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[CCBC-Net] What's So Funny -- can we discuss??
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From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Wed, 08 May 2002 09:44:38 -0500
Fairrosa, thanks for inspirng us all to dig a little deeper in our discussion of literary humor for children and teens.
I think the major defining aspect of humor (of different kinds and for different tastes) is incongruity. We all seem to be amused things that don't conform to expected norms. That's why many of us can't help but laugh when someone walking ahead of us slips on the ice and falls, even though we may feel guilty for doing so.
Differences in life experience and recognition of congruity (so that you can understand when something deviates from the norm) would account for many of the differences in what we find funny.
For young children, who are just learning to what the norms are, humor seems largely dependent on funny sounds (e.g. nonsense verse, talking in a funny voice, etc); familiar routines turned upside down (e.g. Steptoe's "Baby Says," or Rathmann's
"Goodnight Gorilla"); or a strong narrative pattern established and then disrupted
(e.g. Mary Serfozo's "Who Said Red?" or Bernelda Wheeler's "Where Did You Get Your Moccasins?").
As children grow in experience and learn how things are "supposed" to be, their potential for understanding incongruity expands. So, too, does their sense of humor.
Children, for example, don't find Anthony Browne's "Changes" funny unless they are sure tea kettles don't have tails, chairs don't turn into gorillas and bathroom sinks don't have a nose and a mouth. They don't find Scieszka's "True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf" funny unless they know the original version.
Often times, I think, when someone doesn't "get" why something is funny, it's either because they don't understand ? or accept -- how things are "supposed" to be, so they can't appreciate the incongruity, or the incongruous thing has become so familiar that it's conformed to expected norms ("Take my wife ? please!").
Does that help?
KT
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33 www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Wed 08 May 2002 09:44:38 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 08 May 2002 09:44:38 -0500
Fairrosa, thanks for inspirng us all to dig a little deeper in our discussion of literary humor for children and teens.
I think the major defining aspect of humor (of different kinds and for different tastes) is incongruity. We all seem to be amused things that don't conform to expected norms. That's why many of us can't help but laugh when someone walking ahead of us slips on the ice and falls, even though we may feel guilty for doing so.
Differences in life experience and recognition of congruity (so that you can understand when something deviates from the norm) would account for many of the differences in what we find funny.
For young children, who are just learning to what the norms are, humor seems largely dependent on funny sounds (e.g. nonsense verse, talking in a funny voice, etc); familiar routines turned upside down (e.g. Steptoe's "Baby Says," or Rathmann's
"Goodnight Gorilla"); or a strong narrative pattern established and then disrupted
(e.g. Mary Serfozo's "Who Said Red?" or Bernelda Wheeler's "Where Did You Get Your Moccasins?").
As children grow in experience and learn how things are "supposed" to be, their potential for understanding incongruity expands. So, too, does their sense of humor.
Children, for example, don't find Anthony Browne's "Changes" funny unless they are sure tea kettles don't have tails, chairs don't turn into gorillas and bathroom sinks don't have a nose and a mouth. They don't find Scieszka's "True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf" funny unless they know the original version.
Often times, I think, when someone doesn't "get" why something is funny, it's either because they don't understand ? or accept -- how things are "supposed" to be, so they can't appreciate the incongruity, or the incongruous thing has become so familiar that it's conformed to expected norms ("Take my wife ? please!").
Does that help?
KT
Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33 www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Wed 08 May 2002 09:44:38 AM CDT
