
Why are jokes funny? - irollboozers
https://www.microryza.com/projects/crowdsourcing-humor-using-humans-and-computers-together-to-write-jokes
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bennesvig
As someone who wrote a humor book and am currently working on another, this
topic fascinates me. For the last month, I've been analyzing jokes from
different comedians, looking for the root of why they're funny.

As I see it, humor is something that ventures outside of our own "world," yet
relates to it. Someone else's inside joke isn't funny to you because it
doesn't relate to the "world" you live in. This is also true of referential
humor like Family Guy. If you don't know the reference, it's generally not
funny.

From analyzing about 30 jokes, these are some of the repeating themes I've
come across: \- Change the context of something (by far the most common) \-
Taking a phrase literally \- Explain something that doesn't need to be
explained. \- Under exaggerate. \- Over exaggerate. \- Connect two unrelated
things. \- Say something predictable and then take what would have been the
cliched ending to an extreme.

The core of these elements and many others is that you're taking a shared view
of something and manipulating it, whether through changing the context, taking
an element to an extreme, or one of the other numerous ways.

Everyone knows if something is funny on a subconscious level, but few can
explain why they laughed at something. Much like how most people know if they
like a movie or not, but can't articulate the exact elements that caused them
to enjoy the story (unless they've read several books on screenwriting/story
telling). I'd be very interested in seeing the results from this study.

~~~
larrys
"For the last month, I've been analyzing jokes from different comedians,
looking for the root of why they're funny."

Don't forget to take into account the skill, voice, tone, cadence and delivery
of the joke.

The same exact words said by different people different ways can be funny or
not.

As an example using Mac Speech you can sometimes make even ordinary sentences
funny because combining those ordinary words with a rote computer voice can be
very funny.

I don't have a particular example handy but some of those
<http://www.xtranormal.com/> videos that I've seen are good at that.

~~~
bennesvig
Voice, tone, delivery, etc are huge. Norm MacDonald can say almost anything
and make me laugh because of his delivery.

This is a good comparison of delivery from people telling a similar joke:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtuZfREa0ro>

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antoviaque
Bergson comes to mind - the central cause of laughter is mechanism applied to
life, and all comic effects are articulated around this cause by our
imagination.

"The comic is strictly a human phenomenon. A landscape cannot be a source of
laughter, and when humans make fun of animals, it is often because they
recognize some human behaviour in them. Man is not only a being that can
laugh, but also a being that is a source of laughter."

"Laughter requires an indifference, a detachment from sensibility and emotion:
it is more difficult to laugh when one is fully aware of the seriousness of a
situation."

"It is difficult to laugh alone, it is easier to laugh collectively. One who
is excluded from a group of people does not laugh with them, there is often a
complicity in laughter. Thus the comic is not a mere pleasure of the
intellect, it is a human and social activity, it has a social meaning."

"Because the mind is flexible, always in activity, we tend to attribute these
qualities to the body too, ignoring its materiality. But when we are fully
aware that the body is a weigh, a burden for the soul, the situation is comic.
We laugh every time somebody looks like a material thing, every time we are
under the impression that someone is a thing."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughter_%28Bergson_book%29>

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danso
I thought Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" had a good attempt at an
explanation:

The Martian "Mike" being told what being a human is like:

> _‘And while you are waiting, don’t doubt that you are man. You are. Man born
> of woman and born to trouble…and some day you will grok its fullness and
> laugh – because man is the animal that laughs at himself.’_

Mike figuring out humor and the human condition:

> _“I had thought–I had been told–that a ‘funny’ thing is a thing of goodness.
> It isn’t. Not ever is it funny to the person it happens to. Like that
> sheriff without his pants. The goodness is in the laughing. I grok it is a
> bravery…and a sharing…against pain and sorrow and defeat.”

“But–Mike, it is not a goodness to laugh at people.”

“No. But I was not laughing at the little monkey. I was laughing at us.
People. And suddenly I knew I was people and could not stop laughing.” He
paused. “This is hard to explain, because you have never lived as a Martian,
for all that I’ve told you about it. On Mars there is never anything to laugh
at. All the things that are funny to us humans either cannot happen on Mars or
are not permitted to happen–sweetheart, what you call ‘freedom’ doesn’t exist
on Mars; everything is planned by the Old Ones–or the things that do happen on
Mars which we laugh at here on Earth aren’t funny because there is no
wrongness about them. Death, for example.”

“Death isn’t funny.”

“Then why are there so many jokes about death? Jill, with us–us humans–death
is so sad that we must laugh at it. All those religions–they contradict each
other on every other point but each one is filled with ways to help people be
brave enough to laugh even though they know they are dying.”_

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Tycho
One theory I read (reported by Ayn Rand but accredited to an acquaintance) is
that humour is when somebody's perception of reality is undercut. So for
instance, someone walking down the street and slipping on a banana isn't
funny, but if the person was walking with great dignity/purpose/ostentation,
some sort of VIP, then it's funny. Because their perception of reality and
their opinion of themselves is at odds with their swift fall from grace.

I think this might be right. When I make people laugh it's usually by giving
the impression that I fundamentally misunderstand some fact of reality (or
that I perceive myself differently to others).

When we physically laugh it's like a short circuit of one perception of
reality breaking through from another.

~~~
rafcavallaro
I think we already have a good idea why humor is funny. In our closest primate
relatives, chimps and bonobos, who also laugh (i.e., the chimp equivalent of
laughter) when tickled, laughter is essentially a call meaning "non threat."

Jokes are funny because they relate a story of the transition of the object of
laughter from potential threat, to non-threat. For example, a high status
individual is a potential economic and social adversary and therefore a
potential threat.

Consider: If someone slips on a banana peel it is only funny if it is a high
status or would-be high status individual. If a handicapped child slipped on a
banana peel it would only engender sympathy, not laughter. If a pompous or
powerful and aggressive person slips on a banana peel it is funny because that
person has instantly gone from the status of potential threat - someone to be
reckoned with - to the status of non-threat.

Jokes, especially those with punch lines, follow a narrative thread where some
person or persons make a sudden transition from high to low status, from
threat to non-threat.

~~~
hmslydia
Do we know why jokes are funny? If so, why don't we have an algorithm that can
write jokes?

I think you're right that we have some good descriptive models of humor, but
we don't have any generative models of humor.

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pjungwir
Kierkegaard gives a theory in _Concluding Unscientific Postscript to
Philosophical Fragments_. I don't remember the details very well, but it has
something to do with contradiction. I seem to remember near the end he offers
some way to distinguish between the ironic and the comic.

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Alex3917
As someone who has published a theory on humor that I think is completely
unbreakable, I welcome this project and I'll definitely throw my hat in the
ring.

~~~
hmslydia
What's your theory of humor? Send me a pointer and I'll test it!

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wallflower
Quoting from "The Comedy Bible" which I read a long time ago.

Basic joke structure is:

Setup + Punchline

Setup = Attitude + Topic + Premise

Example: Robin Williams

Attitude: Parenting is hard

Topic + Premise: "When you have a baby, you have to clean up your act."

Punchline: "You can't come in drunk and go, 'Hey here's a little switch.
Daddy's going to throw up on you'"

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f1codz
i saw this video: a couple of puppies were greedily eating from a saucer full
of dog food, when one of those doggies, while attempting to dig through the
glorious food, toppled over his head right into the saucer. It was a damn
funny scene! But none of the other puppies seemed to react, and they all
(including our clown) continued to devour :)

whenever i'm thoughtful on the 'meta-humor' discussion, i'm reminded of this
scene, because it seems like strong reminder of people's perception of a
lighter vein in a scenario in contrast to a puppy's ignorance thereof.

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irickt
The proposal seems to be a joke. For example, this video review of the
existing theories is hand-wavy and totally "blond" (sorry).
[https://www.microryza.com/projects/crowdsourcing-humor-
using...](https://www.microryza.com/projects/crowdsourcing-humor-using-humans-
and-computers-together-to-write-jokes/updates/125)

If this was serious she would at least mention this recent book, which
presents a deep and subtle evolutionary explanation, along with a thorough
review of past theories, and yes includes lots of jokes: Inside Jokes by
Matthew M. Hurley, Daniel C. Dennett, and Reginald B. Adams Jr.
<http://insidejokesbook.com/>

Basically, humor is a learning mechanism. It's funny when we take something to
be true and then suddenly discover it to be false (as long as there is no
immediate danger).

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ComputerGuru
This is completely off-topic, and I'm not one to usually go off on a complete
tangent for the sake of something funny, but seeing as this _is_ an article on
funny... the first thing that came to mind when reading the title is "Data's
been trying to figure this one out forever" (for those that don't know Data:
<http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Data> \- for those of you that do, please do
me the favor of not acknowledging the emotion chip from _Generations_ as
canon!)

 _edit_ : Yes, the chip is from TNG series, but in the show Data (thankfully)
never actually plugs it in.

~~~
mpyne
Wasn't the emotion chip simply one of Lore's chips from TNG? Besides, Data
wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining when trapped by the Borg in the next
movie if it weren't for that chip. ;)

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Lor stole it; it was intended for Data.

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irollboozers
Just FYI - <http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/2556917/reload=0>

There appears to be an evolutionary need for humor, so the unknown theory here
could actually shed some light.

Also, laughing yoga. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahhN3Ryw4O4>

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guscost
Here's my theory: <http://guscost.com/2012/05/23/comedy/>

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ohwp
Interesting. I always found it fascinating that a lot of people start laughing
when watching the horror in a movie like "Ichi the Killer". Maybe humor is the
emotion of the absurd and unreal.

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anandkulkarni
Much love for the work, Lydia, but if you'd just asked me instead we could've
saved you $700 :)

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gotosleep
Information is funny if, when revealed to us, it is either obviously true or
obviously false.

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smoyer
To get to the other side ;)

~~~
hmslydia
Historical curiosity. This answer to "Why did the chicken cross the road" can
be interpreted two ways: 1\. it's obvious, absurdist humor 2\. it is a pun on
the phrase "other side" meaning the after life.

Betcha never thought of the second interpretation!

~~~
Tycho
I did personally think of the second interpretation after many years. Prior to
that I thought it was just something that sounded like a joke but wasn't
actually funny, or maybe some meme whose origins I didn't understand. Once I
thought of the second interpretation, I assumed that's what the joke must have
been all along. So I was slightly surprised to read your post there.

