The Wolfpack Effect

One of the other optical illusions that a comedy film-maker could take advantage of is foreshortening. Since the brain assumes something that something such as the end of a pencil is actually a full pencil with the rest of its length behind it, the mind creates the illusion that the object recedes into the background in its full length rather than being as short as the eyes actually see it. Film-makers could use this to create a situation where once again both the main character and the audience are tricked by the camera angle. The character could see an object that appears to be a full-length bed due to foreshortening, then when they attempt to lie down on it, only their torso fits on the bed, with their legs almost completely on the ground below. The character’s exacerbation upon discovering this in addition to the unexpectedness of the bed’s length would, of course, incite laughter.
In addition to exploiting regularities and avoiding coincidences, the brain’s perception center also tends to attribute animacy to inanimate objects, thus allowing for entertainment that follows along the same lines as a stand-up comic intentionally using only one part of a complete morpheme. In both cases, the audience finds amusement in the fact that their brain does or does not …show more content…
For example, a film could include a balloon that chases people. The balloon is clearly not alive, since it is a ball of plastic filled with helium, but the people within the film would run from it and the balloon would follow. It is the wolfpack effect that allows us to recognize that this inanimate object, despite having no actual thoughts or intentions, is chasing the animate main character. The ridiculousness and improbability of the situation make it funny, but this ridiculousness would not exist without the input of the mind to convince us that the inanimate object is actually chasing the