John Morreall

This unfinished book manuscript develops an argument for a critical theory of humor and is based on revised lectures used in teaching Philosophy of Humor for many years. It argues for a pragmatic and anarchist theory of humor and liberated culture, and against the new puritanism and cancel culture ethics that are impacting the practice of stand up comedy today.

This chapter outlines some of the most influential comic theories and theorists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  It considers what aspects of the comic different theories emphasize and what aspects they put to one side.  It starts with the festive and re-creative theories of Barber and Frye and considers their relation to the Cambridge ritualists.  It then moves to the populist theories of the comic epitomised by Bakhtin, moving from the carnivalesque to the idealizing of the comic hero by Charney, Gurewitch, Torrance and Gates.  The chapter then considers politically inflected comic theory in the form of Marxist critiques of mass culture and feminist rethinking of comic forms. It then moves onto philosophical investigations of the comic, all of them at odds with the Aristotelian tradition: Langer, Morreall, Nikulin.  To finish, the chapter considers the influence of psychoanalysis on comic theory (Zupančič), as well as reflecting on those theorists who deployed the comic in their own writing style.

In this class, we will apply the three classical theories of humor (the Superiority Theory, the Incongruity Theory, and the Relief Theory) to contemporary comedy, with a focus on stand-up, improvisation, and sketch comedy. We will take a philosophical look at comedy by considering cultural (race, gender, etc.), political (satire, parody, etc.), and ethical implications (when jokes hurt, etc.), as well as discussing the nature of knowledge, belief, and perspective as it relates to comedy. We will watch clips of various figures in class in order to facilitate this discussion. Comedic figures and organizations of study will include, but are not limited to, Louis CK, Tina Fey, Dave Chappelle, Steve Martin, Saturday Night Live, The Second City, The Daily Show, The Nightly Show, and The Colbert Report. If available, we will also have a local comedian serve as a guest speaker.