Discussion Forum

Dear Spoof readers!
anyone familiar with concepts of theories of humor, namely incongruity theory, schemas, scripts, incongruity in cognitive schemas, PLEASE, help!!!
Im writing a "serious" paper on humorous headlines in English newspapers...aaand, im struggling..(
I need your opinion on incongruity present in a number of supposedly funny headlines:

Mice trained for airport security
Colombian police capture pigeon carrying drugs to prison
Drug mule pigeon caught in act
Skateboard dog may get ASBO
Artist grows ear on his arm
Parrots are left-handed
Alcoholic aged 3 in hospital
Bini-Me>: Tiny rebel 'Osama" is video star
Derrick Bird said 'nice day' than shot woman
Farewell to Terry Leavy
Kids play 'suicide bomber' game
Liz Tyler: Groupie mum taught me morals
Toona fishing for more success
Shot soldier's brave order to doctors: cut my leg off...so i can run the
marathon
Ballons lift house up
I slimmed to be huge (pop star) in the U.S.
Pet goldfish has "Hitler moustache"
Kate Moss gets drunk and seduces a teddy bear
Kids given a brick wall to play with
A swelly belly for Kelly off the telly
Norma- the scooter riding dog finds online fame
The guide dog with a guide dog,

many thanks for y contributions )

I can tell you what a schema is, if that helps. Luckily, I did some work on schemas earlier in the morning.

A schema is pretty much a stereotype for a certain event. For example, if I asked you 'what did you do in the cinema last week', you wouldn't know what you did, or possibly what movie you saw. You probably go to the cinema a few times a year.

But you can guess what you would do at a cinema, you can give me a typical trip to the cinema based on past experience. You can tell me that you walked in, paid for tickets, bought popcorn or sweets, and then sat down in a seat to watch the film. Then afterwards, you went out of the cinema and went home.

In a nutshell, a schema is an assumed series of events for a certain thing.

Hi, well I do wish I was clever enough to give you some help 'off the top of my head' but I can't.

That's a toughie...but as I GOOGLE all of the time, I typed in Incongruity theory and got a whole LOT of info. I was amazed myself... There is such a lot written about humour....have you Googled yet?

LG