Surreal humour

Surreal Humour

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Surreal humour

Surreal humour is a form of humour

Humour

Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves....
, stylistically related to the artistic ambitions of the surrealists

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, based on bizarre juxtaposition

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition may refer to:* Juxtaposition , synonymous with contrast* Random juxtaposition, two random objects moving in parallel, a technique intended to stimulate creativity...
s, absurd situations and nonsense

Nonsense

Nonsense is a Linguistics or Writing which resembles a human language or other symbolic system, but in fact does not carry any identifiable meaning....
. A common element of surreal humour is the non-sequitur, in which one statement is followed by another with no logical progression.

ur that could be considered surreal has been around at least since the nineteenth century. Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll , was an England author, mathematics, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer....
's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel written by England author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a Rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures....
and Through the Looking Glass both use illogic and absurdity for humorous effect.

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Quotations

The absurd is born of the confrontation between the human call and the unreasonable silence of the world.

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

In a world where everything is ridiculous, nothing can be ridiculed. You cannot unmask a mask.

On the Comic Spirit by G. K. Chesterton,

The more absurd life is, the more unsupportable death is.

The Words by Jean-Paul Sartre

The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only.

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

There is no idea, no fact, which could not be vulgarized and presented in a ludicrous light.

Polnoye Sobraniye Sochinyeni by Dostoevsky

Encyclopedia

Surreal humour is a form of humour

Humour

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, based on bizarre juxtaposition

Juxtaposition

Nonsense

Origins

Humour that could be considered surreal has been around at least since the nineteenth century. Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Edward Lear

Edward Lear was an England artist, illustrator and writer known for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limerick , a form that he popularised....
's nonsense stories and poems are also basically surreal in approach; for example, The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Round the World is filled with contradictory statements and odd images intended to provoke amusement, such as the following:

Development

Despite such precursors, the name "surreal" first began to be used to describe a type of aesthetic in the early 20th century. At that time, several avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
movements including the Dadaists, Surrealists

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, and Futurists

Futurism (art)

Futurism was an art Art movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It was largely an Italian phenomenon, though there were parallel movements in Russia, England and elsewhere....
began to argue for an art that was random, jarring and illogical. The goals of these movements were in some sense serious, yet they were also committed to undermining the solemnity and self-satisfaction of the contemporary artistic establishment. As a result, much of their art was intentionally amusing. One famous example is Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a France artist whose work is most often associated with the Dada and Surrealism movements. Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art....
's inverted urinal of 1917, entitled Fountain
Fountain (Duchamp)

Fountain is a 1917 work by Marcel Duchamp. It is one of the pieces which he called Readymades of Marcel Duchamp , because he made use of an already existing object—in this case a urinal, which he titled Fountain and signed "R....
and signed "R. Mutt." This became one of the most famous and influential pieces of art in history — it is also, however, a joke, relying on the inversion of the item's function as expressed by its title as well as its incongruous presence in an art exhibition.

In addition to the avant-garde

Avant-garde

Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
and comedic elements of works of modern authors, who, like Lear and Carroll, wrote stories which dispensed with the normal rules of logic. Examples of this include the dark comedy of Kafka, the stream of consciousness writings of James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Ireland expatriate author of the 20th century. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake , as well as the short story collection Dubliners and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ....
, Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac

Jack Kerouac was an American author, poet and Painting. Alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, he is considered a pioneer of the Beat Generation....
, William S. Burroughs

William S. Burroughs

William Seward Burroughs II was an United States novelist, essayist, social critic, Painting and spoken word performer.Much of Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life....
, and Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an United States journalist and author, most famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of journalism where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories....
, or the whimsical poetry of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh people poet who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself....
and E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, was an Poetry of the United States, painter, essayist, author, and playwright....
. Surreal humour is also found frequently in avant-garde theatre such as the droll Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters wait for someone named Godot. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere....
and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an Theatre of the Absurd, existentialism tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966....
. Artists like Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono

, born in Tokyo on February 18, 1933, is a Japanese people artist and musician. She is known for her work as an avant-garde artist and musician, and her marriage and works with musician John Lennon....
, Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an United Statesn Painting, Printmaking, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the Art movement known as pop art....
, Donald Barthelme

Donald Barthelme

Donald Barthelme was an American Literature of short story and novels. He also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas , co-founder of Fiction Magazine , and a professor at various universities....
, Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino was an Italy journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler ....
, John Hodgman

John Hodgman

John Kellogg Hodgman is an United States author and humorist. In addition to his published written work, such as The Areas of My Expertise, he is known for his personification of a Personal computer in Apple Computer "Get a Mac" advertising campaign and his correspondent work on Comedy Central?s The Daily Show....
and many others have relied on this technique in their work.

Surrealist humour has played an important role in popular culture, especially since The Goon Show
The Goon Show

The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme....
and The Firesign Theater. In the 1960s, surreal humour was combined with counter-culture in movements such as the Youth International Party

Youth International Party

The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was a highly theatrical and anti-authoritarian political party established in the United States in 1967....
and the Merry Pranksters

Merry Pranksters

The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around United States author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived Commune at his homes in California and Oregon....
, as well as in the work of psychedelic music

Psychedelic music

Psychedelic music is a term that refers to a broad set of popular music styles, genres and scenes, that may include psychedelic rock, psych folk, psychedelic pop, psychedelic soul, Psybient, psychedelic trance, and others....
ians such as The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were a rock music and pop music band from Liverpool, England that formed in 1960. During their career, the group primarily consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr ....
, Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett was an England singer, songwriter, guitarist and artist. He is most remembered as a founding member of psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, providing major musical and stylistic direction in their early work, although he left the group in 1968 amidst speculations of mental illness exacerbated by heavy drug use....
, Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock music, jazz, electronic music, orchestral, and musique concr?te works....
, The Residents

The Residents

The Residents are an United States avant-garde music and visual arts group who have created over sixty albums, created numerous musical short films, designed three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs, and undertaken seven major world tours....
, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and Captain Beefheart

Captain Beefheart

Don Van Vliet is an United States musician and visual artist, best known by the pseudonym Captain Beefheart. His musical work was mainly conducted with a rotating assembly of musicians called The Magic Band, which was active from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s....
.

Another significant influence on popular culture was Monty Python

Monty Python

Monty Python is a group of six comedians who created Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on October 5, 1969....
, most notably in their Goon Show-influenced TV series, Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python?s Flying Circus is a BBC sketch comedy programme from the Monty Python comedy team, and the group's initial claim to fame. The show was noted for its surreality, Wiktionary:risqu? or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags, and sketches without punchlines....
, which featured an intricate structure and many absurdities and non-sequiturs. More modern shows that have been influenced by the intrinsic surrealism of such fore-runners include The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh

The Mighty Boosh, colloquially referred to as The Boosh, is the collective name for the creators of the British comedy written by and starring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding....
in which the style of humour manifests.