In pursuit of a video about humor

1. One of the common questions in the comments is: how do you tell the difference between good, inclusive humor and humor that is really dehumanizing and degrading? In the video, I admit that the latter is quite common, but I argue that such humor, as a rule, is forced. There is an interesting scientific article here (The evolution and functions of laughter and humor: a synthetic approach), where the authors distinguish between "Duchen" and "non-Duchen" laughter. This is from Guillaume Duchenne, the 19th-century French neurologist who shocked people with electricity and found out that all the major facial muscles are involved in laughter. At the everyday level, this is familiar to us in the form that when people are really having fun, they "laugh with their eyes" - this is Duchenian laughter. And when people squeeze out a stone-faced smile, it's not Duchenne laughter, or just fake.

So, the authors write that Duchenian laughter was formed in ancient primates as a game signal and a social bond (this is identical to Pinker's approach). But then the monkeys evolved, acquired a language and learned to use humor consciously. It is this ability that the authors associate with the "dark side of humor" - the ability to use it as a tool of manipulation. But when people do this, non-Duchen laughter comes out. just worn out.

At the same time (this is not from that article, I saw it elsewhere) experiments show that people are quite good at distinguishing these two types of laughter by the nuances of facial expressions. That is, in practice, we completely distinguish when a person jokes spontaneously and sincerely, and when he thought for half a day how to hook us up. The question remains: can we distinguish non-Duchenian humor where we do not see someone else's face? This is apparently more difficult, but I believe we can do it too. How to distinguish a quality stand-up from propaganda satire? The first is easy, and the second is hard work. And do you know where the ears of non-Duchen laughter still stick out noticeably? In all these "mirror" leftist jokes about "boomers", "fragile white men", etc. Before the inner eye immediately rises the image of the author, who, of course, diligently laughs, but not with "eyes".

2. In terms of criticism, the journalistic article on the Aeon website deserves attention, where the author criticizes the concept of Manning and Campbell about cultures of honor-dignity-victimity. The author writes that in pre-revolutionary France, duels were the privilege of aristocrats (Voltaire, for example, was beaten by the servants of one nobleman and tried to challenge him to a duel in response, but to no avail), but after that, representatives of the bourgeoisie, who became citizens, began to joyfully challenge everyone to a duel. From this, the author concludes that "thick-skinned" is not an attribute of a culture of dignity, but something that is prescribed for oppressed groups. And when they stop being oppressed, they quickly become "sensitive" to verbal banter.

The idea is interesting. But only if you do not take into account that the era of bourgeois duels ended as quickly as it began. Along with everything else imitating the rulers of the "old order" - the bourgeoisie quickly got used to it and began to generate their own ideas about virtue, incl. the same insensitivity to words.

However, this criticism can be interpreted differently. And even more optimistic. So, the Manning-Campbells are engaged in alarmism, and the new culture of victimhood is not at all replacing the culture of dignity. It's just a temporary aberration - some groups have only recently received a public voice and now, to celebrate, they show it to everyone around. About how the French townspeople challenged each other to a duel, drunk from a sudden collapse of freedom. However, those offended will just as quickly go mad, and the era of cancel culture will end, just as the era of urban duels ended.

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Both points seemed redundant to me to include them in yesterday's video about humor.

Mihail Pojarsky 2021-04-30