Humor Theory: Interesting Stuff or Dry as Toast?

On a lark (since I am such a good employee) I decided to research humor theory yesterday for a bit during my many 15 minute breaks during the day. I found some damn fascinating stuff, some of which I will share with you below. And maybe with a few other posts.

Yay Everyone! Igor Krishtafovich, a U.S. physicist, has "discovered" the formula for humor! While this theory is just about as prove-able as the theory of relativity*, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and says he's right. After all, the man can probably best me in a battle of wits after drinking a fifth of bourbon after an afternoon lobotomy.

The formula is as following:
HE = PI x C/T + BM
PI – personal involvement
C - complexity of a joke. The higher degree of complexity the better provided that your audience can solve the problem within 1 or 2 seconds.
T – time spent by a person solving a joke. The longer the time, the weaker the effect.
BM – background mood. A joker can have an advantage if an audience enjoys the show. However, a real good joke can “blow up” the most dismal audience.
HE – humor effectiveness.

I figure the best way to analyze whether this theory is effective is to put it to the Eddie Izzard test. No one can deny the man is funny. Even people who are morbidly scared of transvestites will generally come around to the Eddie camp once exposed to his audio work. But the thing about him is, it's not slapstick, simple stuff, it's thinking man's comedy. You have to know stuff in order to get it. Some jokes I haven't gotten for years and then somthing clunks into place and I totally get it (usually slapping myself in the forehead in whatever public locale this happens at. Many strangers think I have spastic limb disorder.) I digress.

The first thing that interests me is the personal involvement index. Now, since his humor is not predicated on strict personal involvement, the jokes must be fashioned in a way to induce personal involvement (PI). I am assuming that humorists such as the White Trash Comedy Tour have a pretty specific audience in mind. They may expand their ideas to involve a wider audience, but generally, their jokes are based on the idea that you, your relations, or your acquaintances exist within the White Trash contingent. But, since much of Eddie's humor is based on history that no one has heard since fourth grade, ancient religious texts or spoken in another language, there is no guarantee of PI. Therefore, each joke must slowly be led into by feeding knowledge to the audience with smaller jokes until a generalized knowledge base exists. This is why many of his jokes become self-referential towards the end of the program. In having that knowledge base, the more complex the jokes can become, because the facts are easily accesible and time for solving the joke decreases dramatically.

These self referential jokes also up the personal investment because everyone loves an inside joke. If the audience is involved with solving these jokes themselves, then the PI skyrockets and you make a fan for life. One show that does this to great effect is Newsradio. There storylines build and build, and with most cases (not involving Matthew who is played mainly for physical comedy) the audience is required to provide the punchlines to the jokes which are played minimally.

Now, if you have a joke that requires more personal involvement, such as inside jokes. The time for solving jokes can be much greater with the same intended effect.

Point is, this humor equation is pretty darn fascinating, and I think I will be doing a little more digging into it. Much to you chagrin, mehopes.


*Sure, everyone assumes that Einstein is right, but if no one on the planet understands his theories, how can we know they're right?