Humor as (Un-)Selfing in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters

This paper intends to examine woody allen’s films from the perspective of iris murdoch’s moral philosophy. by exploring the possible relationship between humor and unselfing, we try to highlight the moral dilemmas of the characters and the audience’s ironic response to the use of humor. focusing on three films (annie hall, manhattan, and hanna and her sisters), it is argued that the films depict morally complex scenarios where humor has a therapeutic function as well as a morally ambivalent one. in manhattan and annie hall, isaac and alvy’s form of self-deprecating humor does come off as self-love but it falls short of unselfing. their self-love is only in the service of ego, while on the other hand, mickey in hannah and her sisters, and tracy in manhattan show how considering the singularity of other people’s experience will help one unself. mickey is the only character in these three movies that achieves unselfing through humor and the attendant detachment. if the audience is caught up in the ego trip of the characters, they will miss a whole other level of humor.