The First Joke: Exploring the Evolutionary Origins of Humor

Abstract

Humor is a complex cognitive function which often leads to laughter. Contemporary humor theorists have begun to formulate hypotheses outlining the possible innate cognitive structures underlying humor. Humor's conspicuous presence in the behavioral repertoire of humankind invites adaptive explanations. This article explores the possible adaptive features of humor and ponders its evolutionary path through hominid history. Current humor theories and previous evolutionary ideas on humor are reviewed. In addition, scientific fields germane to the evolutionary study of humor are examined: animal models, genetics, children's humor, humor in pathological conditions, neurobiology, humor in traditional societies and cognitive archeology. Candidate selection pressures and associated evolutionary mechanisms are considered. The authors conclude that several evolutionary-related topics such as the origins of language, cognition underlying spiritual feelings, hominid group size, and primate teasing could have special relevance to the origins of humor.

La experiencia del humor en personas con discapacidad intelectual

“…Algunos autores consideran que quizás sea la función cognitiva más compleja del reino animal y achacan haber tenido un papel intensamente relevante en el desarrollo filogenético de las habilidades y las relaciones sociales o del lenguaje de las personas (Polimeni y Reiss, 2006). De manera que gracias al sentido del humor, y a su evolución en la especie, los humanos de hoy en día podemos practicar conductas lúdicas; mantener en buen nivel la autoestima; utilizarlo como vehículo para demostrar aprecio y camaradería; ayudarse de él para el desarrollo del ingenio y la creatividad; centrar el sentido común; distender los asuntos graves de la vida; conseguir diversión y contento; ayudar a lidiar con la realidad, a veces positiva y otras negativa; y, llegado el caso, puede tener, incluso, una función psicoterapéutica para el individuo (Fernández, 2002;Salameh, 2004;Torradabella, y Corrales, 2002).…”

“…Las principales se han apoyado en alguna de las siguientes ideas-fuerza: a) alivio-descarga; b) superioridad-denigración; y c) incongruencia (Carretero, Pérez y Buela, 2006;Polimeni y Reiss, 2006).…”

Robot humor: How self-irony and Schadenfreude influence people's rating of robot likability

“…It is difficult to transfer such intricate notions known from interpersonal communication onto human-robot interaction (HRI). Humor is one such concept and possibly the most complex cognitive function in the entire animal kingdom [2]. There are many sides to humor that can hardly be gathered in one picture.…”

“…While humor denotes the underlying cognitive process, laughter is an activity that is often triggered by experiencing humorous stimuli [2]. It is possible to correlate different kinds of laughter with positive or negative emotions.…”

“…Humor is a concept dating back as far as ancient Greece [2]. It is well-researched in fields such as psychology and sociology and lately receives increasing interest in the area of human-computer interaction (HCI).…”