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Warner Bros.
We know, Ed Helms. We're shocked, too!
By Bill Briggs
We’re all grown-ups here.
Kind of.
So why have so many “Bridesmaids” viewers cringed with laughter while watching the bride (Maya Rudolph) and her girlfriends -- bedecked in designer dresses -- suddenly erupt in a food-poisoning-induced storm of vomit and diarrhea? (Pity that poor -- once-white -- wedding gown).
Why, in "The Hangover Part 2," will packs of theatergoers today simultaneously grimace and grin at the glimpse of a young man’s severed ring finger -- still wearing a Stanford class ring?
And why, in 2007's “Knocked Up,” did some of us wince and giggle when we saw a baby’s head crown from Katherine Heigl’s ladyparts as she screamed, “Get out!” to a horrified dude who had peeked into her birthing room?
Those scenes put the gag in -- well -- gag. But many of us roared despite our repulsion. What are we, like, 8 years old?
Why do disgusting or shocking movie moments still make some of us cackle till we cry?
According to two experts -- one a researcher, one a comic -- there’s psychology behind that crude comedy.
“Humor is elicited by the perception of something that seems to be unsettling, threatening, wrong, scary or anger-inducing,” said Peter McGraw, assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “There’s a wonderful quote by Mark Twain that sums it up nicely: ‘The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.’ ”
Last August, McGraw co-authored a study examining why we laugh at images we consider to be morally wrong. By asking his test subjects to read offensive scenarios -- then tweaking those descriptions to see if the subjects still found them humorous -- the researchers developed their “benign violation theory.”
“Of course, things that are wrong usually make us upset. So at the same time that something is seen as a violation, it also has to be seen as benign -- that it is, in some way, OK or acceptable,” McGraw said.
That benign aspect is fueled, McGraw said, because the situation has “psychological distance” -- it’s happening to someone else, or it happened a long time ago, or that it’s so absurd, it seems obviously contrived. (This is where the old saying, "Tragedy plus time equals comedy," applies.)
Is there a demographic that seems most immune to insult and who, therefore, laughs harder at the raunchiest material?
“Young men seem to be pretty impossible to offend,” McGraw said. “As a result, a lot of things that everybody finds to be violations, they find to be benign violations.”
“It’s the frat humor,” agreed comedian Alonzo Bodden. “It all goes back to ‘Animal House’ and ‘Stripes.’
“When it’s done well, it’s funny,” Bodden said. “It’s funny because it’s so totally inappropriate.”
Bodden agrees with McGraw’s “benign violation theory.” But as a man who stands alone on stage seeking laughter, he also understands that what’s hilarious to one person, can just seem stupid to another.
“When it’s predictable or too over-the-top,” Bodden said, “when the (filmmaker or comedian feels they) have to make it so much wilder and more ridiculous, now it’s not funny anymore.”
To help draw his scientific conclusions, McGraw and his co-author, Caleb Warren, asked 36 participants to read the description of a violation. Some were aghast at the passage. But most were amused – because, to them, it seemed benign.
The scene? A man rubs his genitals against a kitten -- which "purrs and seems to enjoy the contact."
See. Made you laugh. Well, some of you.
What's your favorite gross-out scene from a movie? Or -- can you think of a movie that went a little too far? Leave a comment telling us the movie and the scene.
Bill Briggs is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com and author of “The Third Miracle.”
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
Grossness is just one of the many 'violations' involved in Peter McGraws theory. Absurdity is really a classic humor method that is a different type of violation. For example, I tell a one liner that goes "I think penguins are holding something very precious to them in their armpits". That joke' may be a bit hard to work into the violation premise, but really thinking about why the penguin holds his upper body the way he does is a bit of an outside the box thought. Much of the humor in that just comes from the picture in your head, but the fact that you're considering the penguins body posture is just plain funny, and perhaps a 'violation' of everyday thought.
We've started our own humor study too at HumorQ.com where we have a daily caption contest and use a unique method called crowdsifting to find the best captions. We put real numbers on how funny people are by having members both judge and submit captions. We will be able to examine caption scores and their metrics to get more insight on the things we judge as funny It's a very unique and fair way to score humor. The web site is currently experimental and non-commercial so please don't flag this post.
Not unlike the penguin who was waiting on his car to be repaired inside an ice cream shop. He waddled back across the street to check on his car and the mechanic said, "Looks like you just blew a seal".
The penguin replied, "No, it's just ice cream."
I disagree with this article. I'm male, 23 years old, and honestly I have never found crude humor to be funny, just disgusting and stupid. I think society teaches young males and encourages them to find such things to be funny practically from birth. Basically you are male so you should find this funny... Maybe long ago there was a man who thought crude humor was funny and this guy was also considered to be very manly so other males in an attempt to appear more manly decided to find crude humor funny... I don't know...
I can't say I've ever felt the need to laugh at crude humor to make myself feel like a man.
However I do find the twilight zone to be funny, not because it is an old show, but because I find the way that it challenges reality to be very amusing.
Believe me! There is nothing funny about finding corn on Grandma's soap.
Or maybe your religion destroyed your sense of humor.
First: Your theory on this elusive caveman ancestor that single-handedly redefined male behavior in society be being the most alpha of all the cavemen and whom also enjoyed throwing poop at people is interesting.
Second: There's a saying in Social Psychology and Statistics (and probably in other circles), that "Correlation does not imply Causation". On other words "don't read too much into a statistic as it's presented and assume that it's saying something else".
The article quotes the researcher as thus: “Young men seem to be pretty impossible to offend,” McGraw said. “As a result, a lot of things that everybody finds to be violations, they find to be benign violations.” Two variables in this article you are referring to: Variable 1- Subject is male, and Variable 2- Subject likes potty jokes. These are simply two correlated variables, but do not assume that this correlation implies subjects like toilet humor because they are male.
There is no implication in this article that if your are male, you SHOULD find crass humor to be funny. It simply implies that most males DO find it to be funny. So how do you go about disagreeing with the article, based simply on the fact that your are in the minority of the male subjects tested in this particular study? You can disagree with the males that were studied, but you can't really disagree with the researchers' findings...
So how did your mom feel about you coming out of the closet?
She wasn't as upset about it as your mom was when I did.
I don't find the gross-out factor to be funny at all. I think those who do find it funny have the mentality of an 8-year old. It's like watching "America's Funniest Home Videos" and laughing every time some man is hit in the groin with a: frisbee, baseball, ...... whatever; or someone tripping or falling. No matter how many times I see this, it's still not funny. Why? Because these are accidents, and the victims may get hurt. It's not a staged 3-Stooges type of situation, where the audience knows no one will get hurt.
However, vomiting, food fights, bathroom noises, etc., just aren't funny.
You need to learn how to spell "avatar"! XD Seriously, though, one of the funniest movie scenes was in Team America where the character pukes in the bar right at the punchline of somebodies joke. What was so funny was that he went outside and kept puking, and puking,...and puking! It went on until it wasn't funny anymore, but then went on and on until it was even funnier than to begin with.
Resonator - my screen name has nothing to do with AVATAR. It is actually A VOTER - as in someone who votes in elections. I simply chose to put the two words together to create a unique screen name. There is more to life than computer terminology and computer graphics!
Do you even know what YOUR screen name means? A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonant frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others.
How does that describe you?
Avoter - yes, I know that your screen name is A VOTER. My comment was a joke. The reason it was meant to be funny was because most everyone should recognize that you weren't trying to spell avatar. This is a form of absurdist humor. Another example of this: at a symposium, one speaker was leaving the lectern (what many people erroneously refer to as a podium) and said "Mike Johnson will give us a little more on that subject". I turned to the person next to me and asked "who's the little moron?". This kind of humor sometimes annoys people I work with, but most think it's funny, and even start playing these word games themselves.
I am quite familiar with resonance. For example, the harmonic series for a string (like on a violin) is given by: frequency(n) = n * (tension/mass/unit length)^1/2 / 2*length. This is an application of wave analysis, which was pioneered by a French mathematician by the name of Fourier, who took a great interest in heat transference and recognized that it was a form of wave. Wave analysis is a very interesting subject with a myriad applications. A friend said that the program he uses for fingerprint identification even uses FFTs (Fast Fourier Transforms)!
As far as how "resonator" relates to me, I have a tendancy to say the exact phrase or mention the same topic that others were just thinking or talking about, often just before I was in the vicinity. Some think this is weird, superstitious types can feel "creeped out", but my official stance is always that it is "just a coincidence".
There are so many serious and depressing things happening in the world, so I like to throw in a bit of levity when I can. Lighten up!
It would have been funnier if the cat, while purring, reached out and clawed his penis. Then you'd have to pan out to his facial reaction. I really don't think it is simply the gross our effect, I think it is witnessing the person's reaction to the situation. That is why slapstick goes over so well, it's our body language that induces the laughing effect, not the verbal communication.
There's a big difference between a good p00p joke and a bad one. Failure to know the difference is just as bad as thinking you're "above" a good p00p joke.
Ah, there is nothing better than being "above" a good poop! Seems most of our lives are spent "below" them.
I believe it was George Carlin Who said "What's a good comedy show without a few good fart jokes?" as well as "Kids love farts cause farts are S#!T without the mess."
When someone tells me something is really funny and then shows/tells it to me, I never think it's funny. Not expecting the humor is a big part of it some things.
You have to be in the mood to find something funny, too.
I think perhaps you've not been a parent to a boy child. I have a young son who is now 9 yrs old, and who loooves crude humour. I saw it start when he was a toddler giggling at his own farts. I honestly think there is something ingrained in young boys naturally, it wasn't like I was actively teaching him this stuff was funny, but that kind of humour kills him with laughter.
Went too far? Anything with Adam Sandler or Pauly Shore.
Ok, ok (lol) anything with John Belushi and/or Bill Murray -- and they are kings of gross humor! How about Caddyshack - the Baby Ruth candy bar in the swimming pool, the pool is drained and cleaned and Bill Murray picks up the candy bar and takes a big bite. That is just hilarious!
Most of John Belushi scenes in Animal House was something gross. Like when he has a mouth full of food and just opens his mouth and lets the food just fall out - and he looked as tho he would smell as bad as he looked.
when my daughters were newborns, they kept smiling, the doctors told me it was gas that made em smile. so proof positive, its scientifically proven thats its in our dna to think farts are funny.
At 9, farting & other body noises, and even vomiting may be funny. But, most people outgrow it at some point. Also, I'd rather spend my money and time on a movie that entertains.
I don't find curent "comedies" funny at all. All the schtick they use has been done before, by better comedieans.
Vaudeville, burlesque, silent films, and the screwball comedic films of the thirties have done them all before, if not in fact, then in intent. The only difference between now and then is that film-makers now have the license to show the actual thing.
Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, et al. are pale reflections of real comedic talent.
Is it Dead Baby Jokes tiem?
Comedy is situational and can be shocking, degrading, awe inspiring, stupid, demeaning, self demeaning, gross, and ironic. There is comedy in jobs, careers, such as morticians, medics, policemen, soldiers, and even doctors with some of their gallows humor. What is funny as hell today can be over the top a year from now and even cause public criticisms in a week or year later. A sense of humor is based on many different life experiences or even lack thereof. Almost anything can be funny given the situation. It's all in the delivery.
It boggles my mind that this kind of humor is becoming popular, when I totally think its very very disgusting. I actually left during the first half of the movie "Bridesmaid" and did not laugh once during the time I endured in the theater. It is gross, disgusting and not funny. Its like cheap jokes, but not just cheap they are disgusting to the point they lose their humor. The three stooges were funny, silly funny, but not disgusting. This trend is pure disgusting!!! To me I think writers are taking the cheap way out instead of coming up with good funny material.........shame!
Grossness In small doses, yeah OK. Constant stream of it, quickly loses its novelty. Some producer gets the idea that more is better. It ain't. And if the current generation thinks this is normal, we're all in trouble.
This is exactly why I hate Will Ferrall. He is predictable and over the top. It is not funny to make me feel uncomfortable. If I want that feeling I can go back to church.
gross things are not too funny to me for some reason......I think the worst was Jackass 3 with all the disgusting "jokes".....i wasnt laughing.:S
WOW u people really need to get a clue its the simple things in life. Here's on for you do you know y turds r tappered at the end?????...... So your but hole dont slam shut and blow your brains out!!!!! LMAO!!!!!
Whilst not having the time to read ALL of the comments, I just had to put my 2cents into it. I am a mature lady of 40+ years.
Crude humor has its place at times. They just happened to mention movies that were mainly for men. In the 1st installment of Sex in the City, there was the mention of someone pooping in their pants, and I nearly pooped my pants laughing about the inclination that someone had pooped their pants.
Sometimes what is funny is just plain ole funny, nothing more nothing less. Someone always have to find meaning behind things. People this day and age just need to get a grip.
I don't attend many movies (political reasons) but on TV, the fart humor in shows like Two and a Half Men, Family Guy and the Cleveland Show leaves me in stitches...and I'm almost 53!