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EST. 1901
6. ABSURDITY
THE HANK MOODY GUIDE TO WIT
www.artofverbalwar.com
EST. 1901
Absurdity
The Hank Moody Guide To Wit would not be complete without
a complete treatment on absurdity, which in my opinion, is
THE most important component of wit itself.
If you learn nothing but absurdity from this course, then you
will have picked up almost everything you need to know
about wit.
Noted psychologist Patricia Keith-Spiegel identified two
primary reasons why we laugh.
"We laugh out of surprise."
"We laugh when we feel superior."
Keith-Spiegel identified six additional motivations for
laughter, each of which supports the two main reasons,
surprise and superiority.
"We laugh out of instinct."
THE HANK MOODY GUIDE TO WIT
www.artofverbalwar.com
EST. 1901
Absurdity
"We laugh at incongruity."
"We laugh out of ambivalence."
"We laugh for release."
"We laugh when we solve a puzzle."
"We laugh to regress."
Absurd statements, in particular, are funny because of
surprise and incongruity, especially incongruity. Absurd
statements usually fall in one of these two categories, or
both.
Now, how do you make use of absurdity? There are multiple
ways to come up with absurdities. Here is my take on it
(using mostly Hank Moody examples):
Definition: Something that is unexpected and...
1. Clearly not true
THE HANK MOODY GUIDE TO WIT
www.artofverbalwar.com
EST. 1901
Absurdity
“I’m a writer. Books, novels, the occasional haiku.” (in this list
of items, you are not expecting to hear about haikus, and it is
absurd because its clearly not true)
2. Impossible in reality and/or violates human
expectations or laws
Ex. “It’s discreet, like a stripper pole in a mosque.” (I came up
with this one, not Hank Moody) (this is absurd because a
mosque would never have a stripper pole)
Ex. "I think that’s the good thing about never being married.
It’s impossible to divorce."
3. Impossible due to inanimate yet human
characteristics
Ex. “I just got my ass kicked by a J Crew Catalog.” (of course
this is impossible and its funny because a catalog can't
actually do what it is Hank said it did)
THE HANK MOODY GUIDE TO WIT
www.artofverbalwar.com
EST. 1901
Absurdity
4. Not that creative, but has great timing
Ex. “110 times out of 100, I would do it.” (I came up with this
one when telling my friends how much I wanted to go
skydiving. They laughed because they didn't expect it and
the timing was perfect within the context)
5. Impossible but somewhat reminiscent of something
that you've heard before
Ex. “I was hoping you’d make an honest woman of me.”
6. Ironic (which I will go into more detail later on as a
separate technique)
“Damn, that’s romantic.” (when talking about a clearly
unromantic situation)
"Integrity. That’s a fine quality in a mistress." (this is both
ironic and violates human expectations - mistresses have)
THE HANK MOODY GUIDE TO WIT
www.artofverbalwar.com
EST. 1901
Absurdity
no claim on integrity)
"There’s nothing quite like getting stoned on the very bed
that your ex-domestic partner shares with her fiancé. It’s the
little things."
7. Amplification of characteristics to the absolute
extreme
“Time to take a dump” becomes “It’s time to release the
Kraken.”
See how he takes something ordinary like taking a shit and
amplifies it to the absolute extreme and how absurd it
becomes?
Now you know what it takes to make anything absurd!
THE HANK MOODY GUIDE TO WIT
www.artofverbalwar.com