Where did humour originate?

Was just wondering this on the way into school this morning, where, how and why did humour originate?

any answers would be appreciated, accurate ones still more :smiley:

thanks

How and why I do not know.

Where, is simple. Humour originated in Scotland, as did everything else worth having.

No, no. I have it on good authority (Mr. Chekhov, Starship Enterprise) that everything worthwhile originated in Russia.

The origins of humor are still being debated among the scientific community but, humor, as opposed to verbal jokes, seems to be innate. A sense of humor can be readily observed in species as diverse as dogs, cats, apes, parrots, and dolphins. These are all fairly intelligent animals, so it’s possible that humor is an adjunct to intelligence. But, for all we know paramecia are constantly cracking each other up, and we just don’t get the jokes.

I’m not one to think that animals can’t have a sense of humor… but what does work as evidence for humor in other species?

Laughter reduces blood pressure, ergo a

WAG: humor is as old as sentience, and helps strengthen social bonds.

I seem to recall a movie about early man… and one of the early men dropped something out of a tree… and it landed on one his counterpart’s head… to which squealing laughter was the response from the rest of the tribe… I think that is where “slapstick” was born… hence the beginning of the only true form of pure comedy… (To be perfected by the 3 stooges early last century)

why am I the only person on the board that attracts pretty much no serious answers?

You got at least 2 serious responses to your original query… the rest were humourous because we had no idea…

Ask a question about humor, get a humorous answer.

You got humorous answers because you asked a vague question. There are many types of humour. Which one did you have in mind? Obviously not puns, perhaps slapstick, as in a caveman runs after an animal, slips in a big dropping and …

Sorry, I was trying to be serious…

k, my bad, typical of me to be all serious in a thread on humour really :stuck_out_tongue:

ah well.