What is humor? How does it work? Where does it come from, and what impacts does it have? Aristotle famously identified the capacity to laugh as a defining feature of humanity–observing that humans are the only animals that laugh. (Though, as modern science shows, primates and other animals engage in play and laughter, too.) Evolutionary biologists suggest that tickling and laughter originated as a way to play, signaling no threat and building social bonds. And yet while all humans laugh, what we find funny varies vastly across cultural norms, historical moments, and social contexts. As a bodily response to humor, laughter carries distinct neurological, physiological, and psychological benefits, as many studies show. Humor evokes amusement—a complex cognitive response that delivers a unique form of pleasure.
Crucially, humor and laughter are inextricable from power. Social hierarchies can be both reinforced and challenged through humor. Theorists recognize the difference between “punching down” and “punching up”—between sexist or racist jokes that reinforce prejudice, and humor that pushes back against oppression. Marginalized groups have long deployed humor to reach others, to build community, to educate, and to shift entrenched ways of thinking or perceiving. Within patriarchal systems, women have often been discouraged from laughing, especially at men, because laughter was perceived as a challenge to authority. And yet feminists are also maligned as “lacking a sense of humor” as a way to mask or cover up sexist aggression.
