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12 November 2018 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin
Laughter is a serious business
Prof Julian Hanich shared twelve types of laughter that you can find in the cinemas

Did you know that there are 12 types of laughter at the movies or that we laugh in relation to others? After attending the So funny! So ridiculous! On Laughter in the Cinema public lecture by Prof Julian Hanich, it becomes apparent that laughing is not a laughing matter.

The Department Art History and Image Studies hosted acclaimed German film studies academic, Associate Professor Julian Hanich on Monday 5 November 2018 at the Visual Media Hub on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). There was also a screening of the German comedy Welcome to Germany after the lecture. 

The visit was made possible through the Marco Polo Fund at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. “It is an opportunity for researchers to engage and build relationships with other universities,” Martin Rossouw, Head of department, said. 

Prof Hanich research includes, film phenomenology, cinematic emotions and effect and film styles and collective cinema experience. 


Cinematic laughter bring viewers together

The laughter in the cinema is a more comic type of laughter and the group experiences it differently. “Collective laughter groups the audience together for a brief period,” Prof Hanich said.

Here is some food for thought. Have you ever realised why you laugh or even how you laugh when watching a movie at a cinema or at home? It is often the comical and humorous situations that make us chuckle for sure, but your laughter has more meaning than just being a reaction to what you saw on the screen.  

“Laughing out loud is sometimes a humourless business. We have to take laughter seriously,” Prof Hanich said at the start of his lecture. 

“We laugh with others even though it may not be funny, or we laugh against others because they do not find it funny,” he said. 

In film studies scholars tend to look exclusively at the relation between a single viewer and the film but rarely discuss the relationship between viewers. 

Different types of laughter 

Some of the 12 types of laughter include; eruptive comic laughter. which is a response to a comical incident that overwhelms the viewer; distancing relief laughter for shock or disgust; ironic rededication laughter, which a slightly condescending reaction. Then there is also delighted recognition laughter when the viewer recognises something within the film, and narcissistic joyful laughter, which is when a viewer understands a complex joke that was made in the film.

The aim of this talk was to widen the discussion concerning laughter within film studies. 

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Achievement for Accounting students
2013-05-08

 

Infront: Richard Yang (2013 Academic Clerk), Raymond Cramer (2013 Academic Clerk), Me Jana Lamprecht (Lecture), Prof RonellBritz (Chairperson: Centre for Accounting), Me LizelleBruwer (Lecture), Prof HendriKroukamp (Dean: Faculty of Economic and Management Science), ThembiKganane (2013 Academic Clerk).
Back: Prof CobusRossouw (Lecture), Mr KobusSwanepoel (Lecture), Prof Hentie van Wyk (Program Director: Centre for Accounting) and Robert Bode (2013 Academic Clerk)

08 May 2013

The B Acc Honours students of the Centre for Accounting have done very well in the Initial Test of Competence (ITC) examination of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), when 60 out of 65 students passed. It represents a pass rate of 92%. The overall average pass rate nationally is 74% and 86% for those who wrote the professional examination for the first time.

The Centre for Accounting achieved an average pas s rate of 81% over the last three years. Up till now it is the largest number of UFS students that passed the professional examination in one year. The highest pass rate was achieved in 2008 when 95% of the UFS students passed.

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