Humans all over the world experience laughter. Laughter is a natural reaction to a joke or a funny occurrence. Laughter holds many benefits to humans such as relieving stress, boosting immunity, combating depression, and relieving pain. But how does one achieve the benefits of laughter? A general line of reference is laughter is found within humor, and humor can be found within a joke. What is humor though? Humor is a broad term used to describe the different laughable moments throughout life. Humor is a tool that aims to induce amusement or laughter. This amusement can be achieved through witty puns or good, well-timed jokes. It can break the dullness, relieve people of boredom, and relax people’s nerves in tense situations. As humor expanded,
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This irony is a form of nonliteral language characterized by the opposition between a sentence’s literal meaning and the speaker’s conveyed meaning (Dews 3071). Verbal irony is commonly delivered through a sarcastic tone. Ironic comments such as a Mom exclaiming to her son, “Honey, your room is absolutely beautiful. I’ve never been prouder of you than right now!” Without any visual representation of this statement, one would assume the mother means exactly what she said. But if the audience knew that the boy’s room was a mess and the mother was mad, they could find humor in the situation, because now the audience knows the mother was using a sarcastic tone to deliver her statement. Verbal irony has two major functions when expressing a point – a muting function and a humor function. The mother in the example above used the muting function of verbal irony. This function is used to mute implied criticism to sound less critical than literal criticism. “By using a positive tone when expressing the observation, the literal interpretation takes a decreased negative tone” (Dews 3072). “The humor function of verbal irony allows a speaker the use humor a way demonstrating they are not upset and in control of a situation” (Dews 3072). Verbal irony is essential to convey messages without expressing to much …show more content…
This type of irony is known as situational irony. Situational irony is the difference between what is expected to happen and actually happens. This irony is simply the exact opposite of what the audience expects to occur. “The use of humor and irony can be powerful tools to undermine the status quo” (Andrews 203). A great example of situational irony can be found in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is about an old sailor who stops three guys on their way to a wedding and begins to tell a story about a disastrous journey he took. In the story, Coleridge writes, “Water, water, everywhere, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water, everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink." (Coleridge 3). This is an instance of situational irony because the mariner is stranded in the ocean and there is water everywhere but none of that water is drinkable. Situational irony can make a plot twist more interesting, draw attention to a reader's unwarranted biases, or show how a character handles an unexpected
This irony is a form of nonliteral language characterized by the opposition between a sentence’s literal meaning and the speaker’s conveyed meaning (Dews 3071). Verbal irony is commonly delivered through a sarcastic tone. Ironic comments such as a Mom exclaiming to her son, “Honey, your room is absolutely beautiful. I’ve never been prouder of you than right now!” Without any visual representation of this statement, one would assume the mother means exactly what she said. But if the audience knew that the boy’s room was a mess and the mother was mad, they could find humor in the situation, because now the audience knows the mother was using a sarcastic tone to deliver her statement. Verbal irony has two major functions when expressing a point – a muting function and a humor function. The mother in the example above used the muting function of verbal irony. This function is used to mute implied criticism to sound less critical than literal criticism. “By using a positive tone when expressing the observation, the literal interpretation takes a decreased negative tone” (Dews 3072). “The humor function of verbal irony allows a speaker the use humor a way demonstrating they are not upset and in control of a situation” (Dews 3072). Verbal irony is essential to convey messages without expressing to much …show more content…
This type of irony is known as situational irony. Situational irony is the difference between what is expected to happen and actually happens. This irony is simply the exact opposite of what the audience expects to occur. “The use of humor and irony can be powerful tools to undermine the status quo” (Andrews 203). A great example of situational irony can be found in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is about an old sailor who stops three guys on their way to a wedding and begins to tell a story about a disastrous journey he took. In the story, Coleridge writes, “Water, water, everywhere, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water, everywhere, / Nor any drop to drink." (Coleridge 3). This is an instance of situational irony because the mariner is stranded in the ocean and there is water everywhere but none of that water is drinkable. Situational irony can make a plot twist more interesting, draw attention to a reader's unwarranted biases, or show how a character handles an unexpected