Here's some food for thought. I was looking for some scientific backing on how and when humor evolved in humans, as I have my own theories. I came across a few interesting sites; this first one almost changed my mind on the original concept of humor I posted.
The Evolution of Humor concludes that we laugh due to pattern repetition, or better put, unexpected changes in the pattern. As we grow older, our tastes mature so those games of peek-a-boo aren't as enticing as they were when we were babies
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This second site, Evolution of Humor, concluded through testing that males are more aggressive than females (duh!), however are also more likely to make comedic remarks or innuendos based on how much testosterone they have, and that the majority of their remarks, while an attempt to be humorous, was largely in the negative. For me, this supports my theory of how humor evolved:
I have not heard of monkeys playing peek-a-boo to make their offspring laugh, but humans do it all the time. Why do I say this? To clear up that I'm positive humor is an evolved trait, and when human babies laugh at peek-a-boo, its the primitive instincts from our evolutionary process to react to the unexpected patterns in that repetitive task! So what does this mean? That humor originated from - and is still largely due in part to - the misfortune of others, as I've been saying all along.
Having said all this, does the fact that we've evolved to the point we are now dictate we have a higher understanding of humor, and can appreciate it in different ways than our primitive ancestors did? Yes, of course, and I failed to recognize that in my initial post. As Pete pointed out, I came at concept and tried to turn it into a principle , however I've seen enough jokes since I brought this up that simply cannot be attributed to acts of misfortune for anyone. This does not change that the majority of the humor I've seen and heard (I'd wager close to 90% of it) is negative in some way or another, and I believe this is because of our nature as humans to like, enjoy, or even want to see others fail in some way. But alas, all comedy is not tragedy, and I was wrong. We have evolved, and so have I in this thread. Yay for forums
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The Evolution of Humor concludes that we laugh due to pattern repetition, or better put, unexpected changes in the pattern. As we grow older, our tastes mature so those games of peek-a-boo aren't as enticing as they were when we were babies
.This second site, Evolution of Humor, concluded through testing that males are more aggressive than females (duh!), however are also more likely to make comedic remarks or innuendos based on how much testosterone they have, and that the majority of their remarks, while an attempt to be humorous, was largely in the negative. For me, this supports my theory of how humor evolved:
MY THEORY ON HOW HUMOR EVOLVED Wrote:Mankind, as we evolved from monkeys to humans, were and still are always trying to outdo one-another and in this quest for supremacy, someone has to fail. I'm suggesting that in early humans when situations arose in which two or more humans (probably male) were competing for the same goal, and one of the humans could not complete the objective due to something unexpected - such as falling down or getting hit over the head - the remaining humans primitive brains realized their goal was now much easier to attain, thus provoking good feelings. Natural Selection choose the winners of these repetitive tasks, thus these impulses evolved to help us survive. Over time, these impulses slowly turned into laughter, jokes were made, and the basis of what we now know as humor was formed.
I have not heard of monkeys playing peek-a-boo to make their offspring laugh, but humans do it all the time. Why do I say this? To clear up that I'm positive humor is an evolved trait, and when human babies laugh at peek-a-boo, its the primitive instincts from our evolutionary process to react to the unexpected patterns in that repetitive task! So what does this mean? That humor originated from - and is still largely due in part to - the misfortune of others, as I've been saying all along.
Having said all this, does the fact that we've evolved to the point we are now dictate we have a higher understanding of humor, and can appreciate it in different ways than our primitive ancestors did? Yes, of course, and I failed to recognize that in my initial post. As Pete pointed out, I came at concept and tried to turn it into a principle , however I've seen enough jokes since I brought this up that simply cannot be attributed to acts of misfortune for anyone. This does not change that the majority of the humor I've seen and heard (I'd wager close to 90% of it) is negative in some way or another, and I believe this is because of our nature as humans to like, enjoy, or even want to see others fail in some way. But alas, all comedy is not tragedy, and I was wrong. We have evolved, and so have I in this thread. Yay for forums
!
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin