Similarity Breeds Comedy

By: kher cheng guan

My last piece I talked about associating or pairing up opposites to produce funny ideas. Today we associate SIMILARITY or CONGRUITY; by puting the same or similar objects, person or animals together to engender laughter.

One fine example is a pair of identical twins or two person wearing the same clothes. They naturally appear "odd" or "funny" to others. People will stare, giggle or whisper some cheeky or unkind remarks under their breath. It's a very normal response.

For cartoonists, this association of similarity can spawn lots of funny doodles. They can draw a person looking like an animal or two unrelated objects which are visually alike. The most popular is the garden hose partly hidden by the foliage and mistaken as a snake.

Caricature is a visual art form that employs the technique of congruity. It doesn't look exactly like the actual person being drawn, but just a distorted or an exaggerated impression of the person and it looks kind of funny, doesn't it?

Aside from visual art form, many verbal humor derives from this technique too. The most obvious form of verbal humor is the puns. A pun is a play on words, usually humorous based on several meanings of one word, or a similarity of meanings between words that are pronounced the same or the different in meanings between two words pronounced the same and spelled somewhat similarly. You can find out more about puns
here. Following closely is another form verbal humor, called the double entendres. It can be a word or an expression having a double meaning, especially the second meaning is risque.

So, similarity breeds not only contempt, but comedy too!

A freelancer from MALAYSIA who dabbles in both visual and performing art. Cartooning, script-writing, acting in TV and movies, doing voice, sound and singing impressions under the stage-names: Wacky Willy and SFX-Man. Read more articles and free tips at: funny-ideas.blogspot.com/ Reach me at: kertoon@yahoo.com

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