Why do they say that Uncle Peter sits on Aunt Ann’s neck? He’s been sitting on a chair all the time!” There is whole cartoon based on this literal understanding of things by children. A little girl listens to her mum talking on the phone, and imagines most extraordinary things.

O’Henry’s short stories are well known for their wit and word play , and I decided to analyse one of them, “The Man Higher Up”.

His profession is no new one. He is an incorporated, uncapitalized, unlimited asylum for the reception of the restless and unwise dollars of his fellow-men.

The author uses a metaphor to describe a thief. Another feature makes this description even funnier: the incongruity of style and the thing described. Here is another example of metaphor. “About three months ago it was my privilege to become familiar with a sample of each of the aforesaid branches of illegitimate art.” The solemn words sound particularly funny in the lips of a common swindler. This is the main stylistic device used throughout the story.

Here is an example of paradox. The word paradox is often used interchangeably with contradiction. “There are two kinds of grafts, said Jeff, “that ought to be wiped out by law. I mean Wall Street speculation, and burglary.”” Nearly everyone will agree with you as to one of them”, said I, with a laugh. “Well, burglary ought to be wiped out, too”, said Jeff.

A house-breakers’ union

One of the John D. Napoleons of finance

And another paradox: It seems I had already assaulted and disfigured Peavine the spring of the year before. I had sold 600 dollars’ worth of young fruit trees: plums, pears, peaches and pears. Fruit trees normally make a town beautiful, and not disfigure it.

Here is an example of zeugma. Zeugma is a figure of speech describing the joining of two or more parts of a sentence with a single common verb or noun.: The Peaviners took me by surprise and Bill by the bridle. [ai]

“ and begins to spit soft coal and interjections.”

In zeugma, one verb is understood literally with one of the objects, and figuratively with the other. One spits coal literally, but spits interjections literally. In fact, he pronounces interjections. A few more examples of zeugma: He lost his hat and his temper. He took his coat and his leave. Zeugma was called “the delight of the ear” by an English poet.

There is another humorous situation which I find hard to define. I think it is kind of paradox, but anyway, the humour arises as a result of contrast: “Fall off?” says I.

“Nunk”, says he. “Got off. Arrived at my destination. What town is this?”

And again, the incongruity of the elevated style and common things: “My name’s Bill Basset,” says he, “and if you’ll call it professional pride instead of conceit, I’ll inform you that you have the pleasure of meeting the best burglar that ever set a gum-shoe on ground drained by the Mississippi River.”

“I hardly know how to begin, sir, in explaining our business with you, but I guess we’ll try your pockets first.”

“Brother, says he, greetings! Accept the apologies of friends. I am Bill Bassett, the burglar. Mr. Peters, you must make the acquaintance of Mr. Alfred E. Ricks… This is the first time I ever attended a full gathering of the National Synod of Sharks – housebreaking, swindling, and financiering, all represented. Please examine Mr. Rick’s credentials, Mr. Peters.”

There are a few examples of puns in this story. A pun is a form of word play that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect. “I first make an impression on the girl, and when she lets me inside I make an impression on the locks.”

“Rick defied the allegation, but he could not deny the alligators.”

Another stylistic device we come across in the story is synecdoche. Synecdoche is substitution of a part for whole or vice versa or generalization of trade names. Here are a few famous examples of synecdoche. We say Big Ben to refer to the Clock Tower at the Palace of Westminster, The White House is commonly used to represent the executive branch of the federal government of the United States, The price of the meal is set at twenty pounds per head, I’ve just hoovered the carpet (instead of vacuum cleaned). “Finance has closed the mahogany desk, and trade has put the shutters up. Both of you look for labour to start the wheel going.” By finance Bill Basset means Alfred E. Ricks, a king of fraud, by trade a common swindler, and by labour he means himself, a burglar.

“Good night, Mr. Peters.” “My regards to Morpheus”. Morpheus is the principle god of dreams in Greek mythology.

Wit, paradox: “This is an early rising town. They tell me the citizens are all up and stirring before daylight. I asked what for, and they said because breakfast was ready at that time.”

So, all these examples prove the point that any form of humour in language is based on contrast and unpredictability. When our expectations are challenged, humour arises.