humor

Humor refers to experiences, behaviors, and communications that elicit amusement, laughter, or relief. It spans verbal and nonverbal domains and can appear in jokes, stories, visual gags, satire, wordplay, and everyday banter. Humor is culturally embedded and context dependent; what counts as funny in one setting may be puzzling or offensive in another. It serves as both entertainment and a social tool.

Several theories have sought to explain why humor arises. Incongruity theory emphasizes the perception of an unexpected twist that reconciles two incompatible ideas. Relief theory frames humor as a safe release of psychological tension. Superiority theory suggests humor derives from feeling of advantage over others. A contemporary explanation is benign violation theory, which posits humor occurs when a perceived norm violation is interpreted as non-threatening.

Humor manifests in many forms, including wordplay, irony, satire, parody, observational comedy, slapstick, and dark humor. It can strengthen social bonds, ease tensions, support coping with adversity, and enhance persuasion or critique. It also carries risks: humor can perpetuate stereotypes, exclude groups, or cause offense when norms are violated without mutual understanding.

Humor has a long cross-cultural history and is studied across psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and media studies. Research uses experiments, surveys, discourse analysis, and humor theory to explore mechanisms, effects, and social roles.