https://xkcd.com/220/ Accessed Sept 20 2016
Congruent incongruency: seeing both the connection and the disconnect at the same time. A prime example is jumbo shrimp (both small and large). This is an oxymoron: both terms contradict the other in one sense, but not in another. In one sense, we use the term shrimp in English to say something is small, and most shrimp actually are smaller than most Gaffigan-esque seabug cuisine that humans in coastal regions devour with pride. But yes, jumbo shrimp are bigger than other shrimp. Yeah, obviously that is why they are called such. Duh.
Recall George Carlin’s response to the phrase “near miss”. It is a strange congruent incongruency and it makes him irate. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKdvTecYAM (Sept 20 2016). The audience laughs at the joke because all at once they know what “near miss” means in everyday English. It means something almost got hit or crashed into but did not get hit or crash into in the end. They know this, they are aware of this truth. BUT they also now know the opposite, that this word literally does not mean that at all, as Carlin deftly points out. The phrase really should be “near hit”, and “near miss” literally means they almost DID NOT hit or crash, but did. They hold these two contrary ideas at once, knowing both to be true.
This is the very heart of the incongruity theory of humor, this fundamental holding of two contrary truths at the same time. It answers well the what of many jokes. But it does not finish the story of humor. Some incongruencies are funny, some are not. I brought up the benign violation theory to add to the story of incongruence. And it does help. “Jumbo shrimp” and “near miss” are benign violations, harmless linguistic violations, as many words are!
But what about this joke: “Hiya, folks! I just flew in from Minneapolis and boy is every city equally useless.” (from http://www.theasterisktoday.com/galleries/top-ten-nihilist-jokes/?from=the-philosophy-of-lettermans-late-show)
I would write my own nihilistic jokes, but what’s the point?
Please don’t steal my joke. Of course, everything that brings me joy is taken from me any ways and morality is subjective any ways, so whatever.
We recognize the joke set up easily. It is a classic joke format. Much like we know what “jumbo shrimp” and “near miss” means, we know that “I just flew in from…” means “Oh, this means a joke is coming. This means an attempt at humor is coming.” But then we are given a sad piece of truth: everything is useless, meaningless, hollow. But this is a joke, so we might laugh. If Rodney Dangerfield delivered it, I sure would laugh.
This is not benign. This is serious, heart-breaking. We may understand the truth of the format of joke, but we don’t want the truth of the content. It makes us sad to imagine the world as empty of all that is valuable. We tend to consciously reject such an idea even when we might conceptually argue for such a state of affairs of existence in a philosophical argument.
But we laugh. I laugh. Maybe you do too.
But now I must go teach my Meaning of Life class. Seriously, no joke. That’s the joke.
Why I Laugh 