Laughtivism in Disney's Finding Nemo

Travis Howell

            When one thinks about the concept of humor or “laughtivism” a number of things come to mind. We think of things that make us smile. We think of things that bring us together with the ones we love. However, we often overlook another more serious side of humor or laughtivism. In Dr. Tarvin’s lecture on laughtivism there was a quote that he included that says, “Almost all humor is based on contradictions an incongruity…Generally, what causes amusement is when things are turned upside down or when things are no longer as we usually perceive them” (Sorensen, 171).

           

            Now this can be interpreted in many ways but I think one of the fundamental ideas to take away from this is that humor arises most in situations where conflict is present. I find that idea to be most interesting and it has led to the question of whether or not humor and laughtivism are a positive force in the presence of conflict or if it can have detrimental affects. In order to explore this idea more, I turned my focus to the animated Disney film Finding Nemo. The plot of the film centers on a fish that has seemingly lost his son Nemo and enlists a number of unlikely friends in a quest to recover his son. Now, the idea of losing a family presents an obviously overwhelming conflict for anyone. However, along the group’s journey there are a number of instances of comic relief, which help to distract the group from the conflict at hand. For example, Nemo’s father often gets annoyed when Dory, a scatterbrained regal blue tang fish that sings made up songs along their journey. In another instance, Nemo makes some unlikely friends when he finds himself in a fish tank with a group of fish that perform a hilarious initiation ceremony for their new friend.

           

            Instances such as these highlight that humor and laughtivism can sometimes help ease tension in otherwise serious situations. Therefore, after considering the positive and negative aspects of humor and laughtivism under a lens of Disney’s classic animated film Finding Nemo, I have come to this conclusion. Conflict and intense situations can often be tough to overcome when tensions are high and solutions are abstract. However, when appropriate amounts of humor and laughtivism are introduced to these situations, those involved are distracted and given the chance to re-direct their focus and find solutions to the problems they face.

Laughtivism

Octaviano Ramirez


Laughtivism is the strategic use of humor and mocking by social nonvielent movements in order to undermine the authority of an opponent (Garland, 2013).  This tactic which is used to build credibility and break the fear of a certain person or institution was first made popular by the organization Otpor which has overthrown several dictatorships in the past 2 decades (Novovic, 2014).  The reason this strategy works is because it uses humor to put the "big picture" in a different perspective and show the people that whatever power that is oppressing them is not as all-mighty as they may believe.  This concept of laughtivism seems so revolutionary, pun intended, because historically revolutions have been by way of violence which has always been thought to be the golden rule, and all of a sudden you have a dictator being overthrown because he did not know how to handle himself when being the target of several jokes instead of rifle cross-hairs (Popovic, 2015).

The movie that I think that capitalizes on this concept is Mean Girls.  I see this happen because it is the story of 3 "mean girls" who terrorize a high school till one outsider destroys their little reign.  Where I see the connection is that the new girl did not use violence to win this battle.  She used humor to discredit the bullies and show the rest of the school they did not have to put up with their shenanigans.

With this information in hand, I decided to head over to the Quad and interview a few cadets about their thoughts on laughtivism, because the same way the Corps is filled with exemplary leaders, it also has a few bad apples.  The first cadet that was interviewed was asked how he could see signs of laughtivism happening in the Corps and his response was the following.

While we aren't necessarily trying to overthrow the system, you will run into a bad leader here and there, and now that you briefly explained what laughtivism is, it sort of makes sense.  You can make fun of a good cadet and they will shrug it off or play along and make fun of themselves further, but the minute you make fun of a bad cadet they will immediately try and find a way to discipline you or work the system against you.  I can definitely see how if a group large enough gets behind this, how even whole governments can be overthrown.

The comments of the second cadet where similar just worded differently.

I can see the difference in strategy here and in my head I can picture why it works, it goes back to the whole "hearts and minds deal".  If you violently remove someone from power, then you are no different then they are, at least that will be the perception the public will have of you.  But if you use a different angle of attack, such as humor, it is a win win because they really have no form of retaliating without looking like jackasses.

I told the second cadet he should've taught this lesson, for those were the words Dr. Tarvin used, or at least pretty darn close to them.

Blog Entry #9: Laughitisim- Disney movie

Shelby McNeel

Blog Entry #9: Laughitism:

Today’s leaders all face a multitude of challenges in order to meet goals of their organization. Through the use of laughitisim, the social movements of humor become evident as a strategy of non-violent resistance to oppression and dictatorship. Humor is more than just funny concepts; it represents a multifunctional management tool that can be used to achieve many objectives (Romero, 2006). This concept uses humor to help overcome and take down any conflict during social movements. While resistance or oppression may form in social environments, the use of humor can help to resolve that unwanted tension. The use of humor to resolve conflict is clearly seen in Disney’s new movie Zootopia. In a city inhabited by dangerous animals, a little bunny realizes how tough it is to enforce law and resolve crime cases. With the help of her difficult partner and determination, the unique approach of humor rises and takes stand to alleviate that tension. This concept offers powerful strategies and challenges oppression. The movie reveals how absurdity may transcend rationality and help one gain knowledge in areas that were unseen before. This movie also reveals the idea that with humor, evil can change to goofiness; it creates the idea of being in the “in group”, and a way for leaders to encourage followers. Humor is also an important part of the organizational culture of successful companies such as Ben & Jerry’s (Cas- telli 1990), Southwest Airlines (Barbour 1998), Sun Microsystems, and Kodak (Caudron). Katherine Hudson, CEO of the Brady Corporation, suggests that humor can spark innovation and increase the likelihood that un- pleasant tasks will be accomplished and to relieve stress (Hudson 2001).