What's funny? A definition of humor and humor theories

Akademische Arbeit aus dem Jahr 2007 im Fachbereich Amerikanistik - Linguistik, Note: 2,1, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Laughter is a respond to a specific stimulus. This implies that some conditions have to be fulfilled in order to say something is funny, like for instance an unlike situation, an absurd comment, or an ironical situation. Referring to Raskin, humor means that a person 'finds the audial or visual stimulus funny' (1985: 1). Ross says that humor is 'something that makes a person laugh or smile' (1998: 1). For joke tellers or producers of sitcoms, laughter is the desired response to a certain situation or conversation. Sometimes, though, other reactions occur as well. The broad scope of humor research makes it impossible to draw attention to all current issues. But some research and information which is related to the theories of humor are introduced in the following passages.