The Basic Humor Process

A Cognitive-Shift Theory and the Case against Incongruity

Robert L. Latta

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9783110161038
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110806137
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

No detailed description available for "The Basic Humor Process".

Table of contents

• Preface
• PART 1. Preliminaries
• Chapter 1. The mystery of humor and sundry further matters
• 1. The mystery of humor
• 2. The anti-essentialist approach
• 3. Humor processes and the basic humor process
• 4. The expressions “a particular experience of humor,” “an episode of humor,” “the experience of humor,” and “humor”
• 5. Stimulus side and response side
• 6. Stimulus-side bias
• 7. The terms “laughter” and “amusement”
• 8. The subjective character of humor
• 9. The problem of consciousness
• Chapter 2. The fundamental question of humor theory
• 1. A question which must wait: that of the descriptive definition of humor
• 2. Peripheral cases
• 3. Further questions which must wait
• 4. Questions which will remain after the basic humor process has been identified
• PART 2. Theory L and reason to conclude it is true
• Chapter 3. Theory L
• 1. The initial stage of the basic humor process
• 2. The mid-process transition
• 3. The final stage
• 4. Theory L in sum
• 5. Classification of the theory
• 6. Major implications
• 7. The major positive thesis of this treatise
• Chapter 4. The laughter of humor, relaxation, and pleasure
• 1. Laughter and relaxation
• 2. Laughter and the expression of “relief”
• 3. Unrelaxation of the levels which must be posited: where it might be supposed to originate
• 4. Laughter and the expression of pleasure
• Chapter 5. The inapplicability of standard criticisms of “relief” theories
• 1. The straight-man level, the insider level, and the quasi straight-man level
• 2. Morreall on “relief” theories
• Chapter 6. The explanatory power of theory L
• 1. Analyses of examples
• 2. Theory L and the global phenomenon of humor
• 3. The unity and variety of the phenomenon of humor
• 4. Theory L and evolution
• PART 3. Incongruity theory and reason to conclude it is unsound
• Chapter 7. Incongruity theory and the concept of incongruity
• 1. The basic incongruity thesis, the ultimate incongruity thesis, and the major negative thesis of this treatise
• 2. Theory L and incongruity theory
• 3. The dictionary definition of incongruity
• 4. McGhee’s definition in terms of ridiculousness
• 5. Extended definitions
• 6. Restricted definitions
• 7. Total redefinitions
• 8. McGhee’s formal definition
• 9. The definition to be used here
• Chapter 8. First probe of incongruity theory: two complementary arguments
• 1. The incongruities that appear in examples of humor: irrelevant or inessential almost without exception
• 2. The view from the subject’s point of view and the fallacy of mistaken point of view
• Chapter 9. Second probe of incongruity theory: its collapse into cognitive-shift theory
• 1. Elementary incongruity theory
• 2. Morreall’s defense of elementary incongruity theory
• 3. The fantasy element in humor and “funny incongruity”
• 4. The phenomenon of the delicious image
• 5. Incongruity-and-resolution theory
• 6. The collapse of elementary incongruity theory
• 7. The collapse of incongruity-and-resolution theory
• 8. An argument against the strong version of incongruity-and- resolution theory
• Chapter 10. Third probe of incongruity theory: its lack of explanatory power
• 1. The term/relation fallacy
• 2. Analysis of the easy-and-breezy school
• 3. Attempts by incongruists to analyze examples
• 4. Ziv on “local logic”
• 5. Incongruity theory and the global phenomenon of humor
• Chapter 11. Fourth probe of incongruity theory: sundry arguments and points
• 1. The question of order of attention in processing a humor stimulus
• 2. Devices which draw attention from incongruities
• 3. Counterexamples to incongruity theory
• 4. Incongruity theory and evolution
• 5. The precise locus of the mystery of humor
• 6. The appeal of incongruity theory
• 7. Psychological experiments in incongruity theory
• PART 4. Further development
• Chapter 12. Kant and Koestler on humor
• 1. Kant
• 2. Koestler
• Chapter 13. The ultimate incongruity thesis and concluding reflections
• 1. The failure of the ultimate incongruity thesis
• 2. The current state of research into the basic humor process
• Summary of the case for theory L
• References
• Permissions
• Index