LARSON,GARY FAR-SIDE - NONSENSE - NONSENSE

The Far Side cartoons of Gary Larson have been claimed to exemplify th e nonsense (NON) humor type of the 3WD humor taxonomy (Kohler and Ruch 1994), where NON is characterized as having a structure in which ther e is no resolution. Yet closer examination reveals three main difficul ties with Kohler and Ruch's approach: (i) the cartoon sample size; (ii ) the raters' cultural background; and (iii) the interpretation of the 3WD as comprehensive. These difficulties are raised through a structu ral analysis of 800 Far Side cartoons, using the Generalized Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo and Raskin 1991). Three distinct resolution typ es emerge in this sample: FULL, PART and NONE, which pattern in signif icantly non-random ways with other structural characteristics of the c artoons, especially Target (TA) and Logical Mechanism (LM). It is show n that the full range of resolution types is unlikely to be represente d in Kohler and Ruch's sample, and that their German raters are likely to lack crucial aspects of the cultural knowledge of TA and LM involv ed in interpreting Far Side cartoons. An alternative interpretation of Kohler and Ruch's results is proposed in which cultural knowledge pla ys different roles in processing Far Side cartoons of different resolu tion types.