Response to "Lead Blog Post: Buddy the Elf"
What incredible timing... I watched Elf last night! This movie is a classic, and one of my very favorite Christmas movies. I agree with Jane that many humorous scenes in the film are examples of the superiority theory of humor as the audience is amused by Buddy's childishness and naïveté. However, I would assert that the majority of the movie is comprised of examples of the benign-violation theory of humor. Buddy is constantly violating universal societal rules because - as Jane pointed out - he was raised in the North Pole and is therefore unaware of how the real world functions. Here's a clip containing a few examples of his violations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSx4r8Gayb4 . He violates sanitary rules when he eats gum that he finds on the street, social rules when he approaches random people in an effort to find Santa, rules of courtesy when he stays in the revolving door for too long, rules of consumption when he takes multiple flyers from the men handing them out......