If you’ve been following my blog posts for any length of time-first, thank you-you know that I love to write about patterns within humor. One of these is deception. It seems to show up a lot in humorous content, in jokes, true-life anecdotes, stand-up performances, and sitcoms. comedians relate stories about othre people lying, as well as times when they felt compelled to do the same.
Deception Is Comedy Gold
We find this behavior to be a central theme in many American sitcoms over the decades. shows like *My Favourite Martian*, *Mr.Ed*, *Bewitched*, *I Dream of Jeannie*, *Get Smart*, *Bosom Buddies*, and *Mork and Mindy* featured main characters leading double lives that had to be kept hidden. Movies such as *Tootsie*, *Mrs. Doubtfire*,*Weekend at Bernie’s*,*Superbad*,*The Bird Cage*,*Dirty Rotten Scoundrels*,*Wedding Crashers*,and *Fifty First Dates* all had notable plot lines centered on deception.
Social Vulnerability
The Mutual Vulnerability Theory can help explain this relationship between lies and laughter.
Of the major vulnerability categories proposed by the theory-physical, emotional, and cognitive-deception falls primarily into a fourth realm: social vulnerability.Its about how we interact with others, friend and foe alike, to achieve goals or avoid negative consequences. Like most social shortcomings, there are spillover effects into other areas.Deciding to deceive and how well one does it are cognitive functions, and failures typically have emotional and, ultimately, physical ramifications. But for the most part, lying, cheating, and double-dealing are social strategies to reach one’s objectives despite challenging circumstances.
It’s not surprising to find sitcom characters constantly trying to get away with deception. In *I Love lucy*, Lucy regularly went behind her husband Ricky’s back, trying to get into show business or meet famous actors. Why? She wanted the excitement,and Ricky,with a few exceptions,simply wouldn’t allow it. In *Seinfeld*, when a guest star who pretended to have cancer for sympathy confessed to “living a lie,” George responded, “Just one. I’m living like twenty.” And in the first video below, when Leonard of *the*