Everything about Surreal Humour totally explained
Surreal humour is a form of
humour, stylistically related to the artistic ambitions of the
surrealists, based on bizarre
juxtapositions,
absurd situations and
nonsense logic. A common element of surreal humor is the
non-sequitur, in which one statement is followed by another with no logical progression.
History of surreal humour
Humour which that might be considered surreal has been around at least since the nineteenth century.
Lewis Carroll's
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass both use illogic and absurdity for humorous effect. Many of
Edward Lear'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:
"After a time they saw some land at a distance; and when they came to it, they found it was an island made of water quite surrounded by earth. Besides that, it was bordered by evanescent isthmuses with a great Gulf-stream running about all over it, so that it was perfectly beautiful, and contained only a single tree, 503 feet high."
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 movements including
Dadaists,
surrealists, and
futurists 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's inverted urinal of 1917, entitled
Fountain and signed "R. Mutt." This became one of the most famous and influential pieces of art in history — it's 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. Duchamp's attitude to conventional art was echoed in Paris in 2006 when "protesters" milled around an outdoor
pissoir to express their disgust that "works of art" were being used to collect urine.
In addition to the
avant-garde art movements, early surrealist comedy is found in the
satirical 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-style writings of
James Joyce (and later stream-of-consciousness authors like
Jack Kerouac,
William S. Burroughs and
Hunter S. Thompson), or the whimsical poetry of
Dylan Thomas and
E. E. Cummings. Surrealist humour is also found frequently in avant-garde theatre such as the droll
Waiting for Godot and
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. Humour in the avant-garde arts continues to this day. Artists like
Yoko Ono,
Andy Warhol,
Donald Barthelme,
Italo Calvino,
John Hodgman and many others have relied on this technique in their work.
Surrealist humour has played an important role in popular culture, especially since the radio show,
The Goon Show and
The Firesign Theater. In the
1960s, surrealist humour was combined with counter-culture in movements such as the
Youth International Party,
Situationism, and the religion of
Discordianism, as well as in the work of
psychedelic musicians such as
The Beatles,
Frank Zappa,
The Residents,
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band,
Pink Floyd and
Captain Beefheart.
Another significant influence of surrealist humour on popular culture is
Monty Python, most notably in their
Goon Show-influenced TV series,
Monty Python's Flying Circus, which featured a more lucid and intricate style of show structure and many more absurdities and non-sequiturs than the later show,
Saturday Night Live. Since the influence of Monty Python, shows including humour of a primarily surrealistic nature include
The Kids in the Hall,
Mr. Show,
Scrubs,
The Ren & Stimpy Show,
Rocko's Modern Life, the comedy programming of
Adult Swim (especially
Williams Street shows such as,
Aqua Teen Hunger Force,
Harvey Birdman,
12 oz. Mouse, and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!),
Spaced,
Late Night,
Green Wing, and the comedies of
Reeves and Mortimer. In
anime,
FLCL is another example. Other good examples of more recent surrealist humour can be found in the radio and book series
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
Terry Pratchett's
Discworld book series, numerous graphic novels such as
Flaming Carrot, and films by such directors as
Alejandro Jodorowsky,
Fernando Arrabal,
Federico Fellini,
David Lynch, Matthew Lessner and
Peter Greenaway. Numerous websites also involve surreal humor, including
Something Awful,
Buttercup Festival, and
Homestar Runner. The television shows
South Park,
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo,
Family Guy,
Futurama, and
The Mighty Boosh all use surrealism as a major part of their appeal. In stand-up comedy, famous exponents of surreal comedy include
Ross Noble,
Bill Bailey and
Eddie Izzard. Even the E! talk show
The Soup draws from absurdist humour, pointing out absurdities within modern culture.
Further Information
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