Cultured Laughter 
by Paul Niquette
Copyright ©1996 Sophisticated:The Magazine. All rights reserved.

 
You will not laugh at what you do not understand. You will not laugh at what you do not agree with either -- or if you find the material to be offensive. Finally, the stuff has to be funny.

In Cultural Literacy{Reference}, E. D. Hirsch frames a compelling picture of the knowledge-bound character of all cognitive activities. The book is dominated by an inventory of topics that every literate American should know something about.

    A given subject does not count as knowledge, if you have to look it up or have it explained to you. Same for jokes, get it?
There can be no doubt: Both literacy and laughter start with knowing about the subject -- at least knowing something about the subject..

The list set forth below is not prescriptive. These subjects were not judged for taste or comedic quality. {HyperNote 1}

Here is merely a collection of topical elements observed to be immediately accessible by individuals in TV audiences, as evidenced by their laughter.


accent, Brooklyn; accents, foreign; advertising, billboard; airline public address; America's Most Wanted; Attila the Hun; auto mechanic; automobile features (commercials); baby behavior; Barnie (cartoon character); baseball mit (sight gag); Batman; birth control (various); birthday; black (dialect); blacks (stereotypes); blowtorch; blue collar; bashing, gay; Bobbitt, Lorena; Bolton, Mike; bondage; born-again Christians (anti-abortion); boxing; Boy George; Brady Bunch; Brando, Marlon (impression); Bryant, Anita; bridal shower; British courtroom; Bundy, Ted; Burger King; Buttafuoco, Joey; Carter, Billy; cash register (buttons); Catholic (birth control); channel selector (old type); cheating in sex; child molester; child support; Christen, Carol; circumcision; climate, California; climate, Canada; clothes iron; commitment (relationship); condoms; contact lenses (cosmetic); cops; creamed corn; crime, urban; Cro Magnon Man; crystal ball; Dahmer, Jeoffrey; Dallas (city); Dallas (TV series); Davis, Ben; deafness; defecate; Denney, Reginald; department stores; derangement (clock tower with rifle); Disneyland; dog poop; drooling, children; drooling, old people; earthquake; Einstein, Albert; emergency room; Energizer Bunny; engagement rings; eye crust; Fabio; facial analysis; fast food; fat people; FBI; female condom; football fans; foreigners (behavior); full-length mirror (cheap); gay bar; gays in the military; girl friends; GMC truck; golf clubs; grandmother behavior; green card; Grim Reaper; gun bill; gym shoes; hair styling; hand-me-down clothes; Harding, Tonya; Hashly, Rick; Hathaway, Jane; Hepburn, Katherine (impression); Hitchcock (Birds, Psycho); Hitler (Adolph); homeless woman; homophobic; hooters; Hubble telescope; infommercial (impression); invisible airplane (comic books); Jackson, Latoya; Jackson, Michael; Jehovah's Witnesses; Jordan, Michael; K-mart; King, Rodney; KKK; Kwasimoto; lesbian; Limbaugh, Rush (obesity); low self-esteem; macho (impression); magnum pistol; make-up; mammogram; marriage; marriage problems; marshmallow; masturbation; Mafia; McDonalds; medical textbooks; Menendez brothers; menstruation; Mexican (macho); Mineo, Sal (impression); Montezuma's Revenge; moon-walk; mother; Mr. Potato Head; mugging; multiple orgasms; murder; NAACP; New York; news programs; obesity; old age forgetfulness; Oliver North; orgasm; Packwood, (Robert) Senator; paper-or-plastic (at grocery); paranormal; Payless Drugs; peaking of sex drive (tumescence in men); penis size; perfume; Perot, Ross; personal ad; Pinto automobile; pirate eye patch; police cars; Police Academy (movie); potato (pronunciation); Presley, Elvis (ignorance, obesity); psychic counselling (late night TV); rats (in NYC); referee's wireless microphone; Reilly, Charles Nelson; rejection (coping); relationships; Retin, Mary Lou; Roadrunner (cartoon character); Schwinn (old fashioned bicycle); screen door; Sears; secretaries (phone manners); segue (on TV talk shows); senility (behavior); Seven-Eleven (foreign clerks); sex; shoulder pads; shower rod; Silverheel, Jay (trivia question); sick leave; Siskell & Ebert; skeet range; smoke alarm; smoking pot; snoring; spit; sports on TV; Sports Illustrated (swimsuit edition); Stewart, Rod; stress; stucco ceiling (texture); T-shirt (slogans); tank-top; taxes; teddy (garment); terrorists; Thanksgiv- ing; theft; therapy; Three Little Pigs; tin-can phone; Tourette's syndrome; tour guide; transexuality; truth serum (at dentist); turbo option (in cars); Turner, Tina; Tyson, Mike; Underdog (cartoon); underwear, men's; underwear, women's; vacuum cleaner; vagina; vampire; vulnerability (male); weathermen; weight gain; welcome mat; Western Union; Westside Story; Whopper with Cheese; wife swapping; Wimbeldon; Wonder Woman; World Trade Center (bombing); yuppie.{HyperNote 2}


Laughter is being used here as a gauge of cultural literacy. Not funny, I know.
 

HyperNotes

{HyperNote 1} When this article was first published (in a local Mensa newsletter under the title "Laughter as a Gauge of Cultural Literacy"), readers eagerly nominated the most egregious entries they have found for inclusion in my list -- appointing me, as it were, to complete some grand and comprehensive research project. Others expressed revulsion for the listed topics, decrying them as vulgar or banal -- a stark revelation of the ignorance and tastelessness of American society in the final decade of the 20th Century.

Though not made explicit in the article, my objective was sophisticated indeed: I was conducting research in preparation for my first shot at SUC (stand up comedy). And I wanted -- what? You got it, laughs.{Return}


{HyperNote 2}Topics scientifically collected from VH1's Sunday Comics, against the null hypothesis -- an objective experiment, characterized by lengthy observations at non-random intervals (bounded by bladder breaks) in 1994 by Paul Niquette. There were a total of 22 comics: 16 male, 6 female.

For sophisticated investigators interested in carrying this important work forward, I strongly recommend the inclusion of topical tallies for depiction of frequency distributions in histograms (Brady Bunch, for example, would have formed a prominent statistical 'mode,' with a half-dozen references). {Return}



 
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E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy, Random House, 1988 {Return}