Why Do We Laugh at Jokes?

[coverme]

What's so funny?

what is central core that makes us laugh when we hear a joke?
Any scientific and philosophical ideas are welcomed.

 

[Cyrus]

The funny bone.

 

[apeiron]

The brain is set up to seek answers. When something snaps into place, it is pleasurable. Jokes are structured to create the sharp transition to a surprise fit that tickles this funny bone.

Laughter is a bit more complicated as a reaction as it is more about social signalling, a play message.

But put the two together. We like the feeling of being surprised in a good way. And we show this is what we are feeling in laughter, a play signal. Because laughter is bonding and important to group dynamics, groups also encourage a culture of joke-making.

There are other theories of course - like the idea laughter is a social put-down, that it is simple incongruity that creates a response. But tickling the feeling of creative problem solving is the best way into an analysis.

 

[OmCheeto]

Might be the question that solves the AI problem.

Problem is, humour is both personal and situational.

I've been told I have no sense of humour by people who repeat verbatim the lines of late night comedians the next morning. Though funny the night before, the repeated lines have no juxtapositional impact.

It's the surprise of ones concept of the universe turned upside down by a visual or verbal story that makes you realize you were wrong, that makes it funny for me.

There are people that laugh at people slipping on banana peel's, and there are those that do not. It may be a simple, single, neuronal difference, or a lifetime of experiences, that leads to the two different views of humour.

Though looking at apeiron's answer, I think I like it better. Never mind...

 

[coverme]

The funny bone.

and what is a funny bone? can you explain it to me please

 

[Huckleberry]

and what is a funny bone? can you explain it to me please

It's a nerve that is stimulated when it strikes something humorous.

 

[coverme]

It's a nerve that is stimulated when it strikes something humorous.

Thanks for making clear

 

[drizzle]

The funny bone.

are you always like this, never take anything seriously except for what you see serious..

 

[drizzle]

I may go with apeiron and OmCheeto, the surrounding people whom sharing/telling this joke, do help you laugh or not...maybe an electrostatic field of you all fill the room and affects your special [laugh] signal acceptors in your brain then WALA...

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Might be the question that solves the AI problem.

Funny, this was the context of my old signature. In a book I read an AI programmer designed a joke for an AI program deciding that perhaps if the AI can "get it" then it would mean it had acheived true AI. When the AI wasn't getting it he wondered if maybe his joke just wasn't funny.

Q: Why did the self aware individual look into the mirror?

A: To get to the other side.