John Morreall

• College of William & Mary

Tragedy has traditionally been ranked higher than comedy, and critics often valorize the ‘tragic vision of life’. Using twenty contrasts between tragedy and comedy, I argue that there is a ‘comic vision of life’ which is superior to the tragic vision, especially in the post-heroic era in which we live.

This article begins by examining the bad reputation humor traditionally had in philosophy and education. Two of the main charges against humor—that it is hostile and irresponsible—are linked to the Superiority Theory. That theory is critiqued and two other theories of laughter are presented—the Relief Theory and the Incongruity Theory. In the Relie...

In the face of some people's naive enthusiasm about the benefits of humor, Victor Raskin (Is humor always good for you?, Oklahoma, 1997) has explored the question “Is humor always good for you?” Rod Martin (Psychological Bulletin 12: 504–519, 2001) has shown how some kinds of humor foster unhealthy attitudes. Avner Ziv (Humor research in education:...

Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor develops an inclusive theory that integrates psychological, aesthetic, and ethical issues relating to humor Offers an enlightening and accessible foray into the serious business of humor Reveals how standard theories of humor fail to explain its true nature and actually support traditional prejudice...

What Was First Funny?The Basic Pattern in Humor: The Playful Enjoyment of a Cognitive Shift Is Expressed in LaughterThe Worth of Mirth

Was Socrates the First Stand-up Comedian?Humor and the ExistentialistsThe Laughing Buddha

Humnor, Anarchy, and AggressionThe Superiority Theory: Humor as Anti-socialThe Incongruity Theory: Humor as IrrationalThe Relief Theory: Humor as a Pressure ValveThe Minority Opinion of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas: Humor as Playful RelaxationThe Relaxation Theory of Robert Latta

Intellectual Virtues Fostered by HumorMoral Virtues Fostered by HumorHumor during the Holocaust

the glass is half-empty and half-full - comic wisdom;Philosophy - from Greek for “love” and “wisdom”;good sense of humor in knowledge contribution;sense of humor cultivation and living well and coping with problems;emotional disengagement promoting rationality and mental flexibility;intellectual and moral virtues and humor promotion;language - a mi...

Humor as Aesthetic ExperienceHumor and Other Ways of Enjoying Cognitive Shifts: The Funny, Tragic, Grotesque, Macabre, Horrible, Bizarre, and FantasticTragedy vs. Comedy: Is Heavy Better than Light?Enough with the Jokes: Spontaneous vs. Prepared Humor

Eight Traditional Moral ObjectionsThe Shortcomings in the Contemporary Ethics of HumorA More Comprehensive Approach: The Ethics of DisengagementFirst Harmful Effect: IrresponsibilitySecond Harmful Effect: Blocking CompassionThird Harmful Effect: Promoting Prejudice

Humor and DisengagementHumor as PlayLaughter as a Play Signal

Researchers like Vassilis Saroglou have found a negative correlation between religious belief and sense of humor. I add two things to this line of research. First, I argue that the features that make religious believers humorless also make them militaristic. Secondly, I argue that militarism and humorlessness are concentrated in religions which str...

Humour has been intertwined with politics since ancient times, when the pharoahs in Egypt and emperors in China first appointed court jesters. In ancient Athens, democracy was born alongside comedy in the fifth century. Aristophanes’s Lγsistrata was the first in a long line of anti-war comedies. In his handbook On the Orator, Cicero offered tips to...

According to Raskin's script-theory, five factors are necessary for verbal humor: 1) a switch from the bona fide mode of communication to the non-bona fide mode of joke-telling; 2) the text of an intended joke; 3) two (partially) overlapping scripts compatible with the text; 4) an oppositeness relation between the two scripts; and 5) a trigger, obv...

In "Humor in the Hebrew Bible" (Humor 13-3), Hershey Friedman presents over one hundred examples of sarcasm, irony, wordplay, and other kinds of humor to establish that "Humor permeates the Holy Scriptures. He concludes from these examples that "Humor brings God closer to humankind," that is, it makes God seem more like human beings and so more acc...

Although many literary critics have spoken of the "tragic vision" of life, few have acknowledged the "comic vision." I offer a detailed analysis of the two world views. First I contrast tragedy and comedy on four points: the hero, conflict, suffering, and response. Then I present 20 points of contrast between the tragic and comic visions of life. A...

The paperback edition of The Language of Humor: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2019) is now available. Please check out the web site: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/language-of-humor/B37E80D6A21DB3A2E344A4061D996D9C . There is a PowerPoint to accompany each of the twenty-five chapters in this book. These PowerPoints are now av...

Three benefits of humor in the workplace are explored: its promotion of health, mental flexibility, and smooth social relations.

According to the incongruity theory of humor, amusement is the enjoyment of something which clashes with our mental patterns and expectations. This article explores the place of incongruity in human and animal life and the distinctiveness of amusement as a reaction to it. We are the only species that enjoys incongruity, it is suggested, because we...

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Western Division of the American Philosophical Association in 1984. I am grateful to Susan Feagin, John Deigh, and Paul Teller for their comments on that paper. 1. Aristotle, Poetics, chap. 6. 2. David Hume, "Of Tragedy," in Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,...

Any reflective account of theological language acknowledges very early that words drawn from our experience with creatures have special meanings when applied to God. Because God transcends the created world, we cannot take predicates which apply to creatures and apply them to God without modification. And the more transcendent God is understood to...

L'A. examine trois theories du rire (provenant d'un sentiment de superiorite, d'une sensation d'incongruite ou de soulagement) avant d'exposer la sienne propre. Il examine brievement les theories de Hobbes, Aristote, Spencer, Freud, du point de vue de cette classification. Il critique notamment la distinction freudienne entre mot d'esprit et comiqu...

It is not difficult to elicit from well-educated people some statement to the effect that art, and aesthetic experience generally, are important. Even if most people spend little time in visiting galleries and listening to good music or in doing anything artistic themselves, they at least have been educated to think of such things as among the high...

Although not a great deal has been said about heaven in the Christian tradition, it is part of the traditional notion of heaven that the blessed are in a condition of perfect happiness. In this life we can be happy to a certain degree, but mixed with earthly happiness is disappointment, frustration, and even sorrow. In heaven, by contrast, there is...

In most discussions of civil disobedience, certain characteristics are offered as essential to an act of justifiable civil disobedience, or sometimes to any act of civil disobedience. Among these one of the most frequently mentioned is nonviolence. Some thinkers, like Bedau and Wasserstrom, require an act to be nonviolent before they will even coun...