Why can funny events such as "children with fish" explode the Internet?

The direct reason why this photo of children observing fish became popular on the Internet is because it is funny, because there are not many connotations worth digging and thinking about in this small detail of life. Then why is this photo so funny I want to use the master's point of view to talk about the reason why it is funny from this photo.

When talking about stand-up comic dialogue in a small theater, comic actor Zheng mentioned how the old people in the comic industry educated new people to amuse the audience and shake off their burdens. Zheng said that good packaging should make the audience feel unexpected after listening to it, and the fine taste is reasonable. This kind of packaging can make the audience memorable and smile. Zheng Hao's explanation of laughter is very accurate and popular. If we want to perfect it theoretically, we need to use the French philosopher henri bergson's understanding of laughter in On Laughter.

This light topic should not have been interpreted so seriously, but I found that the Nobel Prize in Literature winner's understanding of laughter is so profound that it can be used to analyze the jokes in this picture. More importantly, after this picture became popular on the Internet, there appeared two kinds of voices, some people thought it was funny and some people thought it was not. If you simply explain the punchline, you don't need to use Bergson's theory, because the correct truth is mostly the same; But if we want to explain why some people don't find it funny, we can't leave Bergson's point of view in On Laughter. Therefore, readers should not be intimidated by the following three Bergson's theories, which are still a very interesting topic.

First of all, laughter is a sharp contrast between "mechanical rigidity" and "agility of life"

Bergson believes that life is constantly flowing and agile, so people need to constantly change to adapt to life; If there is a situation in life that needs to be changed, if a person still maintains the inherent action of mechanical rigidity, it will produce disharmony and bring strong contrast and turning point. This is the source of laughter, which is "unexpected".

In this picture, four babies carefully observe the expression of small fish and compare it with the blank of carp teenagers; Four small boxes contrast with the huge stainless steel washbasin; Four almost invisible small ornamental fish are in contrast with that giant carp; The agility of ornamental fish in a small box is in sharp contrast to the immobility of dead carp in an iron basin. This painting is full of strong contrast, so it has many jokes.

So why are there so many sharp contrasts? The reason lies in the child's carelessness, and the father's "mechanical" and "rigid" are not in harmony with "the flow of life". The father of the child explained why he should teach the child such a big carp because the child did not express it clearly. My father thought that any fish would do, and he didn't understand the significance of taking fish to school for observation. The child's father just caught a lot of fish that day, and carp was not delicious anyway, so he gave it to the child to play with.

Dad didn't realize that the purpose of children needing fish is to observe the shape and swimming posture of fish in the school classroom. He still holds the habit of giving toys to children and gives fish to his son to play with. The word "play" shows Bergson's "mechanical" and "rigid". Dad didn't consider the mobility changes such as the size limit of the classroom desk and the teaching purpose, didn't make appropriate changes, and did things according to the routine. This is the root of all kinds of strong contrast in the picture.

There are many such jokes in life, for example, there is a pit in the middle of the road, and no one will laugh when others bypass it. If someone does not observe the road surface, but also mechanically walks forward and falls into the pit, they will laugh. For example, when the social situation in the late Qing Dynasty was turbulent and the autocratic emperor's rule was crumbling, Kong Yiji, the character in Lu Xun's novels, still mechanically and rigidly maintained all kinds of "literati habits" in feudal society. If he did not adjust and adapt to the fierce social environment, there would be abnormal behaviors such as wearing long gowns, standing and drinking, and saying nothing, which made "the atmosphere inside and outside the store full of joy".

Kong Yiji is a typical representative of the conflict between mechanical behavior and social mobility, so it is ridiculous.

But after laughing, we should learn the lesson of this careless father. Facing the fluidity of the complicated and changeable social state, we need to make various timely changes according to the reality to adapt to it, otherwise Bergson's "mechanical rigidity" and "life flow" will be discordant, and then various jokes will emerge one after another. If this kind of joke makes children "at a loss" or thinks that they are different from other children, it will cause harm to children that adults can't understand.

Secondly, laughter has clear sociality and utility.

Bergson believes that to understand laughter, we must put it in its natural environment, that is, society, so laughter is social. Robert provine, an American scholar, found through a long-term study of laughter that "only 65,438+00%-65,438+05% of human laughter is caused by jokes". His research shows that people laugh not only as a response to jokes, but also as a social response.

Children are the future of this society and the hope and motivation of the family. Humans and even nature are caring for and pampering children. Many normal behaviors, if done by children, often lead to endless laughter. On the other hand, after seeing funny pictures of children and fish, many netizens have recalled all kinds of funny anecdotes about their children or their childhood, and this topic is getting hotter and hotter. Almost every family has children, and every adult has grown up since childhood. The funny experience of the fish boy touched the "bud" of society and caused a social reaction of laughter.

This photo was taken by the child's teacher, which was first circulated among parents and then spread to the online society. This also shows that the children's anecdotes and jokes in the photos are social, which is also an important reason for their popularity.

3. Laughter is a state of mind in which emotions cannot be used.

After this photo of taking fish to school became popular on the Internet, there were various feedbacks, most of which were laughter, but many people said that they were "distressed by the baby" and felt that it was not funny and wronged for the child.

There are two views. Some people think it's not funny because Bergson pointed out that the biggest obstacle to laughter is emotion, and the premise of laughter is to suppress emotion. Laughing with emotion is called sneer, ridicule, wry smile and laughter, but these are not funny.

If some parents see fish in the back of their baby's head and feel the unhappiness and "despair" in their baby's heart, it will trigger emotions. Even their children have had similar experiences and suffered psychological injuries. Parents will even feel the same way, not only can't laugh, but they will be very distressed.

This is Fan Xiaoqin, the "Little Ma Yun" who became popular on the Internet, because he looks like Malik Cloud. When I first saw this photo, I smiled, too, because it looked really rhythmic and gratifying. However, when I learned that Ma Xiao Yun's father had amputated his leg, his mother had been suffering from polio since childhood. Unfortunately, she was stabbed in the eye by a cow, and her grandmother had Alzheimer's disease. When a family of five only supported this poor family by a 59-year-old father, I really couldn't laugh when I saw the photo of Yun again. This is the obstacle of human emotion to laughter. How can people with emotions laugh when they think of their children's pain?

People who can't smile when they see this picture of children and fish together are people with delicate feelings and full of sympathy, cherish and pity in our society. Of course, I am not criticizing these people who see the baby big carp laughing, and I am one of them. This incident is probably just an episode in his long life. When he grows up, he will see this photo that made him popular on the Internet because of his father's carelessness. I believe he will laugh, too. But at a young age, he is more likely to feel wronged and even be teased by other children, which is brought to children by adults' thinking.

Look at the other babies in the photo, all absorbed in observing their little fish. Immature children will not notice what is funny about this big carp classmate. If the parents who see the photo pass this adult joke on to their children, and then other children get hurt, it's only us incompetent adults who are ridiculous! So although I laughed, I really admire those people who can't laugh when they see a baby with fish.