An Anatomy of Humor

by Arthur Asa Berger

Humor permeates every aspect of society and has done so for thousands of years. People experience it daily through television, newspapers, literature, and contact with others. Rarely do social researchers analyze humor or try to determine what makes it such a dominating force in our lives. The types of jokes a person enjoys contribute significantly to the definition of that person as well as to the character of a given society. Arthur Asa Berger explores these and other related topics in An Anatomy of Humor. He shows how humor can range from the simple pun to complex plots in Elizabethan plays.
Berger examines a number of topics - ethnicity, race, gender, politics - each with its own comic dimension. Laughter is beneficial to both our physical and mental health, according to Berger. He discerns a multiplicity of ironies that are intrinsic to the analysis of humor. He discovers as much complexity and ambiguity in a cartoon, such as Mickey Mouse, as he finds in an important piece of literature, such as Huckleberry Finn. In each instance, humor allows people to laugh at life, while also making them aware of serious problems. Among the topics that Berger discusses are Jewish jokes, comic strips, Mark Russell's political humor, Shakespeare's comedic techniques, and Nathanael West's satirical literature.
In the final chapter, Berger expresses his belief that there is a strong connection between creativity and humor. He puts forth the notion that every individual has the creative capacity to be a humorist. An Anatomy of Humor is an intriguing and enjoyable "read" for people interested in humor and the impact of popular and mass culture on society. It will also be of interest to professionals in communication and psychologists concerned with the creative process.

Genres: Humor

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Tessa Milou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool. I do think it's cool this exists, as there isn't a lot of in-depth analysis of comedy and humor in relation to writing, with emphasis on: 'in-depth'. That's a shame, as from writing perspective it's useful to understand comedy so as to be able to utilize a particular type of humor consciously.

I also appreciate that A.A. Berger kind of bases its approach of 'The Morphology of the Folktale' from V. Propp. Propps' approach - to look at every element in the Folktale as a 'function' in the dramatic course - is super useful and grabs the purpose of an element by its core, so why not utilize that approach here as well?

In a likewise manner Berger first defines the comical functions, also referred to as 'comical techniques', and categorizes them (i.e. 'wordplay' in category 'language' for example). Then in the following chapters he explains the comical techniques by means of applying them on fragments of famous literary works. I like that, because you can immediately experience what kind of effect a certain type of humor has.

I guess what disappointed me was that, compared to Propp, Berger doesn't dissect all elements of comedy as thoroughly and precisely as Propp does with his folktales. In his 'applications' he sometimes uses one fragment to explain several techniques from different categories. That could work fine, however at some times in his explanation he doesn't 'treat' every technique seperately, so that I'm not sure whether his explanation should apply to all the 3 different techniques or whether he forgot about the other ones. And if first situation were true, why bother separating them into different definitions in the first place? That's kind of confusing and unclear.

Also kind of weird is that in his applications sometimes new comical techniques showed up, that weren't mentioned before in his definitions - and therefore aren't categorized as well.

Those two things combined feel a little messy. Also it makes Berger's book not only not as useful as Propps' Morphology of the Folktale, but moreover not live up to its potential in my opinion.

Anyway, I do still think it's useful to a certain extent. I would also still recommend the read, primarily for anyone who's looking for sources to understand, research or analyze humor in context of creative works. I also hope that this maybe can be a base for an even more in depth analysis of definition and the functions of different kinds of humor in writing.

[Bygone · Rating 3 out of 5]

For what I want to do, it was fine but nothing more. Just an interesting look into the history of humor and some light psychoanalysis on where it might originate from. Nothing spectacular.

[Yu]

The edition I am reading was published in 1993.