Quintilian on Humor (II)

According to Quintilian, humor can be applied to oratory in three manners:
1. retorting or deriding other people’s arguments;
2. saying things “which have a suggestion of absurdity” (Institutio Oratoria 23) or speaking ironically;
3. cheating the hearers’ expectations, making them take words “in a different sense from what was intended” (24).

Quintilian iterates the significance of urbanitas; to him, urbanity is an indispensible quality in a successful orator. He sometimes quotes Domitius Marsus (De Urbanitate) to further strengthen his point.

There are two noteworthy aspects of Quintilian’s discussion of humor:*

1.      Humor is to him more of a rhetorical weapon for defense or attack than of a talent to delight.

2.      Quintilian humor is heavily class-conscious in that it encourages demonstration of decency, education, and social status, and in that it emphasizes the distinction between the urbane wit of the orator and the vulgar gags of the buffoon.

*Figueroa-Dorrego & Larkin-Galiñanes have these two points explicitly made near the end of the section on Quintilian:

“...Quintilian has insisted on the notion of urbanitas and on the necessary difference between the educated orator and the uncultivated lower classes also in the use of humour. […] the orator’s wit is expected to be elegant, sensible, and tactful, as opposed to the obscene, boorish tomfoolery, and “those coarse jives so common on the lips of the rabble” than turn into abuse (47). Like previous authors, Quintilian admonishes that “scurrilous or brutal jest, although they may raise a laugh, are quite unworthy of a gentleman,” because they can make the audience angry (83). And also like his predecessors, Quintilian was not interested in studying humour per se, but rather subordinated to rhetorical effectiveness and his own class-conscious conceopt of urbanistas” (45).

Quintilian on Humor (I)

Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria (ca. 93 A.D.) is believed the second systematic work (following Cicero’s De Oratore, of course) which deals with humor. Chapter 1 in Book VI is dedicated to its related reasoning and analysis.

He speaks of the function of humor in court:

“[The talent of laughter-raising] dispels the graver emotions of the judge by exciting his laughter, frequently diverts his attention from the facts of the case, and sometimes even refreshes him and revives him when he has begun to be bored or wearied by the case”

--Insitutio Oratoria, VI, iii, 1

In his understanding, humor is an emotion, and yet the cause of humor (or, funny effect) is uncertain. There, however, are several possible sources, “such as words or actions that are witty, or which reveal folly, anger, or fear” (Figueroa-Dorrego & Larkin-Galiñanes 40-41).

Quintilian asserts that humor “depends mainly on nature and opportunity” (Institutio Oratoria, VI, iii, 11). By “nature,” he refers to a born sense of humor; by “opportunity,” an amusing situation. Some people are born with a quicker mind or keener sense to raise laughter. Some situations are more inclined to offer chances of repartees. In everyday life, as noticed, a combination of the two usually promises a convivial gathering or social success.

In his discussion that humor is to be conformed to gravitas (following Cicero’s footsteps), Quintilian defines six terms related to wit:

1.      Urbanitas: “language with a smack of the city in its words, accent and idioms, and further suggests a certain tincture of learning derived from associating with well-educated men; in a word, it represents the opposite of rusticity” (17).

2.      Venustus: “that which is said with grace and charm” (18).

3.      Salsus: “wit about which there is nothing insipid, wit, that is to say, which serves as a simple seasoning of language, […], with the result that it stimulates our taste and saves a speech from becoming tedious” (19; he warns that salty wit like salty food should not be served too much.).

4.      Facetus: “a certain grace and polished elegance” (20).

5.      Iocus: “usually taken to mean the opposite of seriousness. This view is, however, somewhat too narrow. For to feign, to terrify, or to promise, are all at times forms of jesting” (21).

6.      Dicacitas: “especially applied to the language of banter, which is a humorous form of attack” (21).

Vulgarity Appeals

(The comic graphic is taken intact from :
http://www.explosm.net/comics/1769/
and shall be removed from this blog post upon request.)

In humor theory, scholars gravitate to the intriguing phenomenon that vulgarity, as a laughter-raising device, appeals to some of us but repels the rest of us. Why these two extremes? There are arguably some explanations.

Here's an example of vulgar verbal humor in Chinese. Posting jokes (no matter what kind) is never my intention nor the purpose of this blog. However, it wouldn't hurt to have a little fun out of my research, a funny business, here and there.

時間，就像乳溝一樣，擠一擠就有了！
機會，就像老二一樣，緊握就會變大！
生活就像是被強姦，反抗不了就學著享受！
學習就像嫖妓，出錢又出力！
工作就像輪姦，如果你不行，就換另一個人來做！
社會就像手淫，全部的事情都要靠自己的雙手去解決！
發薪水就像是月經，一個月不來那麼一次總覺得不能安心！
兄弟就像保險套，插多大的洞都幫你罩著！
承諾，就像一句幹你娘，人人都會說，卻沒人做得到！

NOTE:

1. The joke has been spread around for some time and can no longer be traced  to its original author and website.
2. The vulgar nature and the word play of this joke deny my academic conscience and decent personality any attempt to translate it into English. Those who don't read Chinese are blessed for not having your morals contaminated.