Hey everyone, for my lead blog I would like to write about something I call "Feeling Tone Interpretation" and its application to comedy theory.
https://Youtu.be/oPpzJAzdpTU
First of all, events typically have a certain "feeling tone" associated with them. For example, a murder is despicable, a hug is affectionate, a fall is painful etc. We can call the typical feeling tones of an event the "Standard Feeling Tones." However, when we look at an event not individually, but as one event in a series of events, the feeling tone of the event often changes drastically. For instance, when we slip and fall, the standard feeling tone of the event is undesirable. Nevertheless, if it turned out that there was a gunman shooting at us, and the sole reason the bullet went over our head was our falling, the feeling tone of the fall would be entirely different! The fall would be desirable because it saved our life; in fact, it would be the most desirable thing that could happen in that circumstance. Another clear example would be in music. For instance, the minor second interval(the first two notes in the movie Jaws theme) by itself is extremely dissident. However, when in Beethoven's Fur Elise the minor second is placed in a context with other notes, it becomes gentle, sad, and melodic. That is, its feeling tone changes radically.
Now, I think that changes in feeling tone interpretation is something we can apply(often, but not always) to incongruity in humor. For example, in the video found in this blog, we can see that every single one of Chef Gideon's statements changes the feeling tone of the previous statement into its direct opposite. He says the dish is bad, but then it turns out it's more of a Michael Jackson bad(a.k.a. good), but then he states it's only Michael Jackson bad in the sense that he looked bad at the end of his career. Notice what is happening to the original statement that the dish is bad. Its standard feeling tone interpretation was horrible news, but now the feeling tone interpretation is great news, then terrible news! Of course, this sequence occurs for a very long time in the video, but the point is that the statement takes one meaning that is contradictory with its previous meaning many times in the video. This is a clear example of incongruity, because it links two completely distinct meanings into one sentence.
We can conclude some bizarre but fascinating phenomena unique to feeling tones from the example above. One of which is the fact that the feeling tone of an event can change even after it already happened. Going back to our example, the statement that the food is bad changes after it has already been uttered from something negative to something positive. Of course, in one sense the statement is the same statement as before. After all, It has the same words, said with the same tone, same grammar structure, etc. However, as far as the true import of the words is concerned, especially to the aspiring chef on the show, the statement is a completely different statement than what is was previously! Another fascinating attribute of feeling tones is that an event can have one feeling tone and its opposite at the exact same time! For instance, at the beginning of the video, Chef Gideon says "unbelievable" after tasting the food. What is the feeling tone of what he says? Well, in fact, there are two feeling tones. One is terrible, because it could mean "unbelievably bad". The other is great, because it could mean "unbelievably good." So the feeling tone of the statement is both excitement and dread at the same time!
Thus, the flexibility of feeling tones is something that comedy employs with incredible frequency. It works especially clearly with incongruity due to the fact that incongruity often consists of linking two opposite things, events, or statements in unexpected ways.
https://Youtu.be/oPpzJAzdpTU
First of all, events typically have a certain "feeling tone" associated with them. For example, a murder is despicable, a hug is affectionate, a fall is painful etc. We can call the typical feeling tones of an event the "Standard Feeling Tones." However, when we look at an event not individually, but as one event in a series of events, the feeling tone of the event often changes drastically. For instance, when we slip and fall, the standard feeling tone of the event is undesirable. Nevertheless, if it turned out that there was a gunman shooting at us, and the sole reason the bullet went over our head was our falling, the feeling tone of the fall would be entirely different! The fall would be desirable because it saved our life; in fact, it would be the most desirable thing that could happen in that circumstance. Another clear example would be in music. For instance, the minor second interval(the first two notes in the movie Jaws theme) by itself is extremely dissident. However, when in Beethoven's Fur Elise the minor second is placed in a context with other notes, it becomes gentle, sad, and melodic. That is, its feeling tone changes radically.
Now, I think that changes in feeling tone interpretation is something we can apply(often, but not always) to incongruity in humor. For example, in the video found in this blog, we can see that every single one of Chef Gideon's statements changes the feeling tone of the previous statement into its direct opposite. He says the dish is bad, but then it turns out it's more of a Michael Jackson bad(a.k.a. good), but then he states it's only Michael Jackson bad in the sense that he looked bad at the end of his career. Notice what is happening to the original statement that the dish is bad. Its standard feeling tone interpretation was horrible news, but now the feeling tone interpretation is great news, then terrible news! Of course, this sequence occurs for a very long time in the video, but the point is that the statement takes one meaning that is contradictory with its previous meaning many times in the video. This is a clear example of incongruity, because it links two completely distinct meanings into one sentence.
We can conclude some bizarre but fascinating phenomena unique to feeling tones from the example above. One of which is the fact that the feeling tone of an event can change even after it already happened. Going back to our example, the statement that the food is bad changes after it has already been uttered from something negative to something positive. Of course, in one sense the statement is the same statement as before. After all, It has the same words, said with the same tone, same grammar structure, etc. However, as far as the true import of the words is concerned, especially to the aspiring chef on the show, the statement is a completely different statement than what is was previously! Another fascinating attribute of feeling tones is that an event can have one feeling tone and its opposite at the exact same time! For instance, at the beginning of the video, Chef Gideon says "unbelievable" after tasting the food. What is the feeling tone of what he says? Well, in fact, there are two feeling tones. One is terrible, because it could mean "unbelievably bad". The other is great, because it could mean "unbelievably good." So the feeling tone of the statement is both excitement and dread at the same time!
Thus, the flexibility of feeling tones is something that comedy employs with incredible frequency. It works especially clearly with incongruity due to the fact that incongruity often consists of linking two opposite things, events, or statements in unexpected ways.
Comments
Post a Comment