Friday, October 10, 2008

Aah, Aha, Haha ...

... The Origins of Humour. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)

According to what I remember, Koestler said that humour was a clash of ideas. There had to be an underlying logic, but then this was taken to an inappropriate extreme.

A good example of this, I think, is the sermon-on-the-mount scene in The Life of Brian. It is logical to posit that the crowd listening to Jesus would be large enough that those on the fringes would have difficulty hearing what he was saying. Take it a step further and you have what they mis-hear, such as "Blessed are the Cheesemakers."

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