# Do Animals Have a Sense of Humor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor/834862>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [June 1, 2019, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor/834862 "2019-06-01T05:06:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Barack\_Obama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dc4da7/32.png) [@Barack\_Obama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barack_Obama)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor/834862/21 "2019-06-05T13:04:16Z")

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No you’re displaying anthropomorphism. There is evidence to show animals like primates finding magic tricks exciting or “funny”, that’s the closest thing to a sense of humor I can imagine animals besides humans getting to.

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**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-a-sense-of-humor/834862/22 "2019-06-05T15:47:57Z")

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> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#):
>
> One theory of humor is the [benign violation theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_humor#Benign_violation_theory):
> 
> Does [this dog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlyMUOfW6Ko) come to see the “funny” side of the situation?

Is that a Vizsla? I had friends who had a Vizsla. It used to stalk the cement duck and ducklings in the neighbor’s yard.

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