For many of you, a good handful of posts from the Rustraint IG page are inexplicably funny. You find yourself laughing even when they defy or lack logic.
That’s because incongruity is one of the many foundations of humor, according to neuroscientist, author, and broadcaster Dr. Dean Burnett,
“Humor can be derived from things being surprising, unexpected, or wrong in some form, as long as it’s resolved, without negative consequences,” Dr. Burnett wrote in an article for BBC Science Focus.
Dr. Burnett noted that resolution to the incongruity is necessary for humor to resonate. To clarify, he provided an example.
“If the answer to ‘Why did the golfer wear two pairs of trousers?’ is ‘in case the metal owl that lived in his gold bag attacked him’, that’s… not funny? There’s more incongruity, which goes unresolved.”
You can argue that puns are the lowest-hanging fruit when it comes to jokes. They can draw quick laughs from all age groups that understand humor and serve as excellent icebreakers, even in professional settings.
According to Dr. Burnett, using the same words with dual meanings technically violates our understanding of language, causing incongruity.
“For example, ‘Why did the golfer wear two pairs of trousers? In case he got a hole in one.’ Here, ‘hole in one’ has two possible interpretations. Both are equally valid. Simultaneously,” Dr. Burnett explained.
