WELSH HUMOUR

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WELSH HUMOUR

• MATERIALS FROM
• THE ETHNOGRAPHIC
• TRIP TO WALES
• compiled by
• Ida Baj and Anna Fidzinska
• from Kolegium Karkonoskie
• in Jelenia Góra

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WELSH HUMOUR MENU

• Introduction
• Questions for interviews
• Interviews and photos
• Welsh jokes
• Humorous vocabulary matching activity with key
• Bibliography
• Teaching tips

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computer science
medicine
sociology
literature
HUMOUR MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD
physiology
psychology
philosophy
esthetics
linguistics
cultural anthropology
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Incongruity theory
Hostility theory
CLASSICAL THEORIES OF HUMOUR
Relief theory
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• Humour liberates us from the constraints of adult
  logic. Laughter releases psychic energy that was
  built in our body from suppressed feelings in
  taboo areas, like sex and death.
• Sigmund Freud
• Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious

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• Humour is used by the society to correct stiff
  and inflexible behaviour.
• Humour creates a unique social bond, the
  community of laughter.
• Henri Bergson
• On Laughter

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The cause of humour is the sudden perception of
the incongruity between a concept and the real
object related to it. Laughter is an expression
of this incongruity. Arthur Schopenhauer
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SOCIAL CONTEXT OF HUMOUR
Maintenance theories
Frame theories
Negotiation theories
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Culture does not come from play... It arises in
and as play, and it never leaves it. Johan
Huizinga, Homo Ludens
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Pastiche A piece of writing, music,
or a picture, in which the style is copied from
someone or something else, or which contains a
mixture of different styles
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Writing that keeps the language in play

• quotes, re-uses, imitates, repeats-with-difference
  
• is parasitical on the body of host texts
• blurs the boundaries of genres
• de-stabilizes the authorship
• undermines context as a final governor of meaning
• derails intentions

Jacques Derrida
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Gerald of Wales Descriptio Cambriae (1194)
The Welsh love sarcastic remarks and libellous
allusions, plays on words, sly references,
ambguities, and equivocal statements. Some of
these are just for fun, but they can be very
bitter. They are inconsistent and unable to keep
their word, even when given on oath.
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ETHNOGRAPHIC METHOD

• Was developed specifically to study culture
• Involves participant observation
• Focuses on human behaviour within a social
  context
• Raises awareness of cultural diversity

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Derek Johnson, an ice-cream seller from Cardiff
Bay The Welsh humour depends on which generation
you are...
Do you think that in Poland the younger and the
older generations laugh at different things? What
do your parents laugh at ? Do you find it funny?
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Nicky Thompson,an actress and stand-up comic from
Cardiff We are Celts. We love to talk. We are
the nation of great storytellers and weavers of
magic. Do you think that there is a typically
Slavic sense of humour? If so, what are its
characteristics?
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Endorphinschemicals naturally released in the
brain to reduce pain,and which can make you feel
relaxed and/or energetic. www.patchadams.org
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Grenfell Jones (GREN) of the South Wales Echo for
whom he has produced a daily cartoon for over 30
years
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The NHS is requesting help in the Dental crisis
For a vet he is doing fairly well.
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INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE

• standard language and communication skills
• empathy
• sensitivity
• ability to understand and interpret otherness
• respect for different beliefs and attitudes
• ability to accept ambiguous situations
• ability to see the world from diffrent
  perspectives

Intercultural competence begins in our own
culture.