Let's talk a little bit about comedy.

I need a new journal, since the one from my birthday is still sitting on my page like a stale potato. It's time for an update, and this seems like as good a topic as any.

This actually stems from a viewing the other day of the Trek Next Gen episode "The Outrageous Okona" in which electric robot man Mr. Data decides he wants to understand this human thing called humor. And to facilitate his education, Whoopie Goldberg helps him whip up a guest appearance from a hologramatic Joe Piscopo, who then goes on to do a lot of silly things, while not explaining how comedy works at all.

As usually happens when watching this episode, I found myself wondering if this was a blatant choice by the writer, or if the writer was simply incapable of explaining the subject. The plot (as it tends to when the point is to showcase how Mr Data just doesn't get the whole "being human" thing) requires that Data be incapable of understanding the topic. But, I believe that realistically, Data should not only be able to understand comedy, but make use of it. Because the method by which comedy works is fairly simple, and almost mathematical.

But then, if anyone had explained that to Data, we wouldn't have gotten scenes of him badly hamming it up with a prop cigar.

So, what is this thing called comedy, and how does it work?

It all boils down to one word: Subversion.

Comedy is, by it's very nature, subversive.

You create an expectation (or take a pre-existing understanding), and then you subvert it.

This is why jokes contain the components of a setup, and a punchline. The setup creates an expectation, and the punchline subverts it.

I've written a little about this in the past, specifically in regards to comic strips:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3951958/

But the format is essentially true of all forms of humor, from puns, to knock-knock jokes, to rickrolling - The dichotomy between the expected result, and the unexpected payoff is what tickles the brain.

If Data is capable of perceiving associations between concepts, which he clearly is, then he should be able to see how to subvert one concept with another, and thereby not just create a joke, but tell it in a way that works.

Because comedy is basically a logic puzzle.

And as a computer, his timing should be perfect.