Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Rebecca's Lead Blog Post Response
In this week's blog, Rebecca analyzed a clip from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. She introduced a new theory called the pattern recognition theory which states that "humor occurs when the brain is surprised by the recognition of a pattern." It also states that the humor response encourages the brain to look for more patterns in the future. In my opinion, this theory can be applied to any type of humor. For example, the surprise came when the suspects start singing "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. Another surprise is the behavior of the detective. He's not taking his job seriously like the girl whos looking for the man that murdered her brother. This can also be applied to the eight patterns of from the pattern recognition theory. The eight patterns are about the causes of all humor. The one that applied the most was opposition, which can be applied when a unit is shown in contrasting contexts. The detective had a lack of seriousness when trying to discover who was the possible murderer compared to a typical detective that wouldn't be joking around and making the suspects sing a song by the Backstreet Boys. This is why the scene is humorous to us. Going back to the theory, I think it covers the missing aspect that the other theories of humor we have discussed in class. Like the article said, all these theories talk about the cause of humor and not the why. The pattern recognition theory covers the why aspect of why we find things humorous and also covers the cause of this laughter. Rebecca also pointed out that this clip can be applied to the incongruity theory because of the manners of the detective. The pattern recognition theory can also be applied to the "why" in the incongruity theory because the action or situation is unexpectedness which may come as a surprise.
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That's very true that we are getting at the specific why in this case. You could argue that this humor theory focuses less on the form and more on the logic of the joke.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the pattern recognition theory could fit into a specific category of comedy theory that we discussed in class. I feel like it can kind of fit into incongruity theory since it has to do with a sort of violation of mental patterns in a way that our brain is surprised by the recognition of a pattern.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you applied the theory I talked about into the video. I agree that opposition fits well with the clip. However, the theory mentions that multiple patterns can be applied to the same funny moment. I feel like multiple patterns could fit into this clip along with opposition.
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