Why did evolution equip human beings with a ‘sense of humor’? What purpose could it possibly serve?? Do any other animals have a sense of humor???
Thanks.
Because if you combine intractible predestination with a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short life you wind up thinking like Calvin and Hobbes.
And that’s no fun at all.
One theory I heard was that humor and music both are what the author (I think it was Douglas Hofstadter) called “epiphenomena” of consciousness, or side-effects of the way our minds work that developed incidentally to the development of higher intelligence and didn’t necessarily have any purpose in themselves.
Another theory, which isn’t incompatible with the first, is that humor is a distorted fear response. Something that’s surprising enough to be a little startling, but not really dangerous, causes laughter, which is supposed to be a distortion of an infant’s fear-induced crying reflex. I’m pretty sure I read this in The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris.
Another hypothesis:
You know how we often flip our perceptions, like in the face/vase illusion. We “reorient”. Well humor is reorienting at a higher cognitive level and a slower time scale. We feel pleasure when we realize that a different pattern fits the situation better than that which were originally thinking … makes sense that such a realization should be rewarded.
I think a healthy sense of absurd is essential for surviving this vale of tears :). One of my favorites quotes–though I forget who said it–is “When faced with a truly disheartening situation, you have three options: you can laugh, you can cry, or you can throw up.” Our sense of humor keeps us from constantly weeping and puking.
Humor is useful in dealing with both hard to accept, stressful situations as well as the absurdities life hands us. Perhaps the pleasure comes from having deflected a grievous emotional moment, or from having made some sense out of the absurd. Once that pleasure’s been experienced, one might seek out humor again solely for the fun of it.
Too bad Nickrz isn’t around anymore, for I’m sure he’d jump me for saying that I’ve known a few dogs in my life whom I thought possessed a sense of humor.
I am still around, and you’re still nuts.
Nickrz is right, dogs aren’t deep. They mentally top out at about the same level as teenage boys, except with slightly reduced language skills, and similar humor appeals to them. The dogs I’ve known are fond of slapstick humor, especially when it involves a higher ranking dog. Man, they just LOVE it when one of their buddies slips and falls after they’ve already slipped at the same place so they are watching for it. You can practically hear them say, “Wait for it…God, what a moron!” as they bark (laugh) and push each other, just like high school football players.
Haha! Yup. As a (former) dog owner, I know they like to watch humans slip on a bananna peel, too. But they are also able to tell the difference between a legitimately spontantious slapstick moment, and one that is staged for their benefit (to which they react more in a “Oooo! It’s Play Time!” mode).
I like the “distorted fear” respomse, as explained by Bob Scene. The laugh reflex may be another way to release the adrenalin.
I also like the explanation offered by DSeid.
Couldn’t humor have been developed for more than one reason?
I knew a chow that lived to play “jokes” on other dogs, particularly hiding their toys as soon as they weren’t looking. He’d hide the toy or bone–often in the trash–and then walk around as if he didn’t know anything. It was rather comical to watch. He clearly knew what he was doing (within the limits of doggie awareness) and did it repeatedly. (This wasn’t hording behavior, either…he never went back to retrieve it himself, and had little interest in toys for his own sake.)
Horses, as anyone experienced with them can attest, enjoy playing jokes (rough ones, like biting you on the shoulder and throwing you to the ground), and I’ve known a couple of donkeys who played practical jokes more elaborate than most Caltech graduates. It’s been well established by naturalists that the apes display the entire range of human emotions and all manner of humor, from pranks and crude slapstick to shared amusement over the plight of another member of the tribe.
Whatever evolutionary rationale you might have for humor, the behavior certainly extends beyond Homo sapiens.
Stranger
True dat. Only the most adamant “folks is different,” or, dare I say, creationist, types are unwilling to accept the continuum between very-slightly-smart animals, like dogs, and generally-smart animals, like humans. A sense of humor, to anybody who studies it seriously, developed from something and didn’t spring, full bloom, when Adam was created.
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Took you 4 years to notice this?
Zombie thread. Closed.
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