Someone can spend time and effort creating the perfect sentence, message or prose, only to have it completely destroyed by truncation. An amputated headline, an awkward line break, or a phone notification that's chopped off at the very worst moment can create content that might amuse even the best professional comedy writers.
Humor experts say one of the reasons we find "premature truncations" so hilarious is because of something known as Incongruity Theory. According to comedian Sean Cooper, Incongruity Theory is about breaking patterns and the element of surprise.
"The idea is that laughter comes when we’re confronted with something we don’t expect," he explains.
In other words, our brain predicts one outcome, then gets hit with another. We probably weren't expecting to read, "Selling my daughter..." "I think there should be a ban on people..." or "Virginia passes legislation prohibiting schools from teaching..."
Some truncated sentences can feel almost like accidental punchlines. "There’s a whole style of humour called Absurdist comedy, or surrealist comedy. This style is all about being 'random' and constanty surprising the audience with playful unexpected elements in our stories or sentences," reveals Cooper, adding that successful Absurdism has a lot to do with Incongruity Theory.
The expert says that in comedy, silliness for it’s own sake doesn’t work because there’s no expectation and therefore no suprise.
"The comedian still has to plant expectations in the audience’s mind before introducing something incongruous," he explains. They often do this by using what they call the “rule of three.” They'll prove a point with three examples. The third one is completely unexpected because it breaks the pattern. Cooper says that because our brain is expecting the third one to be consistent, the suprise is easy and effective.
“My life philosophy comes from the great spiritual teachers: Jesus, Buddha and Kim Kardashian,” is a perfect example, he writes.
Many of the oddly truncated posts featured here either take us completely by surprise or leave us hanging, often in the most alarming way. It's like our brains try to finish the sentence, but come up with something super weird or bizarre. Think of it as improv gone wrong, in the funniest way possible.
Our phone notifications are some of the biggest culprits when it comes forcing our brains to improvise. Perhaps we receive one that informs us someone has passed..., or we need to talk about... The actual ending of the message might be completely innocent but for a moment, we think of the worst possible outcome. And then, there's relief: another tactic that good comedians employ.
It's about using misdirection, says Dean Lewis, an award-winning comedian, writer and teacher.
"In a well-structured joke, it’s not only about having a good twist; it’s about connecting the setup and punch line in a logical way," he explains. "It helps to have a buildup to the twist. Usually, the first line is informative. When misdirection is used, it lulls the audience into having a certain expectation. It can also create tension, which the twist releases."
