Stardust Reverie Collection

my theory isn’t complete either, but i think one part of it has something to do with making connections, which is why referential humor and injokes and stuff like that work at all—if you have no idea who Snas Undertale is then randomly hearing the first four notes of megalovania isn’t very funny, but if you know exactly who he is and the ridiculous memetic context surrounding him and his boss theme and even care in the first place, then it’s funny as shit. it’s funny because you know—you just had to be there.

and this is how we get fandom memes and friend group in-jokes and other kinds of masturbatory referential humor that build themselves up and become funny even if—maybe even especially because—you expect it. so here the explanation would be that new things are funny because they’re making connections between ideas in your brain in novel ways, and then things stay funny because you’re solidifying the memetic connections.

this doesn’t exactly explain why certain things are funny and why others aren’t, but i like a lot of this theory a lot more than the “expectations” theory, which holds itself together better and i don’t think is exactly wrong but it also has always just kind of annoyed me and never felt like a satisfying explanation because it always felt incomplete, and while i don’t think mine is complete it feels like it answers more questions and offers a more satisfying explanation so far