400 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



object comes in and forces it into a contrary direction." Still the 

 same common theory of contrast, except that with Dumont the con- 

 trast rises to a contradiction. 



Many contrasts are imqnestionably ludicrous. In a parody, the 

 comic effect is produced by the contrast of the gravity of the original 

 work and the irreverence of the travesty. In the child's innocent 

 expression that we laugh at, there is a contrast between the bearing 

 of the word and the candor of the one who speaks it. Certain kinds 

 of transpositions make us laugh for a similar reason: a tragedy 

 rendered into a trivial style, sublime sentiments expressed in slang. 



There are other contrasts in which there is nothing ludicrous. 

 The false note of a singer is in most cases only painful; but the 

 effect of it is a contrast. The sight of a deformed body, after looking 

 at sound and well-proprtioned bodies, does not amuse. We do not 

 laugh when black is set upon white. We laugh when a clown, pre- 

 tending to imitate a cavalier, makes an awkward tumble, but not 

 if a real horseman gayly trotting by meets with disaster; yet there 

 is equally a contrast in both cases. A saying, amusing in itself, does 

 not please when pronounced under solemn circumstances that con- 

 trast with its tenor; and nothing is so insupportable as a companion 

 who insists on being funny when one is absorbed in admiration of 

 something or with grief. Everything that is out of tune creates a 

 contrast, but does not make one laugh. 



Bain suggests the explanation that laughter is provoked by what 

 he calls a degradation, meaning that we laugh when we all at once 

 perceive something degrading, a trickery, a weakness, or a pettiness 

 in some person or object which we respect; as when the infirmities 

 of human nature disclose themselves in a person of importance, or 

 when some trivial affair occurs in a solemn ceremony to drag us 

 down, or when the wrong side of some great thing or some great man 

 is exposed. " The occasion of the laughter is the degradation of a 

 dignified person or interest, under circumstances that do not excite 

 a stronger emotion. In all theories of laughter the more or less 

 important fact is marked . . . that the feeling of the ludicrous 

 arises when something which we respected before is presented in a 

 mean light; for we have no disposition to laugh when something 

 that we already regarded as such is depicted as tricky and vile." 



It can not be denied that this solution agrees with many facts. 

 We frequently, perhaps most frequently, laugh at degradation. 

 Those words are often amusing which bring up all at once the 

 eccentricity or the vice of some person. Degradation is even the 

 essence of parody. We laugh at the lapse of an orator, because the 

 man, with his weaknesses, is suddenly exposed in the midst of his 

 sublime flight. An uncouth expression or sound uttered in an assem- 



