{"id":846,"date":"2011-07-07T22:47:15","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T22:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=846"},"modified":"2011-08-01T21:20:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-01T21:20:54","slug":"the-why-of-funny-2-mangos-in-syrup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/07\/07\/the-why-of-funny-2-mangos-in-syrup\/","title":{"rendered":"The Why of Funny #2: Mangoes-In-Syrup"},"content":{"rendered":"

If an instructor is teaching a self-defence class, then there is nothing in the situation which is\u00a0inherently funny. However, if the class revolves around the defending oneself against the threat\u00a0posed by soft fruit, the juxtaposition of the nature of the class and the harmlessness of the fruit\u00a0creates comic possibilities, enhanced by the instructor\u2019s total commitment to the fatality of mangoes\u00a0in syrup, correctly wielded. (Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus, season 1, episode 4<\/i>).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mangoes-In-Syrup<\/strong> can represent total surrealism at one extreme. In the \u201cAcross the Andes by Frog\u201d\u00a0episode of Michael Palin and Terry Jones\u2019 Ripping Yarns<\/em>, the substitution of frogs for more common\u00a0beasts of burden is the principal comic idea. Because this seems an arbitrary choice, and it is never\u00a0questioned or justified within the context of the story, it stands out as surreal. This kind of choice\u00a0can mark a programme out as being very original and different, but may isolate those who feel they\u00a0\u201cdon\u2019t get it\u201d. The Goon Show<\/em>, Vic Reeves Big Night Out<\/em> and Bo\u2019 Selecta<\/em> all provide numerous\u00a0examples of this, what we might call \u201czero tolerance\u201d Mangoes-In-Syrup<\/strong> \u2013 creating odd juxtapositions\u00a0simply for the sake of it. It is far more common, however, to see juxtapositions with some kind of\u00a0non-arbitrary choice (which can develop very satisfying satire) or where an apparently arbitrary\u00a0juxtaposition is questioned by a \u201cstraight man\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, what governs choices of juxtapositions? Even when the choice is arbitrary, it is clear to see that\u00a0the more different from the expected item, the better (up to a point). Self defence against mangoes is\u00a0more satisfying than against paper-knives, since while a paper-knife is not much of a threat, it is\u00a0closer to the anticipated flick knife (or pointed stick!). Similarly, a frog is about as a different an\u00a0animal from a horse or camel as it is possible to get, and so \u201cAcross the Andes by Frog\u201d is an amusing\u00a0prospect. A frog is still an animal, however, so the nature of the substitution is clear. \u201cAcross the\u00a0Andes by Biscuit\u201d is more obscure, and may be more confusing than funny. There is also the risk that\u00a0this will be a funnier prospect than it will be when played out. Only if the idea can be continually\u00a0developed in new ways will it sustain a long sketch, let alone a sit-com episode or comedy film. For\u00a0this reason, \u201cpure\u201d Mangoes-In-Syrup<\/strong> humour may not travel well.<\/p>\n

Very visual surreal humour can be the exception, as Mr Bean<\/em> proved. The juxtaposition here lies in\u00a0the extraordinary lengths that Mr Bean goes to to achieve perfectly ordinary ends. Faced with his\u00a0train reading disturbed by a noisy fellow passenger, he doesn\u2019t simply leave the carriage, he hunches\u00a0over, sticks his fingers in his ears, and then has to turn the pages of his book with his elbows or his\u00a0tongue.<\/p>\n

Bean carries on the tradition, not I think of Charlie Chaplin, but of Harpo Marx. So, when Chico\u00a0whispers \u201cHide!\u201d to Harpo who quickly scampers to the middle of the room and stands on his head\u00a0(Animal Crackers<\/em>) we laugh out of sheer confusion. Less arbitrarily, when a hobo asks Harpo for a\u00a0cup of coffee and Harpo produces a steaming hot cup full of coffee from his trouser pocket (Horse\u00a0Feathers<\/em>), we laugh at the juxtaposition of the physical reality we know and the event just depicted.\u00a0(Also at work here are Saw-It-Coming<\/a><\/strong> and Oh-I-See<\/a><\/strong>.) Surrealism is threatening, however, and it is\u00a0interesting to note that when the Marxes moved to MGM, who were after bigger audiences and\u00a0more accessible comedy, Harpo\u2019s \u201cmagic powers\u201d were scaled back. So while in Horse Feathers<\/em>\u00a0(Paramount, 1932), he accedes to the request to \u201ccut the cards\u201d by producing an axe from a hidden\u00a0pocket and severing the pack in two, by the time of A Night At The Opera<\/em> (MGM, 1935), although he\u00a0still uses an axe to slice a salami, now it is lying handily on a barrel instead of being secreted\u00a0mysteriously about his person.<\/p>\n

Most juxtaposition is not arbitrary, however. The sight of King Arthur\u2019s knights \u201cgalloping\u201d about the\u00a0place while making \u201cclip-clop\u201d noises with two halves of coconut (Monty Python and the Holy Grail<\/em>) is undeniably surreal, but the reason is clear. The On The Hour<\/em> headline \u201cHeadmaster uses big-faced\u00a0child as satellite dish\u201d is a wonderfully surreal image but rather more accessible than the sheer\u00a0madness of Spike Milligan\u2019s Goon Show<\/em> scripts:<\/p>\n

SEAGOON: He was a tall, vile man, dressed in the naval uniform of a sea-going sailor. Under\u00a0his left arm he held a neatly rolled anchor, while with his right he scanned the horizon with a\u00a0pair of powerful kippers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Making purposeful juxtapositions can open the door to some brilliant satire. When South Park<\/em>\u00a0depicts a lone head-louse desperately warning his arrogant fellows that the end of the world is\u00a0coming, they brilliantly juxtapose the themes of disaster movies, the environmental movement and\u00a0the mundane treatment of head-lice as a medical condition (see also Just-A-Flesh-Wound<\/a><\/strong>).\u00a0When That Was The Week That Was<\/em> presents a buyers guide to religions, they juxtapose the\u00a0triviality of consumer magazines with the reverence in which belief is generally held, and satirise\u00a0both brilliantly (\u201cThe best aspect of the Church of England is that it doesn\u2019t interfere with the\u00a0essentials. All in all, we think you get a jolly good little faith for a very modest outlay, and we have no\u00a0hesitation in claiming it the Best Buy.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Another way to make surrealism more palatable is to provide a non-surreal point-of-view within the\u00a0story. The difference between these two approaches can be seen by studying the difference\u00a0between Father Ted<\/em> and The League of Gentlemen<\/em>. Father Ted<\/em> creates a self-contained surreal\u00a0world, in which \u2013 generally speaking \u2013 the characters accept that certain things which we, the\u00a0audience, know to be abnormal or impossible are normal and everyday. This extends to\u00a0characterisation as well as to plotting. Father Jack is not a pitiable alcoholic, he is a man pickled in\u00a0drink, reduced to a few repetitive guttural utterances (in fact, better than that \u2013 he\u2019s a priest pickled\u00a0in drink, adding a further layer of Mangoes-In-Syrup<\/strong> plus a level of Sounds-A-Bit-Rude<\/a><\/strong>). Father\u00a0Dougal is not a bit slow, he is monumentally stupid, unable to work out the difference between\u00a0small, toy cows near to him and full size cows far away from him. The surreal world allows the\u00a0writers to use Just-A-Flesh-Wound<\/a><\/strong> to include potentially serious elements like alcoholism and\u00a0mental illness without falling into the trap of bathos. However, it is rare for any of the surreal\u00a0elements to be seriously questioned by the characters. They are the \u201cnorm\u201d and so the \u201cout of the\u00a0ordinary\u201d has to be built on top.<\/p>\n

The League of Gentlemen<\/em> is far more likely to present bizarre characters whose behaviour is\u00a0juxtaposed again with the reaction of a straight person. Tubbs and Edward, whose insistence on \u201ca\u00a0local shop for local people\u201d is a juxtaposition in itself become far more effective when their lunatic\u00a0behaviour is questioned by someone the audience can identify with. Note too, that further layers of\u00a0weirdness are revealed in Tubbs and Edward over the course of a number of episodes, again dealing\u00a0with the \u201cAcross the Andes by Frog\u201d problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If an instructor is teaching a self-defence class, then there is nothing in the situation which is\u00a0inherently funny. However, if the class revolves around the defending oneself against the threat\u00a0posed by soft fruit, the juxtaposition of the nature of the class and the harmlessness of the fruit\u00a0creates comic possibilities, enhanced by the instructor\u2019s total commitment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[200,203,62,196,201,197,202,198,180,199],"class_list":["post-846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-bo-selecta","tag-league-of-gentlemen","tag-marx-brothers","tag-monty-python","tag-mr-bean","tag-ripping-yarns","tag-south-park","tag-the-goon-show","tag-the-why-of-funny","tag-vic-reeves"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-dE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":946,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846\/revisions\/946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}