Humour – part 1

BBC Learning EnglishWeekenderHumour – part 1Jackie:  Hello, I'm Jackie Dalton, you're listeningto BBC Learning English dot com.
　　Today: what's the point of humour? We all know having alaugh is a way of making our lives better, but exactly howdoes all this work? This week, we hear from JenniferCoates, who is Professor of English Language andLinguistics at Roehampton University in England. She's donea lot of research into humour and how it's used. First,Jennifer will list three main reasons why she thinks humouris important. What are they?
　　JenniferHumour is extraordinary, it's actually multifunctional –[it] has lots and lots of different functions. But I thinkthe three mains one are, first of all, to achievedominance, secondly 1 for self-protection - you can usehumour to deal with difficult situations and to makeyourself feel better in an embarrassing position. Or,finally, to construct solidarity 2 and that's by far the mostimportant function of humourJackie:  Did you get those three points? FirstJennifer said humour is used to achieve dominance or power.
　　Secondly we use it to protect ourselves – for example tomake a joke out of something you've done that'sembarrassing. And thirdly to construct solidarity, whichmeans to bring people together in a nice way.
　　But as we heard earlier, Jennifer also talked aboutsomething which is perhaps less positive: dominance, to getpower over people. What exactly does Jennifer mean when shesays people sometimes use humour to achieve dominance?
　　JenniferWhat I mean by dominance is that a speaker can do somethinglike, for example, tell a joke in the middle of aconversation in such a way that that topic is interruptedand then the person who told the joke can choose 'Where arewe going next in the conversation?' That's a very dominantmove, not a very collaborative one at all. Or someone cando something silly and get to be the focus of attention bybeing the centre of humour. So for example, a dominant 3 boyin a classroom falls off his chair just at a key moment andbreaks into a serious discussion where a girl in a classwas saying something that the rest of the class should belistening to,but he gets the attention back on him.
　　Jackie:  So if you're using humour to achievedominance, you might talk over someone, using a joke orhumorous comment so that you take the lead of theconversation. Jennifer used a nice phrase, she talked aboutgetting the focus of attention, or we can also say beingthe centre of attention - the person who everyone islooking at and listening to. As Jennifer points out, thiskind of humour isn't very collaborative. It's about gainingpower, rather than sharing.
　　BBC Learning English dot comI asked other people what they think humour might be usedfor. This is KazKazI think a lot of people use humour to break the ice, todefuse tense situations, to maybe also kind of make fun ofthemselves, to make themselves more socially acceptable 4.
　　Jackie:  Kaz said humour can be used to break theice. When people have never met before, or haven't seeneach other for a long time, sometimes it feels a bitawkward and difficult at first. 'Breaking the ice' meansbreaking down any sort of formal barriers that there mightbe between people and helping 5 everyone relax.
　　He also said people might use humour to make fun ofthemselves - to laugh at themselves so they become moresocially acceptable, so that they become more sociallyacceptable, so that people like them more. He also talkedabout diffusing 6, or getting rid of tension. Do you knowwhat tension is? Listen to Carrie and see if you can workit out.
　　CarrieI think people use humour to relieve tension. So maybe ifthey're in a situation where maybe they don't know otherpeople and they want to relieve tension or if there's anargument – some people make a joke to try and break up anargument.
　　Jackie:  Tension is when people feel uncomfortable,maybe because they've had a disagreement or are a bitnervous. Let's recap on some of the vocabulary that's comeup:
　　to achieve dominance self-protectionto construct solidarity collaborativeto be the centre of attention to break the iceto make fun ofmore socially acceptable tensionHow do you use humour? Do you ever use it for self-protection, to help you deal with an embarrassingsituation? Is it part of your way of constructingsolidarity with others? Or are you an attention-seeker, whoalways has to interrupt conversations with funny commentsso that you become the dominant player? Think about it andyou might be surprised!