Response to walker's blog 11/17

I think this clip definitely mainly uses the superiority theory. I also want to add to Walker's interpretation of how the comedian uses the superiority theory and say that I think the members of the audience who laughed at his jokes also found themselves superior to the situations he was describing. I think a lot of the comedy that comes from his jokes as they relate to the audience is the fact that they relate over common beliefs regarding gun laws, abortion, or maybe even parenting styles. People in the audience who really found these jokes funny could have laughed because they agree with his stance, or they could have laughed because they find it absurd and they believe that he is making fun of the stance they disagree with, similar to late-night political comedy shows.

I also agree that the incongruity theory is a good theory to back up the humor in this clip. Not only are the punch lines of his jokes a little more obscene or out of the norm that maybe what we would normally expect, but also the topics that he chooses to make his jokes about are usually considered taboo to joke about. This makes these jokes a violation of our normal mental patterns since our brains to not usually associate comedy with these normally serious matters. This makes his comedy all the more effective since it adds a bit of unexpected humor and a lack of predictability to his shows. People who regularly watch him may expect the type of humor that he usually employs, but even then, his punchlines seem to always bring something new to the table.