Using Humour to Lighten the Load

Now Who's Laughing?
I doubt that Sigmund Freud was ever the funniest guy at the dinner party.

He famously claimed that women don't need a sense of humour because they have fewer strong feelings to repress. Then, a few years ago, British writer and notorious chain yanker, Christopher Hitchens, got a lot of us 'sisters' riled when he wrote in Vanity Fair that 'women just aren't funny'.

Uh, excuse me. Tina Faye is not hilarious funny?

A surprising amount has been researched and written on the subject and I recently went to a presentation on the psychology of humour and the gender.

Apparently, women comedians don't get as many laughs as their male counterparts. Even in comedy, it seems, we do have greater hurdles to success.

I was also surprised to hear that the most laughter comes from male comedians with a female audience. The next highest on the laughter meter is a male comedian with a male audience, and third in line is a female comedian with a female audience. Finally, a woman comedian with male audience gets the fewest laughs. Why is this?

The theory is that men are trained to interrupt and be the center of attention, so they are more comfortable pouring out their stories than passively waiting for others to tell them. In other words, men are socialized to dominate conversation, while women are raised to be good listeners.

Now This is Funny
I just saw the movie, "Bridesmaids," and I did LOL along with the rest of the packed movie theatre. The bridesmaids in this story indulging in antics typically reserved for men. The men in the audience were there laughing (or squirming) right along side the women.

It is a watershed movie and is busting down the barriers between the genders. And, it is proof women are funny...hilarious in fact. Take that Sigmund Freud!

Freud's claim that women aren't funny is consistent with an article in the New Yorker which said, "Studio executives believe that male moviegoers would rather prep for a colonoscopy than experience a woman's point of view, particularly if the woman drinks, or swears or has a great job or an orgasm."

Funny Commercials - The Most Common Types of Humour Used In Advertising

Humour has become a mainstay of advertising campaigns and has proven to be one of the most effective methods ever devised for selling products and creating a positive brand image. In this article we look at the most commonly used techniques in funny commercials and advertising mediums.

The most common humour technique used in advertising is juxtaposition. Juxtaposition involves putting two or more elements together or comparing them to create a humorous analogy. For example, Hewlett Packard ran a clever advertisement featuring a Christmas picture "ruined" by a teenager dressed as a punk. The print ad then showed an image modified using Hewlett Packard's PhotoSmart software with a more idealised teenager. This kind of juxtaposition can be used effectively to create or expose a problem that the product can solve.

The second technique we turn to is personification. This technique involves attributing human characteristics to things without them. The best recent example of this is Evian's Live Young advertisement which personifies babies by making them into active young teenagers. This cleverly adjusts what we might consider a normal situation or activity to create positive associations with vitality and youth.

Thirdly we have exaggeration whereby you extend or stretch the reality of a given situation or characteristic to over emphasise a particular point or point of view. The simple premise is that you make something seem better or have a much greater effect than it does in reality. This allows you to encourage a very positive view of a product whilst making people laugh at the exaggeration itself.

The fourth most common technique we encounter in advertising is the simple pun. One of the most well-known of these is the WKD commercials - which use wicked as a pun for the acronym WKD. This simple technique helps to instil the brand name in to your mind and create certain associations through the humour used.

Fifthly we come to sarcasm. Sarcasm is basically taking something or someone and using their faults against them in a mildly derogatory way. Sarcasm is generally employed to a situation to reveal an interaction between one or more parties and has proven effective at creating humour by espousing situations many of us can relate to in some way - or saying the things that many of us don't ever have the courage to say ourselves in a given situation.

Does God Have a Sense of Humour?

The Bible says, "There is a time to laugh" (Ecc.3:4). But when is that time? Is it OK to laugh in church? Is humour off limits when it comes to preaching?

Many are divided on this subject. For example, back in 1854, Alexandre Vinet said that humour should never be used when preaching. He said, "It is out of place in an assembly where grave subjects are treated." Austin Phelps, who lived about 50 years later, agreed, saying that the use of humor in a sermon would degrade the Bible. T. Harwood Pattison was also opposed to it, arguing, "Religion is too severe a matter to be treated in a trivial or jesting spirit." There are many today who believe this to be the case.

But of course there are just as many who would totally disagree with this point of view. James Burrell spent a whole chapter to humour in his textbook on homiletics. He supported his case by quoting great preachers who used wit as a means of getting their point across - men like Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Henry Ward Beecher and D. L. Moody. John Stott goes further. He cites Christ Himself as an example of one who used humour in preaching, saying, "It seems to be generally agreed that humour was one of the weapons in the armoury of the Master Teacher."

Jesus And Humour
That last quotation ought to put the matter to rest. After all, Jesus came to reveal the Father to us. Any other impression or opinion that we might have about God which doesn't line up with the perfect representation brought to us by Jesus Himself is a false image and should be demolished.

Yet, for some reason Jesus is portrayed as always pious, serious and sad. It is true that His teachings addressed serious issues, and that His mission climaxed in a sorrowful death. But He could never be described as a kill-joy or party-pooper. He was often at parties, and even did His first miracle at a party. (I think some would have preferred He turned the wine into water!) When that old familiar question is asked, "If there were ten characters from history you could invite to your party, who would you pick?" how comes Jesus is nearly always on the list?