Stupid vs. Silly Comedy: What do you think is funny?
There are many different styles of humor--slapstick, puns, crass, dark, etc. I never thought about my attraction to humor as reflecting my world view so much until this year as my partner and I figure out what to watch on Netflix. Although we have similar funny bones, the shades of difference are pretty fascinating, and I thought merited a little unpacking.
I've never been a fan of stupid comedy. Characters like Beavis and Butt-head or movies like Dumb and Dumber drove me crazy. It just pained me to watch a show where characters were making extraordinarily stupid decisions--it didn't matter whether they could help themselves or not. It just stressed me out!
But for some reason I can totally get behind regular characters being silly or making silly decisions because their intelligence almost fails them. I regularly watched shows like 30 Rock or Frazier because there was something more relatable about characters who made a misguided decision based on the facts around them. I guess I related to them in a way that made their humorous situation more entertaining because it was a situation I could possibly find myself in...maybe. And generally, the "smart" thinking that got them into the situation was often the same that would get them out.
Have you ever thought about why you find some things funny, but not others? Comment below, I would love to hear!
It's interesting that you have distinctions between "stupid" and "silly."
Like "stupid" means the character has no hope of being more intelligent while "silly" means an intelligent character has stupid things happen to them. At least that's my take!