The kernel spectrum is a classification of humor kernels into categories based on how the sense and nonsense relate to each other.
At the heart of all humor is a clash between sense and nonsense. There’s always some kind of normal and some deviation from that normal.
Clash Theory uses nine adjective pairs that describe humor’s nonsense and sense elements to divide humor kernels into nine major categories. These are in turn grouped into three major families that together make up the kernel spectrum.
Clash Theory’s presentation of kernel spectrum in the book Why Funny Is Funny is considerably more intricate than the very-high-level summary on this website. In the interest of accuracy, I probably should double-underline ‘considerably’ in the previous sentence. For simplicity (and perhaps over-simplicity), these website pages describe spectrum categories using only the adjectives for the nonsense half.
Of the three families, the Silly Family is the simplest. Here the nonsense is something that clashes at a basic level with the sense of the world as it is supposed to be. The adjectives for the four subcategories of SILLY nonsense are ATYPICAL, FOOLISH, SURREAL, and BUMBLING.
Within the Contrary Family, the sense and the nonsense are opposites. On average, contrary humor is more complex than silly humor and observer reactions vary more widely. The two major subcategories are IRONIC and SARCASTIC.
Within the Improper Family, the sense elements are more abstract than words or images – they are any of the mores and manners accepted as proper behavior. The corresponding nonsense elements are the many different kinds of deviations, from benign to accidental to egregious, that populate the major subcategories INAPPROPRIATE, AWKWARD, and VULGAR.
For details on each family, click the links above.
Go back to the third Kernel component Kernel Quality
Return to the first broad category Kernel
Continue to the second broad category Context
Why Funny Is Funny 