Lippitt Response

In my opinion the incongruity theory is easily the most understood and most accurate theory out of three theories. The incongruity theory I find is accurate because I'm always laughing when I predict whats going to happen in a movie or show and something completely unexpected happens. An example would be the movie Deadpool. Throughout the movie you would expect a superhero to act mature but instead Deadpool is the complete opposite. In one scene his hand gets cut off but it slowly starts to grow back. I find this funny because it is completely unexpected that his hand will grow back and when it does he makes inappropriate jokes about it. Also another reason is the incongruity theory is a more positive idea of humor than the superiority theory. In my opinion the superiority theory doesn't do a great job of explaining laughter and seems to put the concept of humor in a more negative view. The superiority theory says we laugh because we feel we are superior to the other person when they are struggling. An example would be laughing at someone for spilling hot coffee on themselves before leaving for work. Sometimes we do laugh at our friends when they mess up or do something just plain stupid like falling down the stairs. In my opinion this is okay to laugh at because you know the person and they mostly likely will be laughing too. The relief theory is also accurate but I think is too focused on just one idea which is laughing to relieve tension. An example would be laughing at a jump scene in a horror movie because the tension was building up for awhile before hand and when it finally happened you weren't ready. In response you maybe laugh to relieve the tension that the horror movie had created. In my opinion there is more to humor than just laughing to relieve tension. The theories do describe different types of comedy. The superiority and the incongruity theory do overlap slightly. They both describe humor as laughing at something that could be unexpected. For the superiority theory someones misfortune could be unexpected in the moment causing laughter just like the incongruity theory where we laugh at something that was not the expected outcome. Besides that they both give off completely different tones and describe different types of comedy. The relief theory is also different because it is a build up to the moment of laughter or humor compared to the superiority or incongruity theory where it is more sudden. When I think of humor, I think the incongruity theory does the best at getting close to the essence of laughter. The incongruity theory is easily understood and explains more common reasons why people laugh compared to the other theories.