One video that I found particularly funny was the babies eating lemon video. How funny, and cute is it to watch little children make the funniest faces? Their naive expectations were suddenly ruined when they took the first tiny bite of the lemon. While it may have been painful for them at the time, it was funny for us watching their reactions. The way these children contorted, then went back for more was just so amusing. On the other hand, watching the Water Fails video just made me cringe, but why?
Looking back at both the videos, the seem to represent the same theory, superiority theory. We are laughing at the unfortunate circumstances of others, secretly glad that we are not experiencing them. Instead we are standing safely at a distance where we can enjoy their uncomfortable situation, yet not involve ourselves in it. We can laugh and giggle without feeling any of the consequences of the funny act. If both these videos thrive on the superiority theory, why did I find one more funny than the other and seemingly less guilty at laughing at? In searching for an answer, I came to two conclusions.
My first conclusion is in degree of pain experienced during the funny episode. In the baby eating lemons video, the children may have experienced some pain, but it is no where compared to the pain experienced by the guy sliding into the frozen pond. While the baby makes you giggle, the swimmer makes you cringe. Maybe it is just the psychology major in me coming out, but I feel great sympathy for that man. Watching the Water Fails video made me hurt at the same time as those actually experiencing the pain. While I do admit, I let out a few chuckles, I am honestly worried for the people in the video. In all, the babies experienced much less pain which can lend itself to more laughter than some of the fails on the second video.
Secondly, we can know the babies will be okay in the end. We have all tasted a lemon before and came out just fine afterward. Yes, it may sting your mouth at that instant, but you completely forget about that lemon after 30 seconds. We can relate and predict the outcome of the video. We know they will be okay; however, we can not say the same for the water fail video. I honestly don't know what happened to each of the people shown. Some of the incidents shown could have resulted in major, life altering injuries. We can not know for sure what happens in the end, nor can we relate with many of the peoples pain. That draws me to a new question, would the the water fails video still be considered funny if they extended to video to show the people's reaction? If we got to see the man who slide into the frozen pool calling for help afterward, would he still be considered a water fail funny? I am interested to see the last 15 seconds of each of the clips. I wonder if my awkward chuckles, would turn into an heartfelt "awww"?
In the end, I do still find some of America's Funniest Home Videos and Water Fail clips funny, yet I would love to be rest assured that each of the people involved continued to live a healthy life afterward. Is that too much to ask?
Hi Kristin, thanks for the good post. I really enjoyed the baby-tasting-lemon video quite humorous, and I did not think it really bothered the babies. I thought it more a good example of cognitive shift than Superiority Theory. The Water-Fails video bothered me more, since I know some of those people were injured. To me, that's more the Superiority Theory. We laugh as if in relief it's not us that's getting smashed up. dw
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