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    Analysis ofLaughter. 21

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    Analysis Of Laughter

    necessity for adjustment to the different faculties of apprehensiveness in the listeners ;

    enforcing often much painful sacrifice of nicety and neatness , and bluntingthe point of thejest as it penetrates the hard-witted . So true it is

    that—• ' A jest ' s success lies ever in the ear Of him that hears it—not upon the tongue Of him that makes it . " The remark occurs more

    than once in Shakespeare ; and the repetition by a mind which reflects all wisdom and being , in whole , unrefracted singleness , witnesses the keenness of his personal experience .

    The causes of the pleasure of the ludicrous , thus separated from the objects of other emotions— ( or rather from other objects of emotion—since the

    peculiarity of every class of enjoyment is in the cause—the pleasure varying only in intensity)—they are further susceptible of classification amongst themselves . The most obvious

    distinction amongst things ludicrous divides them into verbal , and visible or real ; puns and bulls , and repartees , lying on one side of . the line—and blunders and practical jokes on the other .

    But after what has been said we may go deeper . Bulls are united to blunders by a resemblance of far more consequence than the difference by which the vulgar arrangement places them in different classes . Jncongruities are of two kinds—abstract and physical .

    Analysis Of Laughter

    Abstract incongruity is between two things considered as such and such ; they are or are not similar . Physical incongruity is between two things considered as antecedent and consequent ;—one is or is not the cause of the

    other . Ludicrous incongruities are thus either misapprehensions of resemblances or misadaptation of means to ends .

    Such misapprehensions are equally ludicrous , whether we are ourselves the momentary subjects of them , or regard others as deceived by the plausibilities .

    Misapprehensions of resemblances are illustrated in the ludicrous instances of puns and practical jokes . In a pun , the momentary recognition of agreement is succeeded by detection of difference : —when

    we are the victims of a practical joke , the anticipated correspondence of a sensation with our idea is interrupted by a different . Blunders and bulls

    are comprehended in the definition of ludicrous physical incongruities . A blunder is an unskilful attempt to accomplish a purpose : —a bull is a verbal

    blunder . It is a misadaptation of language ; an ill-management of a series of events , which are as much actions as

    the voluntary exercise of the hands . A pun is a verbal practical joke , and a bull is a verbal blunder .

    Analysis Oflaughter. 21

    Analysis ofLaughter . 21

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1837, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_01071837/page/19/