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[RedKing]

My google-fu turned up nothing, so I thought I'd ask here:

Is there a term (academic or otherwise) to refer to the ironic juxtaposition of class for comedic purpose? I.e. having two street thugs discussing Wittgenstein and vinoculture, or the entire Joseph Ducreux meme. Monty Python used this a good bit as well.

[Pnx]

I've often found myself wanting for terms for comedy "tropes". TVtropes does some of them but it doesn't really cover the finer nuances.

[TheBronzePickle]

If you combine it with people who you would normally not expect to know a complex subject, like a farmer knowing advanced astrophysics, you could probably call it Unexpected Intelligence or a similar term.

[kaijyuu]

I've often found myself wanting for terms for comedy "tropes". TVtropes does some of them but it doesn't really cover the finer nuances.

It's a wiki; go write one up if it doesn't exist

Assuming that it's worth the effort, heh.

[palsch]

Some sort of dissonance I'd say. Social dissonance? Class dissonance?

[Flying Dice]

I'd suggest: Atypical Knowledge.

[RedKing]

Possibly. Another good example would be the classic 'jive scene' from Airplane!.

It's not just that the knowledge is atypical, but that it's completely outside their social class and belongs to a different class. It's humor deriving from subverted expectations of in-group/out-group social interactions.

Monty Python was very fond of this device, having the Queen Mother talk in a shrill Cockney, or having the Bruces (a group of stereotypical Australians) sing about philosophers, or having a number of renowned German and ancient Greek philosophers playing a football match. They tended to use it as satire, but a lot of the modern memes that employ seem less satirical.

[Flying Dice]

It isn't the sort of thing which can be readily reduced to a handful of words, I suppose.. 'Perpendicular Relationship Between Class and Conversational Topics for the Purpose of Humor and Satire' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

[RedKing]

I know, I just figured maybe there was some obscure Graeco-Latin term out there that some canny English professor had coined for it. *sigh*

[Zrk2]

Class-Conversation Inversion, perhaps?

[Euld]

As a writer and English graduate, I'd smack your teacher for expecting a fancy term for that sort of situation    I'd call it irony, myself, and be pleased that you realized what was going on in the situation.

[Vector]

It's interesting, because we have a lot of stories about this sort of thing in mathematical subculture, as well (in both directions).  No particular word for it, though.

[Virex]

It isn't the sort of thing which can be readily reduced to a handful of words, I suppose.. 'Perpendicular Relationship Between Class and Conversational Topics for the Purpose of Humor and Satire' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

That's why we invent words for these things. There's a reason we prefer to talk about toluene instead of methylcyclo-1,3,5-hexatriene

[Flying Dice]

It isn't the sort of thing which can be readily reduced to a handful of words, I suppose.. 'Perpendicular Relationship Between Class and Conversational Topics for the Purpose of Humor and Satire' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

That's why we invent words for these things. There's a reason we prefer to talk about toluene instead of methylcyclo-1,3,5-hexatriene

The trouble is in developing a two or three word phrase that adequately describes most of the nuances of this sort of situation. Or in finding a sufficiently interesting hat to pull slips of paper from. 

[Il Palazzo]

O.k. then, since the lexical category appears to be empty, let's invent the word!
There is anachronism for things that appear out of their time, anatopism for those appearing out of place, so maybe anagenism or anaeidism(from ana- = against and genos; eidos = sort, kind) for things acting not as expected.