Humour theory and practice: A study on a jumping frog

Humour Theory and Practice:
A Study on a Jumping Frog

von: Corinna Hein

I. Index

II. Introduction 3

III. Two Humour Theorists of the 20th Century and their Works 4

III.1. Henry Bergson: Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic 4

III.1.1. Introducing Bergson 4

III.2. Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic 5

III.1.1. How to Produce Comic 5
III.1.2. How to Create a Comic Character 7

III.2. Sigmund Freud: The Joke and his Relation to the Unconscious 8

III.2.1. Introducing Freud 8
III.2.2. "The Joke and his Relation to the Unconscious" 9

III.2.2.1. Introduction 9
III.2.2.2. Analytical Part 11
III.2.2.3. Synthetic Part 11
III.2.2.4. Theoretical Part 13

IV. A Study on a Jumping Frog 18

IV.1. Mark Twain 18
IV.2. The Celebrated Jumping Frog - Humour in Literature 19

IV.2.1. The Frame 19

V. Summary 24

VI. Bibliography and Picture Index 26

II. Introduction

It′s not yet a hundred years ago, that Sigmund Freud published his book "The Joke and his Relation to the Unconscious" (orig. "Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten", 1905). With his work began the predominance of psychologists and analytics in studies concerning humour. Before Freud it has been the working area of philosophers, such as the French philosopher Henri Bergson, whose "Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic" (orig. "Le Rire", 1900) has been very influential.
Meanwhile their theories have been developed further. Especially Freud′s students have changed the meaning of some theories, for example with the introduction of new observations (e.g. shock) that were yet unknown to Freud. However, besides that both men and their works can help understanding jokes, wit, humour, in short: everything that seems to be funny. While Freud concentrated on the process inside a person who makes a joke (whereas the modern research work concerning humour proceeds from the consumer), Bergson basically worked on the question, what makes people laugh.
In this paper Bergson and Freud will be used to examine a short story by Mark Twain, who is concerned to be the most famous American writer of his time and one of the most humorous as well. Therefore it starts with an introduction to the two humour theorists of the 20th century and their works already pre selected with regard to the further examination of Twain′s story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country" (1865). After that there will be some words about Mark Twain himself, his time and the story, before beginning the examination.

III. Two Humour Theorists of the 20th Century and their Works

III.1. Henry Bergson: Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic

III.1.1. Introducing Bergson

The following part of this work is going to deal with a French philosopher who was awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927 - Henry Bergson. He enjoyed the status of a cult figure in the years between the World Wars. At this time his lectures attracted large crowds. Bergson′s work was considered the main challenge to the mechanistic view of nature.

Henri Bergson was born in Paris as the son of a prosperous Jewish musician and an English mother. He studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure from 1877 to 1881 and spent the following 16 years as a philosophy teacher in a succession of lycées. In 1900 he became a professor at the Collège de France, resigning in 1921 in order to dedicate himself to his writing and to his work on behalf of the League of Nations.
Although not a practising Jew, Bergson refused the Vichy government′s offers to excuse him from the scope of their anti-Semitic laws. He decided to join the persecuted and registered himself at the end of 1940 as a Jew, although his religious thinking had brought him closer to Catholicism. Bergson died on January 3, 1941

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