The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1888-07-13
The Psychology Of Joking.
4 I'D q Information rer az runnIne rnnlI,

~ #hoAAA 2 AllllfI@
stand a Joke, is recalled by the ESSAY
of j. H. Jackson, M. D., contributed
to the leading medical authority, the
London Lancet, and transferred to
the pages of the Popular Science
Monthly. Tie wise and genial doc.
tor has, so to speak, applied the
sealpelto the whole subject Of joking,
and laid bare its anatomy. That
some jokes are no laughing NATTER
is what readers of comic journals
know to their cost; But if we are
to believe DR.. Jackson, jocosity is a
very serious matter indeed.
We are told in the first place, that
there is a strict analogy between
laughing and looking. Whether it is
for this reason that a person is said
to 'see' or not to see the point Of
a witticism the writer iorbears to
state, but at any rate it is claimed
that "as there is a visual diplopia SO
there is a mental diplopia, or, as ii
is commonly called, double conscious
ness This is illustrated by refer
ence to the s~tereoscope. AS that OPP
tical Observation-Disclosures two pictures
OF one object, so the mind duplicates
each idea. And the sense of humor
arises from the mutual relations of
two similar images in thought. san
thinking is the discovery of rela-
tions," The only difference between
solemn and frolicsome thinking, Or.
jackson assures us, is in the nature
OF the relation discovered. A sample
pun is cited. NWhen is a little girl
not a girl?" Answer: When she is
a little horse (hoarse.)" Here the
last word may bepronounced in such
q manner as to suggest the condition
of the little girl who has a cold, and
also to suggest a well known animal.
The doctor admits that the pun is
very f~eeble-and here, at last, his
readers win agree with him-but he
thinks the explanation OF whatever
mirth is provoked by the pun must
pe found in certain Utilization which
the mind experiences on discovering
that one word can establish a con-
nection between two things so neon
gruous,
Having thus shown the psychology
ieal basis of joking, the Lancet writ
er proceeds to indicate a variety of
ways in which the study of this sub
ject may be applied to the solution of
perplexing eniglnas. At first the
reader, especially if he be addicted to
levity, may receive a start, for our
learned authorsaysthat "theprocess
OF mentation in the maniac is but a
caricature of s~tereoscopic and Dip
loptic mentation in healthy people,
And thenfolloWs scientific demon
strationthat the rawlings of themani-
aesand the performances of the pun
ster have the same mechanism. But
the shock is only momentary. In the
nextparagraphiti is shown thatjoking
supplies the key to the problems Of
sanity as wen as of insanity. For
instance, the smell ofroses recalls to
memory q particular room where a
man had lived when a child. The
Observation-Disclosures thus remem-
bered there were great manyroses on
certain occasions, Now '.the two
scents linked together held together
two dissimilar mental states That
is, the mental process i'm this case de-
+ pended on a relation as slight, neon
%spicuous and hitherto unsupported
as the relations whose discovery
causes laughter.
DIR. Jackson fnds that a process
takes place in dreaming like that
which takes place injoking. Perhaps
this Is why some people, especially
babies, are observed to smile in their
sleep. The writer tells OF a physician
who had been reading during the
evening about the troubled condition
of European politics, and at night he
dreamed that on being professionally
consulted by Bismarck, he prescribed
for the continental body polite iodlde
of potassium. BY the way, exactly
this idea was embodied in n q
Sidney Smiths most famous whim-
sicalities, wherein he compared the
opponents of the reform bin to q sick
man who refused his medicine on Mon.
day, and, by consequence, on Friday
was compelled to take So Double dose
OF rhubarb and unlimited infusion OF
SIENNA.
That portion of the Lancet essay
which will stir up the greatest inter-
est. however, isits valiant champion
ship Of punnipg, the form Of joking
which receives the writer principal
attention APunningd does notreceive
sufficient Z we are told. ~
Is The basis Of all wit and humor
The second and third are evolved
fromt tile first. No man Is fit for scien7
tihc research who cannotmakea pun,
Or at least who is deficient N the
appreciation a~jocositics m their de-
grees of evolution. Indeed, 50 lar
does this advocate OF q uespiseu,
though by no means g discarded,
species eliminating gothat punnlng
IS elevated to place among the nnesy
Of tine arts The dawn Of Of
tile merely rsdieulous, as IN punning