Humor as a Social Act

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02/12/13 Writing Project #1 Writing summary and synthesis essay Humor as a social act Humor as social act: ethical issues is an article written by J. Harvey, which mainly points on the examination of the value and the uses of humor while centering less powerful members of the society. The author sees humor as one of the kind of attack to the less privileged people. However, the manner in which it works among the people of uneven supremacy is not perceptible (Harvey 23). Harvey objects to the individual based approach by pointing out to John’s defense of the value of humor. John sees a serious person as anxious and solemn while humorous person as relaxed, cheerful and dissatisfied. Therefore, Harvey argues that the individual approach humor and asses its value according to their approach to life. Therefore, individual approach to humor is unsuitable because expressing a sense of humor is a social act and how other people are involved in this humor is very essential (Harvey 26). Additionally, intentional humor incorporates the initiator, the audience and the subject of the joke. Therefore, humor is a chancy dealing because its succession relies on the response of the desired audience. Thus, in a mixed group, some of the audiences are highly vulnerable while others feel secure; the secure people in the group mostly initiate the humor. Moreover, Harvey objects to desirability of humor as the focus of the privileged members of society as seen by John. John states that the value of humor is to bring everything down to size. However, Harvey argues that this is an assessment of the winning team and when humor is applied in defeat lasts only temporarily (Harvey 29). Lastly, Harvey explores the notion of the put-down humor and the moral issues. He states that a putdown- humor entails the content of the joke and the

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