LAUGHTER – SERIOUSNESS

Laughter and seriousness are the manifestations of two opposing mental states. Laughter is a manifestation of a positive emotion, such as joy. Laughter is the opposite of tears and grief, which are manifestations of negative emotions, and also the opposite of seriousness, i.e., calm, S. Pathos.
Laughter is a major instrument of discourse disorientation and destruction, see orientation; irony. Laughter and entertainment are associated with rhetoric, while seriousness and severity are associated with argumentation. In a debate, laughter and seriousness correspond to two positioning strategies: if the opponent is joking and laughing, let your response should be stern and to the point; to an austere technical discourse, your response should be smile and make a pun that everyone can understand.

Hamblin identifies three standard ad fallacies of entertainment, that occur in two different discursive and interactional organizations (Hamblin 1970, p 41).

1. The arguer as an entertainer

Ad ludicrum, Latin ludicrum, « game; show », which Hamblin translates as « dramatics ».
Ad captandum vulgus, Latin. vulgus, « the populace »; captare, « to seek to seize. »

Rational criticism rejects discursive theatricality, which spares no form of public speech, even conference communication. A speech is transformed into a performance. Such shows were first staged by the ancient sophists, as in Plato’s Euthydemus, see sophism. The arguer becomes an actor, who « plays to the gallery » or « to the crowd », referring to an actor whose demagogic play appeals to easy popular tastes, see ad populum.

2. The arguer makes fun of the opponent

Ad ridiculum, Latin. ridiculum « ridiculous ».

This second type of talk is quite different from the former. Hamblin uses the terms « appeal to ridicule » and « appeal to mockery » (ibid.). Strictly speaking, this is a kind of refutation by the absurd, whereby the advanced proposition is rejected by pointing out that it has unacceptable, counterintuitive, amoral and ridiculous consequences, see absurd. The ridiculous is not necessarily comic, and laughter may be sarcastic rather than joyful.

Hedge’s seventh rule explicitly excludes laughing at one’s opponent, « any attempt to […] lessen the force of his reasoning, by wit, caviling, or ridicule, is a violation of the rules of honorable controversy » (1838, p. 162); see rules. This is a special case of the prohibition against substituting the destruction of discourse for the refutation of arguments, see destruction.

Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca’s book, The Comic of Discourse (1974), is devoted to the comic exploitation of argumentative mechanisms as jokes.