Negativity in comedy.

[thewomb]

What is it that makes bad things funny? Why is failure often funny, and success (although joyous) isn't? Other than particular absurdities, what is funny about someone experiencing misfortune? And at what point does something stop being funny because it is so bad?

[neveragain]

It's an interesting concept and certainly something that's prevelant throughout comedy. I'd say the humour comes in most cases from the reaction than the misfortune though. One notable exception care of Jerry Seinfeld is that it was often quite funny for him to succeed while the other characters al experienced bad luck, and he comments on this in one of the DVDs.

At what point does it stop being funny? Usually writers have good control over this and desist at the right moment. Although I've heard that a lot of people disliked the way John Sullivan made fun of Rodney and Cassandra's marriage breaking down so perhaps he took it beyond comfort. He definitely did this in 'A Royal Flush' mind but then 'Dear John' walked the line with immaculate balance. Richard Briers once said, at an actors' Q&A session, that if Martin Bryce ever won one over Paul it wouldn't be funny. But of course he did in a sense because he had Penelope Wilton.

In any case, I don't know. Perhaps we just enjoy seeing people fail. American sitcoms are assumed not to show this as much as ours'. That might prove something, if it was true which it isn't really (see Cheers, Married... With Children, et cetera).

[Marv Orange]

misfortune is something everyone can laugh at, success is usally only enjoyed by one person.

[Go With The Flow]

Ironically enough, my computer froze as I was reading this topic.

The audience side with the 'loser' character, as the audience may have things that bring them down in their life at that moment (parents, teachers, bosses, other authorative figures) and so they feel for the character, and are happy when they get a little mini-victory, one-over the boss, etc and vice versa when something bad happens. However, if the character ended up being the 'winner' (and it wasn't the end of the show) the people wouldn't like the character, as they still haven't got their happy ending when the character has, so to speak. It would stop being funny when the audience can't relate to the character. Maybe it's why the Simpsons has stopped being funny, it's stopped being about the dynamic between the family, and more "LOL RANDUM MONKEYS AND WHIMSY!!11" which people don't really relate to. (Although a lot of people like the whimiscal comedy, so I could be wrong again)
Maybe it's snobbery, and partly the same reason why the media loves 'pleb/thick/chav' celebrities - because we feel superior to them.

[neveragain]

Grr, yes. Why didn't that immediately come to my mind? Relating to the misfortune has a great deal to do with it (see Fig 1. - Victor mistakes a puppy for a telephone receiver), with the added bonus that you can step outside of it afterwards. Except sometimes on Scrubs when it takes a while.

[Sheldon Finklestein]

I think the perfect example of what makes misfortune funny would be the Charlie Brown cartoons in which the boy keeps being persuaded to kick the football only to have it tugged away, causing him to fall on his arse. When we see a character aspire to something and fail, often due to their own inherent character flaws, it is amusing as we can both laugh at it and, secretly, identify with it. All through comedy we see characters aspiring to that which they can't attain: Basil Fawlty wants to run a high-class hotel, Max Bialystock wants to make a fortune on Broadway, Alan Partridge wants to be on TV. I think it's an ingrained part of human nature that we want to see characters punished for their failings.

[James A]

People have analysed the 'instinct' of comedy, and the summary phrase 'dignicide' that is sometimes used is quite a good one I think, a way of removing someone's status or authority. It also ties in quite well with the theories of laughter in non-human primates being a kind of disengaged, socially acceptable aggression.