Homer Simpson's Motivational Theory

Lastly the mechanical theory created by Henri Bergson, breaks down repetition and why machine like characteristics turn out to be laughable. Most comic characters depend for their laughs on enduring personality traits: Take Homer Simpson's inability to anticipate consequences — "Doh!" — or Austin Powers' single-minded sex-drive. The French philosopher Henri Bergson believed that it is inadaptability or rigidity — the repetitive nature of our personalities— that is the source of humor. If this were true, though, our every ingrained habit would be hilarious. But we don't laugh every time we double-check to make sure the house doors are locked, or when we compulsively check our phones for text messages or “likes” on Facebookl at 2 A.M., even when we know no one is sending us anything. Most jokes, in fact, are antithetical to this theory since they don't depend on any kind of monotony of behavior. Puns are easy examples:
"Emailis the happy medium between male and female." — …show more content…
. . which causes no pain or destruction . . . is distorted but painless" (my emphasis). The comic action is perceived by the audience as causing the participants no actual harm: their physical, mental, and/or emotional well-being may be stretched, distorted, or crushed, but they recover quickly and by the end of the performance they are once again in their original state. A prime example are the Warner Brothers' Road Runner cartoons, in which Wile E. Coyote is dropped, crushed, pummeled, rolled, wrung, and otherwise punished for his attempts to catch the road runner, yet seconds later is putting together his next Acme widget to carry out his next plan. Wile is never damaged permanently, no matter how high the cliff he falls off or how big the rock that lands on him. The criterion applies to real life, as well. It is funny when someone slips on the ice and falls: people laugh--until they realize that the person broke his leg. At that moment the event is no longer