Surreal Humour - Etymology and Development

Etymology and Development

The word "surreal" first began to be used to describe a type of aesthetic of the early 1920s.

In addition to the avant-garde art movements, early surrealist comedy is found in the satirical and comedic elements of works of modern authors, who, like Lear and Carroll, wrote stories which dispensed with the normal rules of logic. Examples of this include the dark comedy of Franz Kafka, the stream of consciousness writings of James Joyce, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Hunter S. Thompson, or the whimsical poetry of Dylan Thomas and e. e. cummings. Surreal humour is also found frequently in avant-garde theatre such as the droll Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. In the United States, S. J. Perelman (1904-1979) has been the first surrealist humour writer. Artists like Yoko Ono, Andy Warhol, Donald Barthelme, Italo Calvino, John Hodgman and many others have relied on this technique in their work.

Surrealist humour has played an important role in popular culture, especially since The Goon Show and The Firesign Theater. In the 1960s, surreal humour was combined with counter-culture in movements such as the Youth International Party and the Merry Pranksters, as well as in the work of psychedelic musicians such as The Beatles, Syd Barrett, Frank Zappa, The Residents, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Captain Beefheart, and the television series The Monkees.

Another significant influence on popular culture was Monty Python, most notably in their Goon Show-influenced TV series, Monty Python's Flying Circus, which featured an intricate structure and many absurdities and non sequiturs.

Surreal humour maintains a healthy presence on TV in Britain, spearheaded by the absurdly anarchic deconstructions of light entertainment traditions central to the comedy of Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, Ted Chippington and Harry Hill. More recently, The Mighty Boosh has exploited the sitcom format for distinctly surreal purposes. A distinctly Python-influenced strand of surrealism is prevalent in the work of stand up Eddie Izzard who often uses anthropomorphic constructs in order to tell a running joke; often splicing several jokes together throughout a two hour show.

Surrealist humour is used effectively in Cinema where the suspension of disbelief can be stretched to absurd lengths by logically following the consequences of unlikely, reversed or exaggerated premises. Luis Buñuel is a principal exponent of this, especially in The Exterminating Angel. Other examples include The Falls by Peter Greenaway, "Free Time" by The Bogus Group and Brazil by Terry Gilliam. As with Satire, the humour is intended as an attack on particular norms and preconceptions rather than as pure entertainment.