Humor within organizations

    Imagining how humor plays out in organizations can be tough for most people since they mostly expect organizations to be professional and serious environments. Humor, however, can practically show up in any place. In organizations specifically it can show up among a full organization level of many people, among fewer people like those in groups and departments, and even among fewer employees like those that are friends. When showing up in organizations humor can, like in other places, be both a good and a bad thing depending on how it shows up, but it can also make the overall environment of organizations more fun.

    How humor shows up in an organization can actually be seen in the clip below from the movie After We Collided. In this clip it can first be seen that a character named Tessa is running into a building. After entering the building, she tries to catch the elevator by asking another character named Trevor who happens to work in that building to hold it for her, but the elevator shuts right in her face. Once this happens Tessa angrily spits out a phrase that some would immediately find offensive. Trevor, however, decides to see her phrase in a humorous way because he ends up opening up the elevator for her and then with a smile on his face asks her if the phrase she said was directed at him. When confronted Tessa first tries to avoid answering him and then she tries to use humor because she smiles while denying that she had said the phrase to him. Eventually after a brief moment of tension between the two Tessa decides to apologize and explains that she just wanted to make a good impression because it was her first day in the building. Once she explains this Trevor uses humor in a serious tone to tell her that she had achieved her goal. After this they both get out of the elevator and a character named Kimberly approaches Tessa to welcome her into the building, which is a publishing firm. When welcoming her she tells Tessa that she is impressed by her good memory and Trevor jokingly says that Tessa is indeed good at making an impression. Right when Kimberly hears Trevor say this, she assumes that Tessa and Trevor know each other, so she asks them if they do. Finally, after Kimberly asks this Trevor again uses humor because he jokingly says that he and Tessa are friends who go way back.

    All in all, the clip evidently shows that humor can surely emerge in organization settings. It even shows that humor in these settings does not always have to surface among the already existing employees of an organization but rather that it can also surface when newer employees enter an organization. Something to thoroughly consider though is that people in organizations might not always see things as humorously as Trevor did in the clip since they might get angry or upset.

The impacts that teasing has on relationships

    Teasing is a thing that people widely use in life. Children at their young age for instance use it since they tend to tease other children and get teased themselves. People of all ages, however, use teasing throughout the various relationships in their lives. Teasing though common can have both positive and negative impacts on relationships. The impacts of teasing on relationships are what I will be teaching in this blog post. First, I will discuss some positive impacts, then some negative impacts, and ultimately an example of how teasing impacts a relationship.

    One positive impact of teasing on relationships is that it can improve them by helping them feel fun or playful and by making them seem secure (Meyer, 2015). This impact means that teasing can make people's relationships a lot better by creating an atmosphere in them that can be perceived as enjoyable and comfortable. Along with making relationships seem more secure teasing is also said to make relationships feel more liberating for people since it allows them to communicate in a way that is not too limited or judgy (Meyer, 2015). This means that teasing can additionally impact relationships positively by allowing the people in them to communicate more openly. Another positive impact of teasing on relationships though is that it can help people show others that they want their relationship to become closer (Meyer, 2015). This ultimately means that teasing can be positive for relationships by signaling the need for closeness between the people in them.

    Teasing, however, can also negatively impact relationships since it is generally associated with the enforcement and differentiation functions of humor that drive people apart (Meyer, 2015). What this means is that teasing can be negative for relationships by isolating people from one another. Teasing can additionally be negative for relationships since some people may interpret it as a personal attack that can then put their relationships at risk (Meyer, 2015). This plainly means that when people assign a negative meaning to teasing their relationships can be up against some potential harm. Aside from this teasing can also negatively impact relationships when it is overly used since it can harm an individual by questioning or putting down their identity, which can then make it difficult for their relationships to persist (Meyer, 2015). This at last means that when teasing is done to a great extent it can upset people and as such make it complicated for them to push forward with their relationships.

    Something that exemplifies an impact of teasing on relationships is the impact that me and my mother's relationship faces when she teases me about being angry. Every time I get angry my mother teases me by making fun of my furrowed eyebrows. In our mother daughter relationship, her use of teasing has a positive impact since it prevents my anger from making our relationship serious and instead allows me to see that our relationship can in all be playful even when I am angry.

References

Meyer, J. C. (2015). Understanding Humor Through Communication: Why Be Funny, Anyway?. Lexington Books.

The use of humor in conflict

    Conflict is something that people in all types of relationships frequently come across on a daily basis. When they are faced with it, they tend to manage it in a wide variety of ways. Some ways may of course be more effective than others depending on the conflict, the type of relationship, and the people involved in it. One way that people manage conflict is by using humor. Humor when used during conflicts can commonly be seen as something that can help to reduce the strength of a conflict since it might help the people involved feel better and it might additionally be a helpful way to get people to see a different side of things.

    To see how humor can be used to manage conflict I have included a clip below from the movie Purple Hearts. The clip at the start displays two characters named Luke and Cassie. Luke in the beginning was practicing how to walk given that he had recently suffered an injury, while Cassie was waiting for him to finish. As she waits for him, she compliments him for doing a lot better and at this point Luke seems like he is in a good mood. His mood, however, soon shifts when they are joined by his brother Jacob since he finds out that Cassie and Jacob got a dog for him without consulting him. The shift in his mood further gives rise to a conflict since he sternly tells them that he does not need them to sneakily plan things behind his back. When telling them this his voice gets serious and comes off as aggressive, which then makes Cassie get serious and additionally pushes her to aggressively give Luke the dog's leash. Once Luke takes the leash, he refers to himself as a cripple, angrily throws the leash, and firmly states that he is capable of making his own choices. After this Cassie tries to prevent the conflict from escalating further by using humor to jokingly say that people do not say the word cripple anymore and by trying to convince Luke that it is okay to get help. However, she also uses humor once the dog fetches the leash that Luke threw since she tells Luke that even the dog understands that it is okay to get help. Then once Luke surrenders and decides to keep the dog Cassie and Jacob both end up using humor by laughing about successfully convincing him to keep it.

    Upon further consideration the clip in all shows how people can manage conflict with humor. The clip more specifically shows the beneficial side of integrating humor into a conflict since it shows how humor can lighten up an overall conflict situation. One, however, should be cautious when using humor during such tense situations since the situations could potentially get worse.

The time I used humor to reduce uncertainty

    Humor is not only something people can feel, express, or find in their daily lives but it is also something people can use when starting new relationships. Starting new relationships can be difficult and scary since it requires people to get to know one another more personally. During these situations people tend to have a lot of uncertainty about each other and about what they share with one another. This uncertainty, however, can be reduced with humor since people can use it to open up a door in their new relationships to allow for more transparency between the people in those relationships.

    Using humor to reduce uncertainty in new relationships is something I recall doing when I was on my high school drill team. Every year we had some new girls join the team and during the summer we had practices and team building activities to get to know one another. I particularly remember that we could not do these things as a full team during COVID-19 and instead did them by squads, which were smaller groups of people that our team was broken up into. There was one specific time when I got together with the squad I was put into, and my team director had older team members like me partner up with newer team members so that we could bond with them and help them improve their skills. When this happened, I was partnered with a girl who seemed like a nice and fun person. To help her improve her skills I had to demonstrate how to do them, observe if she could replicate them correctly, and point out the ones she needed to improve on. Doing this was very awkward since we were both uncertain about each other, but she may have been more uncertain about me since she probably thought that I was judging her in my mind. I especially noticed that she felt this way when she nervously kept asking me if she was doing the skills okay and because she would try to justify herself when she could not get them right. When sensing her uncertainty and nervousness I used humor to lightly joke about how bad my skills were when I had first started and my team director who was near us further added onto my humor by saying that I had greatly improved, which lastly eased the uncertainty between us by providing my teammate with some background information about me, by making us more comfortable about the situation, and by later allowing us to create a closer relationship as teammates.

    On a final note, the personal example I shared above provides an overview of how I was able to reduce the uncertainty between my teammate and I by using humor. Such an example additionally highlights that humor is certainly an effective way to reduce uncertainty within new relationships. People, however, must be mindful of the humor they use since not doing so can possibly lead to problems in their new relationships.

The meaning of the Relief Theory

    Distressful feelings are inevitable. However, they do not always prevent humor since letting them go can sometimes actually lead to humor. A theory that explains the reasoning behind this is the Relief Theory. This is the theory that I will be teaching within this blog post by first explaining it and by lastly offering an example of it.

    The Relief Theory to start off is a theory through which an often-sudden reduction of stressful feelings or tension causes humor that can additionally expel nervous energy (Meyer, 2015). This itself means that people experience humor when something commonly abrupt allows them to minimize stress or tension but that such humor can also let their nervous energy break free. The tensions released with humor, however, are either previously existent or they get immensely accumulated until they must suddenly be released (Meyer, 2015). This more simply means that people must feel these tensions way before they can even be released or that something must create them until they can eventually be released. Humor with this theory is specifically created when some event that is humorous unexpectedly violates a social norm or makes the idea of violating a norm enjoyable since this allows people to feel the release of tensions that then leads to humor (Meyer, 2015). This means that when something frequently takes people by surprise, they will feel that their tensions are let go of, which then lets them experience humor. The most important things about this theory are that the release and relaxation of tense feelings are the key to humor regardless of how those tensions were actually created and that humor is physiological since laughter is important for people to be relieved (Meyer, 2015). This alone means that how people's tensions are created does not matter since letting go of them is what allows humor to occur, and that the actual expression of laughter is a necessary factor to feel relief from tensions. Another thing about this theory is that it is less dependent on people's reasoning since it makes it possible for people to happily laugh without a reason (Meyer, 2015). This lastly means that this theory simply lets people freely laugh even when no actual reasons exist for them to laugh.

    One example of this theory is the time that I could not find my sweater. Before this happened, I had a lot of tension from being busy and not getting to eat dinner until really late. My tension, however, worsened when I could not find my sweater anywhere and which further led me to ask my mother to help me find it. Then once we looked for it inside our laundry room dryer, I saw something with the same color as my sweater, and I excitedly pulled it out saying "Here it is" only to realize that I had actually pulled out my father's shirt. When realizing this my previous tensions were released because I ultimately laughed with my mother about how unexpected the overall situation was.

References

Meyer, J. C. (2015). Understanding Humor Through Communication: Why Be Funny, Anyway?. Lexington Books.

My moment with the Benign Violation Theory

    Finding humor when social norm violations are present can be challenging since people tend to perceive norm violations differently. On one hand social norm violators might not find humor because they might not even be aware that they are committing a norm violation. The witnesses of norm violations on the other hand might believe that norm violations are far too serious to find humor in them. Thus, one theory that looks at how humor is found in social norm violations is the Benign Violation Theory. This theory requires the simultaneous occurrence of two aspects for there to be humor. One aspect is a social norm violation. Whereas the other aspect is a judgement of that social norm violation that ultimately identifies the norm violation as acceptable through humor.

    A time I remember coming across this theory is the time that I went outside and got my pair of Crocs dirty. When I went inside my house it was late at night, so I did not want to clean them. Instead, I remembered that I had another pair of Crocs in my room, so I quickly went to get them. These Crocs, however, were not the ones that people would typically wear since they had really high and thick platform heels. Regardless of this I still decided to put them on and when I first left my room everything was going perfectly well. This of course did not last too long since my peaceful walk was soon disrupted when I got to my living room. What had happened was that my ankle twisted to the side, and I almost fell but I was luckily able to lean onto my couch. As this happened my mother was in the kitchen where she had a direct view of my incident. Right when she saw me, she asked what had happened and if I was okay. Then once I said yes and showed her my shoes the two of us started laughing. When showing her my shoes the two of us were able to notice that I had committed a social norm violation since people do not normally wear high heeled crocs around their house. In that same moment though we were also able to make a judgement about my social norm violation being acceptable since the two of us realized that violating the norm had not caused me any harm. By effectively making note of the social norm violation and simultaneously making a judgement about it the two of us were lastly able to find humor with the Benign Violation Theory.

    To conclude, my example above shows how a social norm violation can positively lead to humor with the Benign Violation Theory. A key thing to remember about this theory though is that it involves both a social norm violation and a judgement of that norm violation. However, it is also important to remember that these two aspects must simultaneously occur for this theory to apply to a humorous situation.

A discussion of the Clarification Function of Humor

    Humor and social norms often go hand in hand together. For many people the breaking of social norms is a sufficient and common reason to find humor. However, an interesting point to consider is that people may also find humor when others point out the nature of social norms. This itself leads me into the topic that I will be teaching today, which is known as the Clarification function of humor. To teach this function I will begin by explaining what it is about. Then I will go over the effects that it has on the interactions between people, and I will ultimately discuss an example that highlights this function.

    The clarification function of humor is about finding humor in the comments that others make about social norms. Meyer (2015) specifically mentions that this function involves the capturing of an opinion or a belief that is expressed through a unique concise phrase or through an anecdote. This alone means that people state their beliefs in the brief comments that they make. However, another thing about this function is that people's comments clarify norms and beliefs by focusing on the expected norms and not on the possible or real violations of the norms (Meyer, 2015). What this means is that people do not look at the violations of norms that are occurring but that they instead emphasize the expected norms to uncover what their norms and beliefs are. Aside from this the function also looks at the mistakes that people make in the messages they express since the mistakes themselves help people reinforce their original intended message with humor (Meyer, 2015). This lastly means that when people's messages have issues people can turn those issues around with humor to actually make the point of their message.

    The effects of the clarification function of humor include some different things for people's interactions. Meyer (2015) first mentions that it can improve people's relationships because it allows them to laugh at comments that empower their social norms. However, he also mentions that this function allows people to use their unique and brief comments to persuade others and to make them think about things differently. All of which ultimately make it seem like this function can be both positive and negative for people.

    One way to illustrate this function is with a comment that my mother frequently makes. Anytime that someone asks her how she made or moved something she has a habit of saying "Obviously with my hands. I wasn't going to do it with my feet." This is a comment that always causes both me and her to laugh since the image of her actually making or moving something with her feet is not something that one would normally expect to see. However, aside from causing both of us humor this comment ultimately shows how my mother clarifies the norm that people tend to do things with their hands and not with their feet.

References

Meyer, J. C. (2015). Understanding Humor Through Communication: Why Be Funny, Anyway?. Lexington Books.

The Arousal Theory showcased in Bizaardvark

    Humor in people's lives is often caused by a wide variety of things. It may be caused by listening to a joke, by seeing something funny, and by doing something that one thinks is funny. Humor, however, can also be caused when people feel pleasure. This specific cause of humor goes along with one of the theories of humor known as The Arousal Theory. This is a theory that people can see occurring when someone expresses feelings of pleasure by letting out their laughter. One common feeling of pleasure that often causes people to laugh is being tickled. There are of course some people who are not ticklish, so the feelings of pleasure that can cause people to laugh vary from person to person. The main point of this theory, however, is that some sort of pleasurable feeling immediately leads people to find humor by laughing.

    A clip that captures the essence of The Arousal Theory is the one I included below from "Bizaardvark." The clip shows two characters known as Frankie and Paige who are fighting each other during an MMA class. At the start of the clip Frankie complains about Paige's approach to fighting while also questioning how it is possible for her to be so good at this sport. Paige when hearing this question says that one of the reasons, she is so good is that she understands what her opponents' weaknesses are. Her response soon causes Frankie to say that she also knows what weaknesses her opponents have, which further prompts Frankie to attack her with tickles. As this tickle attack occurs both Frankie and Paige show how they find humor through the use of The Arousal Theory. Paige herself finds humor by laughing at the feeling of tickles since that feeling seems to cause her pleasure right before she pushes Frankie away. Frankie, however, also seems to find humor through this theory by laughing a bit since it seems like tickling Paige is something that causes her pleasure. Finally, after they both use this theory Paige seems to be mad at Frankie for the tickles, but she regardless shows how a pleasurable feeling like tickles can result in laughter through The Arousal Theory.

    In sum, the clip shows that The Arousal Theory involves a pleasurable feeling that causes people to laugh. While also showing how the theory itself can occur among people. However, one thing to note is that the clip only shows two of the various pleasurable feelings that can cause people to laugh, which in this case includes being tickled and tickling someone.

Midterm: The Barbie Movie From The Perspective Of The Incongruity Theory

How I was persuaded with humor

    Persuasion is something that people are all too aware of. It is something that can be used everywhere including on television, social media, and even when spending time with family and friends. What makes it all the more interesting though is that it can even be used with humor. This can be done in several ways. Some people for instance might use humor to persuade others into doing or saying something. However, there is also something else that is involved when persuading others with humor. Namely, the Model of Individual Humor (Meyer, 2015). The reason for this is that people can use humor to persuade others by encouraging them to take the comic path over the tragic path of this model.

    I for one have been persuaded with humor several times. One time I specifically recall is the day of my aunt's 50th birthday celebration. My family enjoys parties a lot and so my aunt had rented an event hall to celebrate her birthday. On this day the family members who are closer to my aunt arrived at the party early including me and my parents. When we stepped into the event hall my mother and I approached one of my older cousins. In her hands she held a notebook and a pen. When she saw us, she asked if we would like our names to be written down so that we could get called up by the microphone to go out onto the dance floor and dance with my aunt. I personally do not like to dance a lot but before I could even respond my mother responded for both of us by saying yes. As soon as she said yes, I took the tragic path because I started to internally panic since I really did not want to dance in front of everyone. Then I tried to object but it did not work, so I instead found myself a seat and waited for what I thought would be a dreadful moment. Eventually people started to get called up to the dance floor. When it was my turn, I got up and while dancing with my aunt she asked me if I had actually wanted to get up to dance. I responded by saying no and she looked at me and laughed while saying "Well, you're already up here." It was in this moment that my aunt's use of humor persuaded me to take the comic path since she helped me see that dancing was not so bad and that I was just being dramatic about the whole situation, which lastly helped me feel better and caused me to laugh along with her.

    As can be seen in my own example humor and persuasion can often be used together. However, something to keep in mind is that humor might not always allow people the ability to persuade others. Especially since other things must be considered like whether a person will take the comic path or the tragic path.

References

Meyer, J. C. (2015). Understanding Humor Through Communication: Why Be Funny, Anyway?. Lexington Books.

The Enforcement Function of Humor through the movie of To All the Boys I've Loved Before

    The existence of social norms is a very important aspect of why people experience humor. Throughout the world people are often intentionally and unintentionally breaking social norms. As they do so other people tend to laugh at them for it and as such there is a function of humor that focuses on the breaking of social norms. It is known as the Enforcement function of humor. Through this function people use humor to criticize those who break social norms. By criticizing others, they highlight that a social norm has been broken to then set the person who breaks them down the right path. Another thing about this function is that people can use humor as a way to test their existing social norms. However, what this function ultimately does is that it can divide people apart.

    To see this function of humor in action I have included the clip below from "To All the Boys I've Loved Before." The first two characters shown are Kitty and Lara Jean who are in a parking lot. When they prepare to leave Kitty puts on a helmet out of precaution for Lara Jean's driving. After this Lara Jean backs up the car and almost hits a character whose name is Peter. When this happens, Kitty uses the enforcement function of humor to laugh at Lara Jean. While laughing Kitty emphasizes that Lara Jean breaks the social norm of driving properly by criticizing Lara Jean's poor driving skills and by saying that this situation is why she is wearing a helmet. Aside from Kitty the clip also shows that Peter uses the enforcement function of humor. This occurs when he approaches Lara Jean's window since he slightly laughs and criticizes her when he says that she broke a social norm by not checking behind her before backing up the car. Then when Lara Jean tries to explain that she is still unfamiliar with using her mirrors Peter again laughs and criticizes her by saying that he can see that. In addition to this Peter also uses a criticizing tone when he asks Lara Jean if she thinks that she will be able to effectively leave. Then when Lara Jean tells him yes Peter again criticizes her by going along with her response and by telling Kitty to be in charge of the situation. In the end Kitty and Peter's use of the enforcement function of humor leaves Lara Jean feeling embarrassed since she has a frown on her face and because she decides to not leave until everyone else has left.

    What is overall seen in the clip is that people use the enforcement function of humor to laugh at people who break social norms but also to criticize them so that the social norms are not broken again. Aside from this the clip lastly shows how this function of humor can cause a division between people since Lara Jean showed that she was affected by the humorous comments Kitty and Peter made.

Understanding the Model of Individual Humor

    There are times when people laugh at jokes or at something they saw but as this happens there might also be other people around who do not find the humor in those jokes or in what they saw. To understand why this occurs I will be teaching a model. More specifically the Model of Individual Humor (Meyer, 2015). For this I will first explain what individual humor is. Then I will discuss the model of individual humor and in the end, I will provide an example of how people can interpret humor through this model.

    To begin individual humor is about how each person individually sees humor. When humorous situations occur, people use affective and cognitive information to judge those situations (Meyer, 2015). This means that they use their feelings and the information they are familiar with to make a judgement that allows them to determine something as humorous or not. In addition to this Meyer (2015) mentions that humor can be explored by looking at what takes place in individuals minds when making the choice of what they will or will not find funny. Which simply means that people's minds have different perceptions that allow them to experience humor differently.

    The model of individual humor itself involves several things. Meyer (2015) mentions that there is first an event, a phrase, or a broken life pattern which people can either see as funny or not. Then there is the intentionality of volition for which he mentions that people's ego involvement is what allows them to find humor or not. Meyer specifically mentions that people's ego involvement is based on who the source of the message is, what mood an individual is in, and the confidence that the individual has about the issue that occurred. For this he mentions that when people have a high ego involvement, they take the tragic mode but that if they have a low ego involvement then they take the comic mode. Meyer mentions that the tragic mode is when people do not find things funny because they are more concerned about the consequences of their actions and because they take things more seriously. However, he lastly mentions that the comic mode is when people take a playful approach through which they get pleasure from a pattern violation that lets them laugh.

    An example of the model of individual humor is that I rarely clean around the house. When I do my parents point it out by making jokes and laughing. So, the event for them is that I grab a cleaning tool and the pattern violation is that they are not used to seeing me clean. When this happens, my parents have a low ego involvement because I am the source of the event. As for the mood, they are happy to see me clean. Then for the confidence they are confident that I will be cleaning which lastly leads them to take the comic path.

References

Meyer, J. C. (2015). Understanding Humor Through Communication: Why Be Funny, Anyway?. Lexington Books.

Looking at the Identification Function of Humor in my personal life

    It is a common thing for people to say that they share a joke or a humorous experience with certain people. These jokes and experiences which are often only understood by specific people and that others would have a hard time understanding. What this is known as is the Identification function of humor. It is a function that is meant to unite people since humor is used to say or find something that truly seems relevant between them. Through the use of this function people are then able to bond with each other and build up their relationships.

    I actually find that this is my favorite function of humor. It reminds me a whole lot of my relationship with one of my cousins who is a few years younger than me and who I rarely see since she lives in another state. However, when she does come to visit it is usually because of some family gathering at my grandparents' house. Our use of the identification function of humor all started during one of these visits when we were younger, and she had approached me to ask me what type of phone I had. At the time I had the latest iPhone, so I simply responded, and we left the conversation at that. However, a couple of months later she came to visit again and asked me the same question, so I once again responded. Then when she visited for the third time, she asked me the same question and I believe it was during this third time that I finally reacted and told her that she always asked me the same question. When I told her this, I used a normal conversational tone but once she paused to think she realized that she did in fact ask me the same question every time she visited so she then started laughing. Which led me to laugh as well. This, however, was not the end of this question since it became a joke between us and now, she purposely asks me this question every time she visits. When she does so, we always laugh because we remember exactly how the joke of this question started between us. However, my other cousins and family members would probably not find this as funny as we do since they did not go through this experience with us.

    It is ultimately through the identification function of humor that me and my cousin were able to turn this shared experience into a joke. Which has further allowed us to maintain a close relationship regardless of the distance between our locations and which will likely be a joke between us for many more years.

An Explanation of the Differentiation Function of Humor

     It is likely that we have all been laughed at for a number of reasons or that we have even laughed at others. In spite of this many of us fail to realize that this falls under a specific function of humor. To be more precise it falls under the Differentiation function of humor which is exactly what I will be teaching throughout this blog post. To do so I will first explain what this function means. Then I will discuss what it can do to people's relationships, and I will lastly provide some examples of where it can be seen.

    So, what does the differentiation function of humor mean? Well, this function means that humor is used to contrast groups of people from others but also to contrast people in one-to-one interactions (Meyer, 2015). In simpler words this means that when people are out interacting with others, and they see something that they believe is different from what it should be they feel the need to call it out through the use of humor. By doing this they then create situations in which one or multiple people are laughing at the called-out difference while the person or people being laughed at are left feeling as if they are the odd ones out.

    From this we can now discuss what the differentiation function of humor does to people's relationships. According to Meyer (2015) this function of humor is considered to be the most divisive one there is. This simply means that it can greatly damage the relationships between people by creating a separation between them. As Meyer (2015) mentions it creates this perspective that those who laugh can in a way be considered winners while the ones being laughed at can be perceived as the losers. Which further highlights how it can break people apart.

    Finally, this function can be seen in various ways and places. One of these places includes high schools where students typically cluster together into the groups they identify with and then they make fun of the students outside of their very own group. By using this function, they highlight that there are differences between their groups and in doing so their relationships with other groups of students become quite divisive. Aside from high schools this function is also likely to be seen between siblings and couples who make fun of each other. From this it can lastly be seen that the differentiation function of humor is very common and that it can be spotted all around us.

References

Meyer, J. C. (2015). Understanding Humor Through Communication: Why Be Funny, Anyway?. Lexington Books.

The Superiority Theory in The Summer I Turned Pretty

    A type of humor I am sure many have come across is the one people use to establish a sense of status. This type of humor is associated with the Superiority Theory. A theory through which humor can be seen or used in situations or interactions where people feel the need to joke or laugh because they feel like they are better than others. However, it can also be seen when people win or achieve something that others do not.

    In the clip below of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" the characters Belly and Conrad are playing a competitive game of basketball. As they play, they make use of the Superiority Theory of humor by making short comments to each other suggesting that they think they are better than the other. In addition to this Belly makes exaggerated and joyful facial expressions after she makes her shots. While Conrad does movements like looking away from the net to make a shot and then giggling when he makes it. Then when Conrad misses his shot, and the others are cheering Belly on Conrad jokingly uses the Superiority Theory to try to discourage her from making the final shot in a way that implies that she is not good enough to make it. However, Belly again uses this theory when she wins the game because she starts jumping around and laughing while she looks at Conrad. The clip lastly shows the use of this theory when one of the other characters makes a joke towards Conrad for losing as a way to suggest that he is not as good of a player as Belly is. 

    In looking at the whole interaction of the scene it can ultimately be seen that the Superiority Theory can positively be used to have fun with others. However, it is also important to know that this may not always be the case since some people may not find any humor in feeling like they are less.

   

My experience with the Psychoanalytic Theory

       When it comes to humor there are several theories that can be used to explain why we laugh or why we find something funny. One of them is the Psychoanalytic Theory. This theory can be observed when people are put into situations where they turn their bottled-up emotions into humor. The emotions themselves can range from feeling fear, being nervous, or being uncomfortable. When people feel these emotions, it often gets to a point where they have no clue what to do with them other than to let them out through the use of humor.

    Throughout my life I have noticed that I frequently use this theory. The most recent time I used it was when it was my uncle's wife's birthday party. I have often seen her side of the family, yet it is often strange to spend time together since they can be considered loud and outgoing while my side of the family is more serious. When arriving at the birthday party my parents and I stepped inside the house and all that could be heard was screaming and laughing from my cousins as well as the kids who belong to my uncle's wife's side of the family. For the most part we are all around the same age, but I usually keep to myself and don't interact with them. So, on this day I took a seat beside my mother while the other kids continued laughing and screaming. The reason for all the noise was that they were trying to film a TikTok. Now, considering that they were recording right behind my chair, I started to feel nervous and uncomfortable. I feared that if I moved, I would come out in their video. The emotions themselves were already strong inside of me but they eventually came out with the Psychoanalytic Theory when one of the girls' moms approached me. She had noticed that I was just sitting there with the older adults and asked if I wanted to be in the video with the others. I said no considering that I am not used to recording TikTok's. She then asked "why, are you embarrassed?" and at this point I felt so uncomfortable that I did not know what to say to her, so I simply looked at her and laughed. After seeing me laugh she also laughed and eventually walked away. While I did feel that the moment was very awkward, I also think that laughing allowed me to relax a bit. 

    Overall, the Psychoanalytic Theory in my personal example goes to show that we can turn feelings that make us feel bad into humor as a way to minimize them and ultimately help us feel better.

    

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