Thoughts

Humor and societal norms

If I’d taken some sociology classes in college, I might have gotten this point sooner: humor is driven, by and large, by societal norms. Furthermore, it is usually in contrast (marked or absurd) to those same norms. Allow me to illustrate.

Japan: most of us know that public conduct there has been driven by very strict rules, for as long as history holds. For the most part, it still is. Everyone’s supposed to be proper and dignified. The very regimented lifestyle, and lack of personal space, I might add, leads to the desire to escape it all, to do something completely different. Hence, Japanese humor and comedy focuses on the absurd, on the unlikely, on the odd, the weird, etc. If I’d gotten this sooner, I wouldn’t have asked why Japanese ads are so embarrassing a while back. Now I understand, and I can begin to enjoy it.

Take a video like this for example, a “study” of the best way to escape farts. Only the Japanese could have dreamed this up.

Or how about this follow-up to the Human Tetris video I posted before?

England: No need to explain much here. In the land of the stiff upper lip, public behavior was excruciatingly dry and complex, at least for a particular class — so much so, that most English humor focuses entirely on it, and the contrast between said behavior and that of the lower classes. A search for Benny Hill, Mr. Bean or Harry Enfield on YouTube suffices to illustrate my point. The behavior of the upper classes is so captivating when skewered, that even bastardized versions of such behavior, the ones that trickled down to the bourgeoisie and the middle class, are fascinating. Keeping Up Appearances was one show that capitalized on this.

USA: You might ask why current humor here in the good old US kind of stinks (at least I do). Well, to answer my own question, I think it’s because we’ve been free of restrictive societal norms, at least when it comes to public behavior. In a way, we’ve neutered one of our most potent sources of humor, though it wasn’t done on purpose. We started out with a few civilized cities and mostly wilderness and farms, and it’s still pretty much that way ;-).

Most people are still relaxed in public, and getting even more relaxed. Americans just don’t ascribe to certain norms when out in society, and to a certain extent, this is excusable. In a melting pot like ours, standards differ from family to family, and without huge, focused, national efforts to introduce some standards, things will not improve.

Fortunately, we did have those annoying yuppies in the 80s and early 90s, and we could make fun of them for a while, until that got old. The movie Trading Places (1983, IMDB listing) has some pretty good examples of pseudo-aristocratic behavior just ripe for skewering.

So, here in the States, we’re fresh out of good material unless we tap into history. Or, we could always make fun of how indecently relaxed people have become in public. For example, not a day goes by that I don’t see people wearing unsightly plastic clogs (you know, the “fashionable” kind, the sort that give you athlete’s foot and make your feet smelly) or low-cut jeans that make me wonder what’s more disgusting — the fact that they’re not falling off even though I can plainly see the butt crack, or the plentiful layers of fat that flow over the waistline.

At any rate, the point that I wanted to get across is that I finally get it: humor, by and large, is driven by societal norms, which of course, differ from society to society. I’m beginning to enjoy Japanese humor. I even get why those ads featuring American celebrities are so absurd. They have to be. When you wear a suit and have to act proper all day long, even at home, you long for something completely different.

No matter what culture or nation we talk about, as people, we all share a basic set of needs and wants. One of those is laughter. While the things that make us laugh may differ from region to region, we all want to laugh, and we enjoy ourselves even more when we laugh with others. It’s nice (at least for me) that I can get to understand other cultures through their humor. It’s certainly an interesting way to look at their societies.

Lists

Funny videos

It’s Monday and I’m swamped. I’ve got a ton of photos to post-process, and various other things have piled up as well. There are a couple of reviews in the queue, plus a few condensed knowledge posts, so watch for those later. Today, you get funny videos.

I love this computer monster. If all computer “monsters” were like this, working in IT would actually be a fun job. Not to mention that this would be a great way to dispose of old hardware.

Those Japanese are at it again with Human Tetris:

A compilation of people getting frightened:

Here’s some more great Harry Enfield stuff: The Conjugal Rights Guide.

Do you enjoy the mind-numbingly ridiculous security checks at airports? Yeah, me neither. That’s why we can all relate to this “TSA-approved” video:

Darth Vader spoofs are particularly funny to me. Perhaps it has to do with the marked contrast between the movie persona and what we see here…

… and here.

Lists

Cool science videos

I like to see scientific principles at work in everyday activities. Here are a few videos that illustrate this. Enjoy the weekend!

Galileo postulated that objects fall at the same speed in a vacuum, regardless of their weight. When we got to the moon, they did this experiment on live TV:

Here’s a bar trick that involves simple density physics:

Another bar trick involves simple dimension estimations:

Handling molten glass is an art and science onto itself. Molding it into shape, whether by blowing into it or by using tools, while it’s still white hot, takes knowledge about materials, temperatures, talent and a lot of hard work. It looks easy in this video, but it isn’t.

The Aardvark is designed to take out land mines. Its action is simple. It rotates chains with attached deadweights at high speed, combing through the ground. When it hits a landmine, they go off. The vehicle is heavily plated, and incurs no damage. It’s really cool to see physics and chemistry in action. Can you spot the different forces at work?

This next video shows what happens when water freezes: it expands. Because in this particular location the water is surrounded by rocks, the extra volume of ice has no place to go but up. It’s an unsettling sight, but it’s just a simple natural phenomenon.

The ferrofluid sculpture you’re about to see made the rounds a while ago. It’s a crowd pleaser, but it works based on magnetic forces. The fluid is filled with iron particles, which are magnetized. Electricity is likely used to create a magnetic field which varies in size and force, allowing the artist or a programmable chip to control the fluid’s movement.

Lists

Funny animal videos

Have you ever seen a bird do the moonwalk? It does it better than Michael Jackson. 🙂

Patches is a very unusual horse that reminds me of Mister Ed (from the TV show). Except that Patches creeps me out a bit. He likes to sleep in human beds, rides in cars, and enjoys hamburgers. That’s just not right. Horses eating meat?! I have a feeling Patches’ projected lifespan has been significantly shortened by his lifestyle.