Do you think most humor has an element of truth?

bobcat

bobcat

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Freud believed it to be true, even with sarcasm. His view was that it has elements of truth simply wrapped in a joke. Whenever a person is joking, they are actually disguising thoughts and emotions, either subconsciously or deliberately.

Larry Gelbart, a scriptwriter, stated, “Most good jokes state a bitter truth.” Without some fundamental basis of truth, humor lacks relatability for the audience because humor often reflects our shared experiences and observations. These jokes playfully touch on truths we encounter in everyday life, often through stereotypes and concepts clearly understood by the audience and deeply ingrained in our culture. They get the joke precisely because they grasp these stereotypes and easily call them to mind.

When you endorse a joke, it is assumed that you have some belief in it's truth, which has gotten many political figures in hot water, except in the case of sarcasm where the audience understands that it is the opposite of what you are stating.

I suppose an exception would be something that is not relatable to human experience. For instance: Three fonts walk into a bar, and the bartender says "We don't serve your type in here". It's simply a humorous premise followed by a punch line" Any truth would be a stretch, but perhaps possible.

What think ye?
 

I saw a video of caricature artists who said occasionally they have been attached because the picture told the truth about their character.
 

Not always. I watch a lot of Whose Line is It Anyway? reruns and while some of their improvs have an element of truth, many others, sometimes the funniest ones, are wild exaggerations or impossible scenarios.

But some humor writing has an element of truth. 30 Rock is one of my favorite shows and it had a LOT of truth to it. Mean Girls, likewise, has a lot of high school truth in it.

That's the thing about humour - it can be found everywhere. From the mundane to the outer space. Good example: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) ⭐ 2.7 | Adventure, Comedy, Family

I read a few Sam Shepherd plays recently and that guy is FUNNY, but I don't think every audience member would be able to pick up on the humor in his writing. They might only see the darkness. Two of them I started both began just AWFULLY, horrid people doing terrible things, but also FUNNY, like so bad as to border on absurdism.

And yet, if you have met some terrible people in your life, as I have, there is so much truth in his writing that you sit there thinking, "Yeah, I could see someone really doing that."
 
The Keystone Cops were funny. Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd were funny because they got into impossible situations or were plagued with bad luck. They built a house, it fell down, they hopped on a bus, they fell out of the bus, someone handed them a stolen chicken, they turned and saw a dozen cops charging toward them...and they ran.

We didn't really come to "It's funny because it's true" until the 60s. Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin come to mind. When we went from slapstick to stand-up, and pratfalls gave way to social consciousness.
 
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Ah, well, who is the decider as to if something break another's heart, right? I think empathy in humor, if the empathy can shine through, can help a comedian be successful.

If a sociopath or one with sociopathic tendencies is the decider or joke-maker, then everything is funny, right? There are no rules because he or she feels no guilt whatsoever.

NY Times magazine has an article on sociopathy today. I'm sure there is a paywall, so this is just an FYI: What It’s Like to Be a Sociopath. These personality types scare me a great deal. I do not find them fascinating. But when I read about them, they remind me of my ex-husband. He was, and is, very utilitarian when it comes to people.
 
VintageBetter said:
Ah, well, who is the decider as to if something break another's heart, right? I think empathy in humor, if the empathy can shine through, can help a comedian be successful.

If a sociopath or one with sociopathic tendencies is the decider or joke-maker, then everything is funny, right? There are no rules because he or she feels no guilt whatsoever.

NY Times magazine has an article on sociopathy today. I'm sure there is a paywall, so this is just an FYI: What It’s Like to Be a Sociopath. These personality types scare me a great deal. I do not find them fascinating. But when I read about them, they remind me of my ex-husband. He was, and is, very utilitarian when it comes to people.
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In my mind, anyone can decide to be a joke-maker, but whether it is funny or not is really out of his control. That is decided by the audience.
 
bobcat said:
Three fonts walk into a bar, and the bartender says "We don't serve your type in here". It's simply a humorous premise followed by a punch line" Any truth would be a stretch, but perhaps possible.
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But there is a truth in that punny joke because a synonym for font is type. If the bartender said, "We don't serve chickens here" it wouldn't have been funny because there was no truth in it.
 
This is an interesting topic. I don't know about the truth being a part of a joke. If anything, you expect the truth, and the joke uncovers or reveals something else (punchline). That is where the humor comes in, I think, through the unexpected.
 


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