What's the definition of comedy? Banana. - Addison Anderson

翻译人员: Coco Shen 校对人员: Helen Bays

What's the definition of comedy?

什么是喜剧？

Thinkers and philosophers from Plato and Aristotle

各种思想家、哲学家，从柏拉图、亚里士多德

to Hobbes, Freud, and beyond,

到霍布斯、弗洛伊德等等，

including anyone misguided enough

甚至是那些被误导到

to try to explain a joke,

去解释笑点的人，

have pondered it,

都曾思考过这个问题，

and no one has settled it.

但都没成功解决。

You're lucky you found this video to sort it out.

幸运的是，本视频会帮你解决这个问题。

To define comedy, you should first ask

要给喜剧下定义，你首先得知道

why it seems comedy defies definition.

为什么“喜剧”很难被定义？

The answer's simple.

答案很简单——

Comedy is the defiance of definition

喜剧是对定义的挑战，

because definitions sometimes need defiance.

因为定义有时候恰恰是需要被挑战。

Consider definition itself.

思考一下“定义”一词本身，

When we define, we use language

当我们下定义的时候，我们通常使用言语

to set borders around a thing

去给一个事物定下边界，

that we've perceived in the whirling chaos of existence.

使得它脱离一团糟的存在涡流。

We say what the thing means

我们说这个事物指的是什么，

and fit that in a system of meanings.

然后将它归到所属含义的范畴内，

Chaos becomes cosmos.

一团糟的存在由此变得秩序井然。

The universe is translated

整个宇宙都已被定义纳入

into a cosmological construct of knowledge.

一个宏观宇宙级别的知识建构中。

And let's be honest,

坦率来说，

we need some logical cosmic order,

我们需要建构一个宇宙论级别的逻辑秩序，

otherwise we'd have pure chaos.

否则我们将陷入完全的混乱。

Chaos can be rough,

so we build a thing that we call reality.

混乱可以变得有序，

所以我们建立了一个叫现实的秩序。

Now think about logic and logos,

接着我们来思考一下逻辑和理性，

that tight knot connecting a word and truth.

正是它们使得词语和真实紧密结合。

And let's jump back to thinking about what's funny,

但首先，我们还是得思考一下什么是滑稽，

because some people say it's real simple:

因为有人认为滑稽其实非常简单。

truth is funny.

真实是滑稽的，

It's funny because it's true.

它的滑稽之处就在于它的真实。

But that's simplistic.

但这把复杂问题简单化了。

Plenty of lies are funny.

因为很多谎言可以是滑稽的，

Comedic fiction can be funny.

喜剧作品可以是滑稽的，

Made-up nonsense jibberish is frequently hilarious.

毫无意义的胡言乱语也同样经常逗人发笑。

For instance, florp --

比如说，呼啦噗~~

hysterical!

这太搞了！

And plenty of truths aren't funny.

而且很多真实也并不滑稽。

2 加 2 的确等于4 ，

Two plus two truly equals four,

but I'm not laughing just because that's the case.

但我却觉得它并不可笑，因为事情本来就是这样。

You can tell a true anecdote,

你可以对伴侣讲一个曾经真实发生的趣事，

but your date may not laugh.

但他/她可能觉得并不好笑。

So, why are some untruths and only some truths funny?

那么，那些好笑的真话或假话，到底好笑在哪？

How do these laughable truths and untruths

为什么这些所谓的滑稽话

relate to that capital-T Truth,

要与“真”或“假”联系起来？

the cosmological reality of facts and definitions?

即要上升到“真实”这一靠着 无数事实和定义构造的宏观现实呢？

And what makes any of them funny?

什么使得某些话那么搞笑？

There's a Frenchman who can help,

一个法国人的回答很有帮助。

another thinker who didn't define comedy

这位思想家并不定义喜剧

because he expressly didn't want to.

因为他明确表示不愿意这样做。

Henri Bergson's a French philosopher

他就是法国哲学家亨利·伯格森。

who prefaced his essay on laughter

他在一篇序言中谈到笑声时，

by saying he wouldn't define "the comic"

表示他不会去定义喜剧，

because it's a living thing.

因为喜剧本身就是一个活着的实体。

He argued laughter has a social function

他认为，笑声具有社会功能，

to destroy mechanical inelasticity

它能摧毁那些机械化的僵硬，

in people's attitudes and behavior.

这些僵硬体现在人们的为人处世中。

Someone doing the same thing over and over,

有人反复做同一件事，

or building up a false image of themself and the world,

有人的人生观、世界观是歪曲的，

or not adapting to reality

有人不能适应现实，

by just noticing the banana peel on the ground --

甚至于注意不到地上的香蕉皮。

this is automatism,

这就是一种机械化行为，

ignorance of one's own mindless rigidity,

即对这种无意识的僵化一无所知，

and it's dangerous

这很危险，

but also laughable

但事实上也很可笑，

and comic ridicule helps correct it.

而喜剧的滑稽有助于纠正这种行为。

The comic is a kinetic, vital force,

喜剧有一种运动着的活力，

or elan vital,

或者说是一种跃动的生命力，

that helps us adapt.

它帮助我们去适应并改变。

Bergson elaborates on this idea

伯格森将这种思考进一步推进，

to study what's funny about all sorts of things.

以研究事物的滑稽之处在哪里。

But let's stay on this.

但我们目前知道这些就够了。

At the base of this concept of comedy is contradiction

我们知道喜剧的这一概念建立在冲突之上，

between vital, adaptive humanity

即活力四射、适应力强的人性

and dehumanized automatism.

和非人性的机械化之间的冲突。

A set system that claims to define reality

一个对现实下定义的概念体系，

might be one of those dehumanizing forces

或许就属于这样一种非人性的力量，

that comedy tends to destroy.

而这正是喜剧力图摧毁的。

Now, let's go back to Aristotle.

现在，让我们回到亚里士多德，

Not Poetics, where he drops a few thoughts on comedy,

《诗学》中他的确对喜剧有一些思考，

no, Metaphysics,

但《形而上学》才是我们关注的重点，

the fundamental law of non-contradiction,

它阐述了不矛盾律的基本法则，

the bedrock of logic.

即逻辑的根基：

Contradictory statements are not at the same time true.

“两个相互冲突的陈述不可同时为真”。

If A is an axiomatic statement,

如果 A 是不证自明的公理，

it can't be the case

that A and the opposite of A are both true.

那么以下情况就不可能，

即A 和A 的反面同时为真。

Comedy seems to live here,

喜剧似乎就生活在这一夹缝中，

to subsist on the illogic

它站在非逻辑上，

of logical contradiction and its derivatives.

表达的是逻辑矛盾及其衍生物。

We laugh when the order we project on the world

我们放声大笑，是因为我们建构的世界秩序

is disrupted and disproven,

正被摧毁、被推翻，

like when the way we all act

例如，我们都会做一些

contradicts truths we don't like talking about,

我们不喜谈论的事，

or when strange observations we all make

或者我们会奇怪的观察到

in the silent darkness of private thought

在一片人人沉思的寂静黑暗中，

are dragged into public by a good stand-up,

某人突然站起来，使他人被拉回现实。

and when cats play piano,

或者当猫弹琴时，

because cats that are also somehow humans

我们知道猫如果很像人

disrupt our reality.

就会有种非现实感。

So, we don't just laugh at truth,

所以，不仅仅真实值得嘲弄，

we laugh at the pleasurable, edifying revelation of flaws,

同样好笑的还有那些愉悦又启发性地 暴露出的种种瑕疵、

incongruities,

不一致、

overlaps,

and outright conflicts

重复

和彻底的冲突，

in the supposedly ordered system of truths

这些都发生在公认有序的真实体系中，

we use to define the world and ourselves.

这种秩序定义了世界和我们自身。

When we think too highly of our thinking,

当我们把自己的思考太当回事的时候，

when we think things are true

当我们认为事物是真实时，

just because we all say they're logos and stop adapting,

我们恰恰因它的“合乎逻辑”而停止适应，

we become the butt of jokes played on us

而因此成了被戏弄的笑柄，

by that wacky little trickster, chaos.

被混乱这一古灵精怪的骗子所嘲弄。

Comedy conveys that destructive, instructive playfulness,

喜剧传达了那种破立后的恶趣味。

but has no logical definition

但这没有一个合逻辑的定义，

because it acts upon our logic

因为它作弄于逻辑之上，

paralogically

它颠三倒四，

from outside its finite borders.

超越了定义营造的有限界限。

Far from having a definite definition,

喜剧并没有一个明确、有限的定义，

it has an infinite infinition.

因为它的定义是模糊、无限的。

And the infinition of comedy

事实上，喜剧的无限就在于

is that anything can be mined for comedy.

任何事物都可以成为喜剧的养料。

Thus, all definitions of reality,

也因此，现实中的所有定义，

especially those that claim to be universal,

特别是那些被宣称有普遍意义的、

logical,

合逻辑的、

cosmic,

宇宙级的、

capital-T Truth

一切真实中最真实的，

become laughable.

都在喜剧中使观众哄堂大笑。