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.