Einstein was fond of cracking the odd joke. Many other scientists and mathematicians have left evidence of their humour in their work. Looking at it from the other side the funniest stuff is usually the work of the smartest people, unless you can spend hours, days and years laughing at people falling over. But there is a stereotype out there that somehow people concerned with the facts and the truth of things lack a sense of humour.
Why is this?
Is there evidence to support this?
Is that group of people split into two different tribes some one with a sense of humour and one without?
My personal opinion tends towards this idea but I have no proof. My own experience leads me to believe that there are at least two tribes. One tribe is drawn to facts by a child-like curiosity and enthusiasm. This tribe also loves humour wherever it can be found. The other tribe feel that facts are important, but they have no idea why, and they tend to view humour mixed up with facts as sacrilegious. Many people call this tribe pedants, but that is unnecessarily hard on people who didn’t choose to be dull or boring or uninteresting, it’s just how they are.
I’d sure love to get to the bottom of this mystery. Please help if you can!
I don’t think there is much of a correlation. Most truly funny people are also really smart but not all smart people have a sense of humor.
My graduate school advisor had absolutely no sense of humor and that caused problems for me because I have a very dry one. She took everything literally even when it was an obvious joke. Her husband, a prominent Ivy League professor in neuroscience, has a sense of humor that barely extends past the level of fart jokes. That prepared me for my current job with a manager that is probably somewhere on the spectrum. He takes absolutely everything very literally and has zero charm or people skills but he is brilliant when it comes to engineering details. He knows it too and lets me handle the PR work which is the ultimate irony because the roles would be reversed in any other situation.
I know some pretty dumb people that are funny too. They may not be that clever or insightful but humor takes many forms. I also work with some really smart people that are hysterical. We try to one-up each other with one-liners all the time.
I don’t think there’s a correlation either. There are people who take everything literally, and they can be very smart or not so much. Being a bit of a wise-ass myself, I’ve had to be careful who I made snarky comments to - once you have to explain why what you said was funny, it’s not.
But I do think some of the funniest people I’ve encountered are among the most intelligent. To me, fart jokes and pratfalls are juvenile, not funny. But a twist of phrase or a clever allusion will catch my attention every time.
I’m one of those who believes there is a (fairly weak) correlation between high intelligence and mental illness. Really smart people are (slightly more) susceptible to depression and other problems.
Humorlessness is (alas) sometimes one of those problems. Some (few!) really smart people are just too damn serious about life, and have taken on a pessimistic outlook.
Also, “being in possession of the facts” can, indeed, cause some humorlessness, depression, and pessimism. A great many of the facts of this life are not comforting to know. It isn’t easy to crack a good joke while the Titanic is sinking.
According to Jimmy Carr (a comedian known for one-liners, who’s written a book about jokes) are jokes are basically two stories. The setup makes you believe one story is happening, then the punchline reveals it’s actually the second story. He also said analyzing a joke is like dissecting a frog - it kills the frog and nobody likes the process or result.
In my experience, the vast majority of jokes and comedy require a bit of willful ignorance. When you understand why something odd happens, or why it seems weird it stops being funny and becomes just a fact of life. To prove this, pick out one of your favorite jokes (about an observed fact), discover why that fact is what it is, then review that joke and see if it’s still as funny. Non-factual jokes are less funny if you know a bit about psychology, logic (a lot of jokes center around a logical phallacy).
So, if you’re in the habit of analyzing most subjects you come across, you’ll find yourself thinking about why the premise makes sense rather than enjoying the joke.
Most jokes are only funny in context. For many, that context is a common belief in something that isn’t actually true - like, say, jokes about Napoleon being short. It’s possible to find such jokes funny even if you know that he wasn’t, but you would at least have to know about the myth, and even then, it’s gotta be pretty damn funny to overcome the “that’s not true” reflex. If you possess the facts and have never heard anything else on the subject, the joke will fall flat, because you literally won’t understand it. And if you find the facts more important than pleasing a joker, then you’ll acquire a reputation as humorless.