Normalization of Comedy
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#01
Only a Joke Can Save Us: A Theory of Comedy · Todd McGowan · p.17
The Similar and the Dissimilar > Unlikely Couples
Theoretical move: Comedy's defining structure is the conjunction of disparate elements in an unexpected, non-normalized way; this immediacy makes comedy resistant to reflection, universal theorization, and temporal translation, yet that same structure (unlikely connection) constitutes the universal formal condition for the comic effect.
The comic doesn't have to be rare, but it can't become normalized. It occurs when a comic trigger alerts us to the connection that we would otherwise miss.