“Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are depressing,” so said E.B. White. So why analyze it? Laughter, smiles and humor usually come to us by way of love, anger, lousy cooking, winning or losing, being a tad naughty or by U.S. Postal Service.
How about the way the British have of defining certain athletes as Boxingers? Huh? It’s sort of logical. In the USA we have Boxing, so let’s go with Boxingers on the sports pages. It’s amusing to us because it’s an unexpected word. They say that humor results when two different frames of reference are set up and a collision is inveigled between them. Boom !