humor

Thus when a school bus randomly explodes on the Simpsons, it's funny, whereas when a firework does the same thing in Real Life, it is not. This also explains why a stimulus that is humorous the first time is less so, or not at all, the second. This is most noticeable in very predictable humor like the Three Stooges or TV sitcoms. If a humorous input is sufficiently complex or draws upon concepts that aren't often referenced in daily life, it can be funny more often, as is the case with Monty Python and SOY!. There is a point of diminishing returns with regard to complexity and obscurity, however, as most people just don't find jokes told in Calculus notation or about Millard Fillmore very funny. Dependence upon forethought and imagination also explains why dull people often lack a sense of humor.

Another facet of this theory is that your physiological, emotional, and cognitive states can "block" you from making the associations and preconceptions necessary to find humor in a situation. When you walk into a pole you don't see, you don't laugh because you are busy being in pain, but when you look back on the incident in a week, it's hilarious and you can laugh along with your friends at the memory. Likewise, when you're crying about something, you are probably using the whole of your concentration and emotional depth on that thing, and cannot or are not willing to spend the thought needed to appreciate a funny stimulus. Humor can also be interfered with by a deeply held belief or opinion, which is why the strongly Christian find no humor in jokes about Jesus. Similarly, it's hard to laugh at yourself, because deep down we don't consider ourselves buffoons, and are not willing to examine the possibility that we might be.

It should be noted that under this theory, when we find something funny, we incorporate it to a small degree into our entire thought process. In essence, we learn it. That's why upon reading Hitchhikers Guide the second time, we take almost as much pleasure in anticipating the humorous parts as we do in reading them. That's also why racist/sexist humor is so insidious, because in laughing at it, we incorporate it into our psyche as a plausible (although not necessarily true) fact.

For more on this theory, see:
Belief and the Basis of Humor, Hugh LaFollette and Niall Shanks, American Philosophical Quarterly, 1993, 329-39
Laughter, Robert R. Provine, American Scientist, 1996 Jan-Feb

Hu"mor (?), n. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.] [Written also humour.]

1.

Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc.

⇒ The ancient physicians believed that there were four humors (the blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or melancholy), on the relative proportion of which the temperament and health depended.

2. Med.

A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin.

Sir W. Temple.

3.

State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good humor; ill humor.

Examine how your humor is inclined, And which the ruling passion of your mind. Roscommon.

A prince of a pleasant humor. Bacon.

I like not the humor of lying. Shak.

4. pl.

Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims.

Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humors to be endured? South.

5.

That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas an incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations; a playful fancy; facetiousness.

For thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit. Goldsmith.

A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host. W. Irving.

Aqueous humor, Crystalline humor ∨ lens, Vitreous humor. Anat. See Eye. -- Out of humor, dissatisfied; displeased; in an unpleasant frame of mind.

Syn. -- Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood; frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See Wit.

© Webster 1913.

Hu"mor (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Humored (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Humoring.]

1.

To comply with the humor of; to adjust matters so as suit the peculiarities, caprices, or exigencies of; to adapt one's self to; to indulge by skillful adaptation; as, to humor the mind.

It is my part to invent, and the musician's to humor that invention. Dryden.

2.

To help on by indulgence or compliant treatment; to soothe; to gratify; to please.

You humor me when I am sick. Pope.

Syn. -- To gratify; to indulge. See Gratify.

© Webster 1913.