Are Photography and a Sense of Humor Mutually Exclusive

<p>A very brief exchange I had on the Pentax forum lead me to ask this question, 'do photographers, by nature, have a more diminished sense of humor than many?' And if so, which came first, the interest in photography, or the diminished sense of humor? I'd thought of his earlier based on an experience I had on the nature forum, but this more recent exchange made me think perhaps I was onto something.</p>

<p>In a recent Monday in Nature thread, I posted the below pic and asked if anyone could identify the creature. Obviously it was meant to be light-hearted, and I thought some might get a chuckle and even offer a suggestion in identifying 'it.' But not only were there no takers, I got mildly scolded by several participants for posting the shot to the thread. I don't know if posters actually thought I considered it a genuine nature shot, or thought I was being disrespectful by interfering with the work of serious photographers, but it seems on many of these threads there is little humor involved. In fact, more often than not, someone will get a bit snarky and/or pompous. Perhaps it's the nature of internet communication, but I'm now wondering if it isn't the nature of the participants instead.</p>

<p>Maybe it's a bad idea to ask people to judge their own sense of humor, but I think we generally know what it is we laugh at and how often we laugh. I personally was the guy the class clown in high school always wanted by his side because I'd laugh at pretty much anything (to the annoyance of my wife to this day). How 'bout the rest of you? How would you judge your own sense of humor, and do you think this site demonstrates anything about one in general among photographers?</p><div></div>

<p>Some people, photographers or not, simply take themselves way too seriously.<br>

<Chas></p>

<p>Context is important. The Monday in Nature thread has rules that are really meant to be followed. If you'd posted a humorous photograph that met the guidelines, no doubt it would have been appreciated!</p>

<p>BTW: <em>Maculatus rubicornus</em>; Red-horned Spotted Dude. :)</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

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<p>More than 30,000 people in 15 countries were asked to rank the nations with the worst sense of humour and Germany came out on top. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8560815/Germany-officially-the-worlds-least-funny-country.html</p>

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<p>I'm German and am thus in a group that is accused of having no sense of humor whatsoever - but maintain that German humor is misunderstood anywhere outside of Germany - it is simply "lost in translation". By contrast, American or British humor is often just lost on me. And I am lost on how to weave photographers into this at all!</p>

<p>Although unicorn in high heels may not be, but this pretty much transcends the borders....</p><div></div>

<p>Bill - could you enlighten me as to what is humorous about posting that image in the nature forum and asking to identify the creature? Obviously someone with a rather questionable taste in attire selection. Though at least the tie choice has merit - I always feel like I have a hangman's noose around my neck when I wear one. But why the "two thumbs up"?</p>

<p>Dieter,</p>

<p>I guess the humor was one of those 'you had to be there' things. At one point, in between songs, one of the band members remarked (in a very heavy Scottish brogue) about how much they appreciated all the folks up front dancing, then looked right at this fella and remarked 'but what the hell are you.' I guess that struck me as funny and something the folks in the nature forum might want to help identify. I was wrong.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>A lot of street photography is funny or at least satirical or ironical. I've been acused of cruelty by other photographers with these. I thought they were rather funny.<br>

<strong> Staying in Shape</strong><br>

<a title="Staying in shape by Alan Klein, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5123/5383573474_006fdd2744_z.jpg" alt="Staying in shape" width="413" height="640" /></a></p>

<p> <strong>Snack Time</strong><br>

<a title="Snacktime by Alan Klein, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6161/6176982496_65a448d01b_z.jpg" alt="Snacktime" width="640" height="480" /></a></p>

<p>I kinda enjoyed titling this one.<br>

<strong>Woof</strong></p>

<p><a title="Woof by Alan Klein, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5006/5344384185_1b49852a7d_z.jpg" alt="Woof" width="640" height="480" /></a></p>

<p><em>I'm German and am thus in a group that is accused of having no sense of humor whatsoever - but maintain that German humor is misunderstood anywhere outside of Germany - it is simply "lost in translation". By contrast, American or British humor is often just lost on me. And I am lost on how to weave photographers into this at all!</em><br>

As an Anglo-German Jew, I’d have to say that, apart from anything else, Adolf Hitler did an awful lot of damage to the German entertainment industry, driving into exile or murdering many leading artists. For example, the Austrian Jewish director Samuel (“Billy”) Wilder would no doubt have spent his working life in German if not for Hitler. This humor has slowly crept back into Germany by virtue of the fact that all Germans learn English and thus acquire some appreciation of British (e.g. Monty Python) and American humor, the latter exemplified by the German-American comedian Allan Königsberg, who gave himself the easier-to-pronounce professional name of Woody Allen. During a long residency in Germany, I found that the best chance of finding good comedy was to head for any sign that said “Kabarett” (not “cabaret”) – Germany has a long tradition of hard-hitting political cabaret, and many fine artists choose to stay on the Kabarett circuit rather than try for TV, since German TV is so terminally boring.<br>

To reply to the OP … yes, photographers are notoriously humorless. Images that I (and certain of my friends) thought hilarious have met with stone faces among “serious” image makers – what can you do?</p>

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<p>Photography, like writing or any form of communication, is many things to many people. To some it is a sacrament, practically a religion. And to some true believers, as Jorge de Burgos argued in <em>The Name of the Rose</em>, laughter is blasphemy.</p>

<p>To an iconoclast like Joel-Peter Witkin nothing is sacred, at least not the conventional trappings and traditions.</p>

<p>To others both extremes may be acceptable in the appropriate time and place. Most of us tend to compartmentalize our behaviors, which is the usual practice of civilization and society. There's nothing particularly clever about most examples of flouting behavior just for the sake of being different, once we're beyond adolescence (some of us never quite graduate). Usually it's about as funny as farting on a bus full of passengers. Unless it's Evangeline Lily, when she was a flight attendant. Or a baby. Baby farts are always funny. And corpses farting are pretty funny, but it's one of those "you had to be there" things.</p>

<p><br /><a href="/photo/17812341&size=md"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17812341-lg.jpg" alt="Mushroom selfie" width="700" height="700" border="0" /></a><em><br />Selfie with magic mushroom, Gollum and Jack Frost</em>.</p>

<p><a href="/photo/17817430&size=lg"><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17817430-md.jpg" alt="Selfie with rock" width="544" height="680" border="0" /></a><br /><em>Selfie with rock some kid threw at me while I was photographing magic mushroom.</em><br /><em>He missed.</em><br /><em>Evidently not a hobbit. Hobbits never miss</em>.</p>

<p>Judging by the number of women I make laugh I would say I'm pretty funny.</p>

<p>Our site culture might have something to do with it. Kidding around is usually frowned upon as distracting from serious discussions, and even if a hilarious remark is made folks are reluctant to follow up, although I suspect many fall off their chair from laughter. </p>

<p>Our forum threads, unlike YouTube's comments, are linear and only references the original topic, whereas YouTube allows replies to individual comments which facilitates multiple discussions on the same video, so a discussion that goes astray can be contained and easily ignored, unless it's funny as hell, as it often is, then it can serve as entertainment as an alternative to an otherwise serious discussion. </p>

<p>I think some photographers can get a bit too focused - get it? - <em>focused</em>. About the Monday in Nature thread I agree with Noreen Doyle about context. As my old Dad used to say when I was a kid and had transgressed in some mild way<em> - imagine if we all did it</em>.</p>

<p>Humor and irony play a big part in Street Photography...</p>

<p>I agree with Dieter: It is mostly "Lost in translation" whether the language is written, spoken or visual like in Photography. If anyone believes that photography is a place on the moon, they might also believe that humor is outside its realm. Luckily humour, like irony, are well hidden and protected in diverse cultural traditions. It is part of human wealth of the world, that is protected by people throughout centuries. On the contrary, David B's comment above, does not make me laugh !<br /> <br /> For this site, Bill, just look around in the No Words forum and you will see humor popping up almost in every thread. In your photo from the Nature forum, I see a glimpse of nature at the upper right, which make me smile.</p>

<p>Interesting comments and some rather humorous shots. When I first started posting here years ago, and posted photos for critique, I posted this one which I thought was absolutely hilarious. It got largely ignored. Maybe it's only funny because I know the kids, but it still cracks me up to this day.</p>

<p>And just to be clear, I am not complaining about the issue with the nature forum, but merely citing it as something that I thought would generate a different response. And as I noted in my initial post above, it was not the impetus for my question.</p>

<p>Anders, thanks for pointing out there actually is a bit of nature in the shot. I hadn't noticed that.</p>

<p>Shot didn't load initially.</p><div></div>

<p><em>I hadn't noticed that.</em><br>

<br>

Bil, you are surely joking :)) </p>

<p>I find the reactions that Street photography has humor, is witty and has irony kind of funny. Wading between the huge wave of street photography that hits the internet nowadays, most of it is plain rubbish, some are slightly clever, and a lot which pretend to be humour, are on the limit of making fun of others. See also this thread. Wildlife photos can be tremendously funny, still life too... it is a bit strange to think one style of photography would be funnier than another. But maybe that was a joke?</p>

<p>Which goes just to say that what is funny for one person is insulting for another. What I find hilarious, others find dull, geeky or plain stupid. There is no such thing as a generic sense of humour (we're all too different), and in fact there is no such thing as "photography" either (we're all too different).</p>

<p>Humour, in my view, has got a lot to do with perspective, and changing perspective(s). And once one is passionate about something, it is increasingly difficult to laugh about it, to change perspective about it and make it a small insignificant thing. A lot of photographers I know are terrible at accepting feedback on their photos, because they love their creations and cannot accept much jokes about it. And most photographers I know are quite passionate about what they're doing... So, yeah, there is a point to it, that photographers aren't the funniest bunch out there. Me included.</p>

<p>Sorry; but I haven't seen anything in this thread yet to make me doubt that a sense of humor and photography are NOT mutually incompatible.<br>

I had high hopes for Lex, but well....<br>

See the new book<br>

<em>Photographic Humor and other Myths</em>.</p>

 

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<p>GET OFF MY LAWN! old man yells at sky.</p>

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<p>;)</p>

<p>JDM, too many negatives in your post for me to make heads or tails of what you're actually trying to say, which I usually love to hear since you're one of those people who often make a lot of sense and often do so in an entertaining way, not unlike Lex. My own LOL and smiley face included. :-) Maybe I just don't have the energy or wits about me this morning (still morning on the West Coast of the U.S. for another 15 minutes or so) to wade through all the bouncingly competing and supporting negatives in <em>"I <strong>haven't</strong> seen anything in this thread yet to make me <strong>doubt</strong> that a sense of humor and photography are <strong>NOT</strong> mutually <strong>in</strong>compatible."</em> Can you simplify that for this obvious simpleton this morning. Maybe it's on me to diagram this out, but I just can't get it. I want to laugh with you . . . or cry. Please, help.</p>

<p>Hmmmm.... I'm reading through some legal documents at the moment, and JDMs sentence is clear and obvious in a very familiar way.... Double negative makes positive, third negative makes confusion which turns into more billable hours of legal aid.... ;-) </p>

<p><a href="http://www.whattheduck.net/strip/3">Photography humour</a>?</p>

@JDM - like Fred, I am lost and need a translation. Don't want to hire a lawyer to help me understand what you wrote -

am afraid it might take several and I be stuck with a few contradicting opinions.

<p>I said what I meant and meant what I said. ;)</p>