Nevertheless, curiosity overcame skepticism, and after finding a book by a certain James Mendrinos on the Internet, the title of which can be translated as “A guide to humor for Dummies,” I could not resist getting acquainted with its contents. And quickly enough I came across exactly what I was looking for and did not believe in — the “Universal Joke Formula”.
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Making people laugh or at least smile is easy and simple, the author assures us. All that is necessary for this is to use the formula proposed by him, which looks like this:
Premise + Point of View (POV) + Twist = Joke (Premise + Point of View + Twist = Joke)
To say that I was disappointed after reading it is to say nothing. But first, a few words about the terms.
Texts in foreign languages, especially at first, may seem deeper than they really are, simply because the less familiar sound of the words obscures the meaning. Especially if we are talking about the English language, which is known for its ambiguity (in a scientific way – polysemy).
The Premise is undoubtedly the subject of the joke, its subject. “If you don’t know what your joke is about, how do you make people laugh at it?” Mendrinos asks rhetorically, and it’s hard to object to that.
It is more difficult with the term that the author called “point of view” (point of view). Apparently, the “point of view” is the “author’s view”, which implies an attitude to the subject and the emotions associated with it (even if there are none, then you need to come up with a good joke).
I bought a stool in an online store. Now Yandex constantly offers me to buy soap and rope.
Petrovich didn’t have any money, so he just shouted THANKS to the stripper in his underpants!
— Watson, what are you smoking? Let me guess — tobacco “Queen Virginia” with cherry leaves, from the anniversary edition in a velvet package?—Amazing, Holmes! How could you guess that? —By God, Watson! Well, it wasn’t Mrs. Hudson who stole the last pack from my room!
A twist (let’s remember the once famous dance) means a twist or a twist. The author defines it as the ending of a joke, a kind of trigger mechanism that causes the audience to laugh. Apparently, the trigger is what is usually called a “punchline” (a punchline).
Well, let’s try to sort out a few popular jokes using this formula. Since the author calls it “universal”, as a first example, let’s take a joke from the distant past, given in the ancient Greek collection of anecdotes “Phylogelos” (a lover of laughter).
To the chatty barber’s question, “How do I shave you?” The fool replied, “Silently.”
