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For other uses, see Ridiculous (disambiguation).
This ridiculously small hat is incongruous with the man's head size.


In common usage, "ridiculousness" is used as a synonym for absurdity or nonsense.[2][3][4] From a historical and technical viewpoint, "absurdity" is associated with invalid argumentation and reasoning, "nonsense" with semantics and meaning, while "ridiculous" is most associated with laughter, superiority, deformity, and incongruity. Reductio ad absurdum is a valid method of argument, while reductio ad ridiculum is invalid. Argument by invective declaration of ridiculous is invalid, while arguments involving declarations of nonsense may summarize a cogent semantic problem with lack or meaning or ambiguity.



Further information: Theory of humor

History: Incongruity, the superiority theory of humor, and deformity[edit]

The ridiculous often has extreme incongruity (things that are not thought to belong next to each other) or inferiority, e.g., "when something that was dignified is reduced to a ridiculous position (here noting the element of the incongruous), so that laughter is most intense when we escape from a 'coerced solemnity'."[5][6] For Aristotle, we laugh at inferior or ugly individuals, because we feel a joy at being superior to them.[7] Socrates was reported by Plato as saying that the ridiculous was characterized by a display of self-ignorance.[8] Deformity was considered by some to be essential to the ridiculous.[9][10] Psychological theories of humor include the "incongruity theory" and the "superiority theory", the latter of which the philosopher Thomas Hobbes was an early proponent.[11][12][13] Hobbes claimed that laughter was either caused spontaneously, or by seeing a deformed thing to which one compares themselves and laugh as a form of self applause; "a sudden glory arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison of the infirmities of others." [10] The Right Reverend William Warburton, Lord Bishop of Gloucester said in the early 18th century that, "Nothing is ridiculous but what is deformed".[14] Using the ridiculous is a method in the theory of humor.[15]


Native American Sacred Clown[edit]

Further information: Sacred Clown

The Sacred Clown (Heyókȟa) in some Native American culture uses the painfully ridiculous, and is believed to become closer to the gods by its primordiality.[16][17] Native American clowns are ridiculous in their contrary and rule breaking antics.[18] In the film Little Big Man, the sacred clown rides sitting backwards on his horse.[citation needed] Heyókȟa are thought of as being inconguously backwards-forwards, upside-down, or contrary in nature. This spirit is often manifest by doing things backwards or unconventionally—riding a horse backwards, wearing clothes inside-out, or speaking backwards. For example, if food were scarce, a Heyókȟa would sit around and complain about how full he was; during a baking hot heat wave a Heyókȟa would shiver with cold and put on gloves and cover himself with a thick blanket. Similarly, when it is 40 degrees below freezing he will wander around naked for hours complaining that it is too hot.[citation needed]

Parody and satire in social commentary[edit]

Further information: Parody and Satire


In Candide, Voltaire parodies Leibnitz's argument for the existence of evil under a benign God using "ridiculous rationalizations of evil".[19] Leibnitz claimed that God is constrained by logic, and created the best of all possible worlds. After being reduced from a "dignified" state to its opposite, the optimistic Dr. Pangloss (representing Leibnitz) finds cause to consider his undignified position to be the best of all possible worlds, noting his own particular current happiness, which he argues could not have been attained without experiencing the atrocities in the previous narrative; his optimistic attitude is extremely incongruous with his experiences and extremely inferior undignified ultimate condition.[19]

In Stanley Kubrick's 2001, A Space Odyssey, apelike humans and their behavior are juxtaposed next to streamlined advanced technology with a highly avant garde score by composer György Ligeti; Ligeti also used ridiculous juxtaposition in his scores to create parody,[20] and this tool was frequently used by composer Peter Maxwell Davies.

Deformity and incongruity in performance as social commentary, and lifestyle[edit]

Japanese Butoh Dance[edit]

Further information: Butoh

Japanese Butoh uses both inconguity and deformity to created ridiculous dance performance and lifestyle; extreme movement methods that are highly inconguous with natural body movement in its dance and everyday lifestyle, as well as in its clothing, actions, costume and set design that is highly incongruous with societal norms, which often shock the audience or visitor, and are sometimes considered not only ridiculous, but incongruently "bizarre and beautiful" or "elegant and grotesque".[21][22]

Theatre of the Ridiculous[edit]

Further information: Theatre of the Ridiculous


Psychology: attention, memory, and attitudes[edit]

Psychologists have studied human response to the ridiculous and its effects on attention and memory.[24][25]


The ridiculous is used in advertisement to manipulate attention and attitudes to products.[24][26]

Juxtaposition with the sublime [edit]



Napoleon, reflecting on the state of his existence following his retreat from Moscow in 1812, famously remarked to Polish ambassador D. G. De Pradt: Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas (There is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous).[1][27][28][29]

Invalid argument[edit]

Sometimes, the ridiculous is used to make an invalid argument.[30]

Reduction to the ridiculous, or "reductio ad ridiculum"[edit]

Further information: Appeal to ridicule, Red herring and straw man

Reduction to the ridiculous (Latin: "reductio ad ridiculum", also called "Appeal to ridicule", "appeal to mockery", or "the Horse Laugh") is a logical fallacy which presents the opponent's argument in a way that grossly misrepresents it and appears ridiculous next to it, often so misrepresentative as to create a straw man argument, rather than addressing the argument itself.[30] For example, in arguing against idealism, with its sophisticated arguments that the world was not real but only existed in the mind, philosopher Dr. Johnson famously kicked a stone.[30]



Arguments are often simply dismissed by calling them "ridiculous" as an invective, without further argumentation.[30] Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche often dismissed philosophical positions by calling them "ridiculous" without further argument given.[30]

See also[edit]


  1. ^ a b Dictionary.com
  2. ^ Free Dictionary
  3. ^ Babyon Dictionary
  4. ^ Thesaurus.com
  5. ^ Humour, Jokes and the Statement, Journal of Human Values, 2006, S Acharya, [1]
  6. ^ British Journal of Aesthetics, (1964) 4 (3), Harold Osborne, p.284
  7. ^ Poetics, 1449a, p. 34-35.
  8. ^ Plato, Philebus 49b ff.
  9. ^ Laughter as a Test of Truth in Enlightenment Satire, Werner von Koppenfels
  10. ^ a b A history of English Laughter: Laughter from Beowulf to Beckett and Beyond, Manfred Pfister
  11. ^ The Perception of Humor, Willibald Ruch, Emotions, qualia, and consciousness, Biocybernetics, VOl. 10
  12. ^ How Many Feminists Does It Take To Make A Joke? Sexist Humor and What's Wrong With It, Memo Bergmann, Hypatia, Vol.1, Issue 1, March 1986
  13. ^ Humor as a Double‐Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communication, JC Meyer, Communication Theory, Volume 10, Issue 3, pages 310–331, August 2000
  14. ^ The divine legation of Moses demonstrated, William Warburton
  15. ^ Investigating the humor of gelotophobes: Does feeling ridiculous equal being humorless?, Humor - International Journal of Humor Research. Volume 22, Issue 1-2, Pages 111–143, ISSN (Online) 1613-3722, ISSN (Print) 0933-1719, doi:10.1515/HUMR.2009.006, /February/2009, Willibald Ruch, Ursula Beermann, [2]
  16. ^ Native American Postcolonial Psychology, E Duran, B Duran
  17. ^ Ambigere: The Euro-American Picaro and the Native American Trickster, Melus, The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 1991, F Ballinger
  18. ^ The Mythology of Evil Among North American Indian Yuroks and Its Implications for Western Spirituality , Anthropology of Consciousness, Volume 7, Issue 3, pages 15–29, September 1996, Royal Alsup, Stanley Krippne, [3]
  19. ^ a b "ridiculous rationalizations of evil". Teaching Candide-A Debate, The French Review, Vol 61, No. 5, 1988, Theodore E. D. Braun, Felicia Sturzer, Martine Darmon Meyer, [4]
  20. ^ Blending the Sublime and the Ridiculous: A Study of Parody in György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Sewell, Amanda J, [5]
  21. ^ The Bizarre World of Butoh, San Fransciso Weekly
  22. ^ The Bizzare and the Beautiful, Los Angeles Times, 1989
  23. ^ Conquest of the Ridiculous:Ronald Tavel, John Vaccaro and Charles Ludlam, WarholStars, [6]
  24. ^ a b The Psychology of Advertising, Walter Dill Scott, 1910
  25. ^ The Ancient Art of Memory: Usefulness in Treatment, Bernard M. Patten, Archives of Neurology, 1972;26(1):25-31, [7]
  26. ^ Music for advertising effects, Psychology and Marketing, Volume 1, Issue 3-4, 1984, S Hecker
  27. ^ a b Jennifer Speake, ed. (2009). "sublime". The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2011-02-13.  Available online to subscribers
  28. ^ The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Robert Andrews
  29. ^ British Journal of Aesthetics, Aesthetics (1964) 4 (3), Harold Osborne, p. 284-5, [8]
  30. ^ a b c d e Wishful Thinking and Other Philosophical Reflections, Nicholas Rescher, 2009