The origin of humor

Humor is spread throughout every culture on earth and occupies a large portion of our literature and social interaction. It is so deeply rooted in our culture that it may be a defining characteristic of our species. Yet there has been comparatively little effort to understand its origin. According to the Accepted Theory of Humor all jokes begin with a buildup of tension while an initial paradigm is formed. When the punch line occurs the subject must realign his thinking to accommodate the differences between the initial paradigm and the sudden burst of new information. The Mind Reading Hypothesis extends the accepted theory of humor to include a relationship between the observer and the subject of the humor. The actual source of amusement is the observation of the resolution in the mind of the subject of the collision between old perception and new reality. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.