Ridiculous
To be ridiculous is to be something highly incongruous or inferior, sometimes deliberately so to make people laugh or get their attention, and sometimes unintendedly so as to be considered laughable and earn or provoke ridicule and derision. It comes from the 1540s Latin "ridiculosus" meaning "laughable", from "ridiculus" meaning "that which excites laughter", and from "ridere" meaning "to laugh".[1] "Ridiculous" is an adjective describing "the ridiculous".
In common usage, "ridiculousness" is used as a synonym for
Historically, the ridiculous was central to initial theories of humor and laughter as first put forth by philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It is currently used in the theory of humor to trigger laughter, shock, parody, or satire. Reactions to the ridiculous have been studied in psychology for its effects on memory, attention, and attitude in social hierarchies. These studies have been applied to the theory of advertisement regarding attention, memory, and alleviation of preexisting negative attitudes toward products. The ridiculous is often contrasted with the sublime, one of extreme inferiority, the other of extreme superiority, and often one can suddenly move from one extreme state to the other.
Humor
History: Incongruity, the superiority theory of humor, and deformity
The ridiculous often has extreme incongruity (things that are not thought to belong next to each other) or inferiority, e.g., "when something that was dignified is reduced to a ridiculous position (here noting the element of the incongruous), so that laughter is most intense when we escape from a 'coerced solemnity'."[4][5] For Aristotle, we laugh at inferior or ugly individuals, because we feel a joy at being superior to them.[6] Socrates was reported by Plato as saying that the ridiculous was characterized by a display of self-ignorance.[7] Deformity was considered by some to be essential to the ridiculous.[8][9] Psychological theories of humor include the "incongruity theory" and the "superiority theory", the latter of which the philosopher Thomas Hobbes was an early proponent.[10][11][12] Hobbes claimed that laughter was either caused spontaneously, or by seeing a deformed thing to which one compares themselves and laugh as a form of self applause; "a sudden glory arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison of the infirmities of others."[9] The Right Reverend William Warburton, Lord Bishop of Gloucester said in the early 18th century that, "Nothing is ridiculous but what is deformed".[13] Using the ridiculous is a method in the theory of humor.[14]
Although common usage now considers "absurdity" to be synonymous with "ridiculousness", Hobbes discussed the two concepts as different, in that absurdity is viewed as having to do with invalid reasoning, as in
Native American Ritual Clown
The
Parody and satire in social commentary
The ridiculous can use uses both physical and conceptual inferiority and incongruity of juxtaposition to create parody and satire.
In
In
Deformity and incongruity in performance as social commentary, and lifestyle
Japanese Butoh dance
Japanese
Theatre of the Ridiculous
The Theatre of the Ridiculous is a genre of performance that uses highly incongruous stage settings and incongruous costumes such as
Psychology: attention, memory, and attitudes
Psychologists have studied human response to the ridiculous and its effects on attention and memory.[24][25]
Advertising
The ridiculous is used in advertising to
Juxtaposition with the sublime
The ridiculous is sometimes contrasted to the sublime where something with one quality is thought of as approaching, or likely to change to, the other.
Thomas Paine, writing in The Age of Reason in 1795, said The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous, makes the sublime again.[27]
Napoleon, reflecting on the state of his existence following his retreat from Moscow in 1812, famously remarked to Polish ambassador D. G. De Pradt: Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas (There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous).[1][27][28][29]
Reduction to the ridiculous, or "reductio ad ridiculum"
Reduction to the ridiculous (Latin: "reductio ad ridiculum", also called "Appeal to ridicule", "appeal to mockery", or "the Horse Laugh") is a logical fallacy which presents the opponent's argument in a way that grossly misrepresents it and appears ridiculous next to it, often so misrepresentative as to create a
Contrasting ridiculousness with absurdity in
Invective
Arguments are often simply dismissed by calling them "ridiculous" as invective, without further argumentation.[30] Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche often dismissed philosophical positions by calling them "ridiculous" without further argument given.[30]
See also
- Camp (style)
- Illogical
- Kitsch
- Non sequitur (logic)
- Silly
References
- ^ a b Dictionary.com
- ^ Free Dictionary
- ^ Thesaurus.com
- ^ Humour, Jokes and the Statement, Journal of Human Values, 2006, S Acharya, [1]
- ^ British Journal of Aesthetics, (1964) 4 (3), Harold Osborne, p.284
- ^ Poetics, 1449a, p. 34-35.
- ^ Plato, Philebus 49b ff.
- ^ Laughter as a Test of Truth in Enlightenment Satire, Werner von Koppenfels
- ^ a b A history of English Laughter: Laughter from Beowulf to Beckett and Beyond, Manfred Pfister
- ^ The Perception of Humor, Willibald Ruch, Emotions, qualia, and consciousness, Biocybernetics, VOl. 10
- ^ How Many Feminists Does It Take To Make A Joke? Sexist Humor and What's Wrong With It, Memo Bergmann, Hypatia, Vol.1, Issue 1, March 1986
- ^ Humor as a Double‐Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communication, JC Meyer, Communication Theory, Volume 10, Issue 3, pages 310–331, August 2000
- ^ The divine legation of Moses demonstrated, William Warburton
- ]
- ^ Native American Postcolonial Psychology, E Duran, B Duran
- ^ Ambigere: The Euro-American Picaro and the Native American Trickster, Melus, The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 1991, F Ballinger
- ^ The Mythology of Evil Among North American Indian Yuroks and Its Implications for Western Spirituality, Anthropology of Consciousness, Volume 7, Issue 3, pages 15–29, September 1996, Royal Alsup, Stanley Krippne, [3]
- ^ Jennifer L. McMahon, B. Steve Csaki, The Philosophy of the Western (2010), p. 295.
- ^ a b "ridiculous rationalizations of evil". Teaching Candide-A Debate, The French Review, Vol 61, No. 5, 1988, Theodore E. D. Braun, Felicia Sturzer, Martine Darmon Meyer, [4]
- ^ Blending the Sublime and the Ridiculous: A Study of Parody in György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Sewell, Amanda J, [5]
- ^ The Bizarre World of Butoh, San Francisco Weekly
- ^ The Bizarre and the Beautiful, Los Angeles Times, 1989
- ^ Conquest of the Ridiculous:Ronald Tavel, John Vaccaro and Charles Ludlam, WarholStars, [6]
- ^ a b The Psychology of Advertising, Walter Dill Scott, 1910
- ^ The Ancient Art of Memory: Usefulness in Treatment, Bernard M. Patten, Archives of Neurology, 1972;26(1):25-31, [7]
- ^ Music for advertising effects, Psychology and Marketing, Volume 1, Issue 3-4, 1984, S Hecker
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-953953-6. Retrieved 2011-02-13. Available online to subscribers
- ^ The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Robert Andrews
- ^ British Journal of Aesthetics, Aesthetics (1964) 4 (3), Harold Osborne, p. 284-5, [8]
- ^ a b c d Wishful Thinking and Other Philosophical Reflections, Nicholas Rescher, 2009