Is this picture funny? Why or why not? Which theories or perspectives best explain the potential humor in this photo?
Mirth & Pictures
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Is this picture funny? Why or why not? Which theories or perspectives best explain the potential humor in this photo?
TrackBack URL: http://www.psychologicalscience.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/1907
I don't think this is funny. At least not laughable. It's amusing because of the incongruity. Obviously the Legos do not belong in the hole but they are blocks that look like bricks so I understand the cleverness of the picture. I found a incongruous picture that I did find funny and a very short video. They are funny to me strictly because they are incongruous. With the picture, we do not typically associate serious works or art with a goofy character like a clown. In the video, this little tiny kitten scares off this big dog. The dog, being so much bigger, should not be afraid of the kitten.
http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/cool-websites/art-as-advertising/2006/11/27/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3xVT2Nztc&p=EB8C071F3936E1E9&playnext=1&index=22
I agree with the above statement. I don't find the picture laugh out loud funny, but the incongruity is most definitely present. It is not typical for legos to be beneath a brick wall, logical reasoning from what we know about buildings and how bricks are composed tells us that. I think it would make an interesting piece of abstract artwork though. The picture also reminds me of the schema concept because it is inconsistent of what we know from a general knowledge base. Legos can represent part of the schema from the aspect of "building things" such as a child building a tower out of the legos, but it is not consistent with the schema that represents a sturdy building we would see in a downtown district somewhere.
I also agree with the first statement that this picture would not make me laugh out loud. The incongruity of the picture is humorous because it makes the viewer think about why the picture does not make sense, but it is only funny in the sense that it would make a person think rather than have an outburst of laughter. I feel like taleeo3 put it best by saying that legos are part of our schema where we developed a thought process for legos to "build things." This picture demonstrates how a person is able to revolve the incongruity of an image by using his or her personal schema to develop a resolution to the problem.