Humor
...ecause the origin of the humor is not understood. The foreigner does not know what the rest of the audience finds funny. Even within one culture there are different responses to humor. Young children, teenagers, and adults do not laugh at the same things. Values and morals also affect one's views of humor. Prior to the civil rights movement, ethnic humor of all types was popular in the United States. Jokes about ethnic groups were commonly told on radio, television, and the stage. The resurgence of ethnic pride in the early 1960s virtually ended the widespread use of such humor. Telling ethnic stories through the public media became very risky unless the teller was a member of the group about which the stories were told. Thus Myron Cohen could continue regaling audiences with his brilliant Jewish humor, but Bill Dana could no longer perform his José Jiménez routine on television because he is not Mexican. The barrier against ethnic humor was partially broken by the television series All in the Family, in which the lead character, Archie Bunker, freely insulted everyone who was different from himself. Humor appeals primarily to two senses--hearing and seeing. Before television, professional comics on radio had to rely on words and sounds alone to convey humor. When an audience can see a performer on stage, in movies, or on television, both verbal and visual humor are possible. Parody Verbal humor. Humor in the form of words may be either written or spoken. As such it usually requires some amount of understanding by the hearer or reader for which visual humor may not call. One of the most common kinds of verbal humor is the play on words. This type includes puns, riddles, and some limericks. Puns especially involve the use of soundalike words that have different meanings (see Word Games ). A parody is a comic piece of writing that gets its humor by imitating a serious piece. 'Don Quixote' by Miguel Cervantes is probably the best parody ever written. Satires are usually long, written attempts at humor. They are designed to make fun of human folly and weakness. The ancient Greek dramatist Aristophanes used satire masterfully to lampoon the persons and institutions of Athens. Of all types of verbal humor, the joke, or witticism, is probably the most popular. The joke may be as short as a one-liner, or it may be a long and complex story with a surprise ending. Many jokes depend for their success on the unexpected, or bringing together two ways of thinking abo...