A cow standing on a pole.
Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Vibrating Norwegian horse box full of sea-cucumbers
Surreal humour is a form of humour in which the amusement value is derived from a lack of logical sense.
Probably the most common form of surreal humour is the non-sequitur, in which one statement is followed by another with no logical progression (as in the above joke), but surreal humour can also be found in unexpected juxtapositions (such as in the image to the right).
An important quality of surreal humour is its bizarre nature: the joke above would probably not have been as funny if the answer had been given as, say, bookcase, though it would have made equally little sense. The point of the joke may have been appreciated intellectually, but the answer would not have been considered to be particularly surreal. This appreciation of the bizarre is of course subjective, but the absurd situations that are considered amusing are often agreed upon.
Surreal humour is often found to be more comical when instances of it are being treated as if they are usual; the image of the cow on the pole for example would have probably been considered funnier if it had been ignored by the text.
The most famous users of surreal humour are probably Monty Python. Their use of this type of humour is memorably illustrated in their SPAM sketch, in which a waitress in a cafe is unable to offer a customer a meal which does not include SPAM. The argument is regularly interrupted by a group of Vikings singing about said processed meat product. No explanation is of course offered for any of these actions.
Other notable examples of surreal forms of humour can be found in the works of Douglas Adams (particularly his Dirk Gently books), and in the animated series The Simpsons and Futurama.
See also
Last updated: 10-21-2005 15:52:41
