Question(s) of the Day: What is Humor? Where does it come from? How is it used? I submit the following to you:
Humor is the ability to evoke or elicit laughter or amusement. What specifically causes humor is hotly debated, but there are the three most biggest contenders:
Incongruity-resolution-the brain is given conflicting information and must create coherence from the absurdity of a situation.
Benign-Violation theory-humorous statements are violations of our values and beliefs that we actively accept, and we laugh as a result.
Arousal-Safety-our brains are aroused and expects an outcome, only for the outcome to be the opposite of what is expected; it's similar to irony.
Humor is very often used as a social bonding technique. It can also be used to belittle others, or to ridicule ideas. Although a lot of things stated about humor are obvious, what is not obvious is how to achieve Humor. I believe it is about connections: both interpersonal connections and connections between Ideas. We can relate and make people laugh simply because we mention something they are familiar with i.e. jokes about suicide between emofags. Connections between ideas are more important, however, because that allows for high comedy.