The Theory of Humour
S1R,—Alan Brien successfully challenges Arthur Koestler's analysis of the joke about the Indian's coded smoke signals to his accomplice in the poker game. Koestler certainly missed the point. But is Alan Brien right in saying that the sole point of the joke is that the Indians used the smoke signal for its original purpose and that Koestler could still apply his theory by saying there is no bisociation and therefore no laughter?
Agreed, the joke is not a particularly good one, yet it seems to me to fulfil the requirements of the theory. In fact, it has not merely one but two bi- sociations, and in two distinct respects it discovers the unexpected confusion of usually separate con- texts. One, the anachronism of the application of an outmoded warlike technique to a modern card- game, and, two, the use of tobacco (associated with pleasure and the pipe of peace) in place of the original technique of beating smoke rings from a camp fire.
After all this, surely the joke will die on the operating table?
Spout wells House, Scone, Perthshire
D. H. CAMERON
Previous page
