What Are You Laughing At? by O'Shannon, Dan -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Title Contents Introduction Overview 1 Common comedy theories 2 The comedic event 3 Documenting the comedic event Part One Elements of context: the reception factors

1 The receiver and his world

1.1 The line between funny and not funny 1.2 A comedy frame of mind 1.3 The duality of comedy: two types of laughter 1.4 Early reception factors 1.5 Levels of social interaction

2 Elements of communication

2.1 Modes of communication 2.2 Device and specific device

3 Vehicles

3.1 Vehicles 3.2 Vehicle-based reception factors

4 Level of control and identifying the source

4.1 Level of control 4.2 Identifying the source

Part Two Comedic Information

5 Fundamental components

5.1 The receiver’s brain: hard-wired for comedy? 5.2 Comedic information: the triangle 5.3 The core variables

6 Incongruity

6.1 Incongruity 6.2 Estimating levels of incongruity 6.3 Types of incongruity

7 Cognitive process

7.1 Cognitive process: overview 7.2 Level one: straightforward information 7.3 Level two: gap-filling 7.4 Level three: recontextualization

8 Variations

8.1 Exploring the four corners of the triangle 8.2 What are practical jokes?

9 Comedy and entropy

9.1 Sustaining the laugh 9.2 Entropy

Part Three Enhancers, inhibitors, and aspects of awareness

10 How comedic information triggers enhancers and inhibitors

10.1 Overview 10.2 On-going social needs: superiority, identification, and inclusion 10.3 Aspects of awareness

11 Elements of the joke’s communication, structure, and content

11.1 Resuming the chart: the joke as a whole 11.2 Elements of communication and structure 11.3 Elements of content 11.4 The target

Summing it all up

The completed chart Final thoughts and acknowledgments

Index eCopyright