Qualitative_data_analysis

Transposition: Doctor: ‘I’m afraid I
can’t diagnose your complaint. I think
it must be drink.’ Patient: ‘All right
then, I’ll come back when you are
sober.’
Pun play: A man was worried about
his sex life. ‘How often should I have
sex, doctor?’ he asked. ‘Infrequently,’
said the doctor. ‘Is that one word or
two?’ asked the man.
The references to health and sex in the above examples raise another theme.
Catharsis—which we can think of as humour giving an outlet to repressed emotions
—is another often-cited aspect of humour. Laughter giving emotional release can
act as a social as well as a psychological safety valve. Topics which tend to be anxiety
laden or taboo—sex, race, work, health, death—provide excellent sources of comic
material. The more sensitive or sacrosanct the subject, the greater the effect. This is
the province of the ‘sick’ joke, which may gratify even as it appalls us. But cathartic
humour can also have a more positive aspect.
‘Is sex dirty? Only when it’s done
right’ (Woody Allen)
FINDING A FOCUS 73
‘Don’t knock masturbation—it’s sex
with someone I love’ (Woody Allen)
Criticism is another ingredient we can readily recognize in humour. This aspect is
emphasized in Merrill’s discussion of women’s comedy. Humour can deflate, or
denigrate. It can puncture pretensions. In the form of subversive satire, it can mock
the vanity and ridicule the vice of the powerful. Lives have been lost because of
witticisms ‘out of season’. But humour can also function as a means of oppression,
of maintaining the status quo. Merrill (1988:270) cites a study by Rose Laub Coser
of jokes in a psychiatric institution, which found a hierarchy of humour: those with
power could publicly enjoy a joke at the expense of those without—but not vice
versa. Nor is it always the powerful who seek to confirm the position of the
powerless. Telling jokes against oneself can be a form of social defence, through
which one denies any threat of disruption to established order. Merrill (1988:273)
goes on to discuss comediennes whose humour is based on self deprecation,
ridiculing and demeaning themselves and other women.
Who are the targets or victims of criticism? Andrew Brown (1991) reports that the
wave of humour currently (i.e. in 1991) sweeping southern England has as its target
the ‘Essex Girl’ (and ‘Essex Man’), apparently representative of a newly emergent
stratum of the working class with high household incomes.