Universal Humor (Response to Tales of Juha, 1 - 41)

I had been studying all weekend to prepare for an exam and I was beginning to panic so none of the content was sticking, no matter how long I sat in front of my notes. I was definitely in need of a study break. I realized I had my reading from “Tales of Juha,” so I decided that I should use it as a “productive study break.” I opened the book and realized that the assigned reading was the section on “Wit and Wisdom,” so I anticipated clever jokes that may require a bit of thinking and in the state I was in, I was in no mood for thinking but I continued to read anyway. And to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the jokes. I liked how the jokes and found that it was an easy read and that it quickly lightened up my mood. I giggled and even laughed out loud at a few of the jokes and before I knew it, panic mode began to dissipate. I can’t list all the jokes that made me laugh but here are a few of the short ones that did:

• Juha met a friend of his father’s. “Son!” the fellow exclaimed. “Your father had a great beard. Why don’t you have any hair on your chin?” I take after my mother,” Juha exclaimed.   
• A punctilious person asked Juha what was the best position to take in a funeral procession. Was it ahead of the coffin or behind it? As long as you’re not in the coffin,” Juha said, “you can walk wherever you like.”   
• Juha dropped in on a family while they were eating. Who are you?” they asked. "I’m the rude fellow,” he answered, “who saves you the bother of sending a messenger to invite him.”

I found Juha’s character relatable. I continuously associated Juha’s character with somebody I knew. I was intrigued to realize that I could relate to a character from a different culture to my own. Moreover, I could still enjoy the jokes even though they were translated from Arabic. I realized this was possible through means of humor. As seen in the jokes above, I noticed that the jokes and anecdotes of Juha, at least within this section of “Wit and Wisdom,” were dependent on the comic technique of cognitive shift, for the most part. It played on context and the audience’s mental framework. The jokes used a punch line at the end in order to create the cognitive shift. By the end of the section, I was just awaiting the punch line before I even started reading a joke but even though I was expecting the shift, I was still amused by the punch line at the end of the joke.

Most of these jokes relied on sarcasm as a means to create humor, and were based on context, as opposed to play with language. I think this is why the jokes could be universal. There are differences in humor across different cultures, but humor is a universal theme. Though people laugh at different things, there are some common aspects of humor across various cultures. I have noticed that there are common techniques used such as cognitive shift. This brings me to question, yet again, are humor and amusement innate or does it depend on personal background? It’s a question of nature vs. nurture. Using my reading experience of “Tales of Juha” as an example, I find that humor is innate because it showed that despite my different background, I was still amused. I was even amused by the jokes involving a donkey. The donkey seems to be a significant animal in Arab culture since it appeared in many of the jokes. I couldn’t personally relate to the significance of the donkey yet I was still amused. However, I do believe that understanding the donkey’s significance would have certainly made the joke more amusing.

Overall, I found that this universality of humor emphasizes the claim arguing the cohesive function of humor. Having grown up abroad, I realized this in my life when I have met people from different cultures. Initially, it would be awkward until there was that “ice breaker” moment when we would both find the same thing funny despite our cultural differences.