# What humor is

Everyone has a sense of humor. It's a deep, subconscious [feeling](mind-feelings.md) that resonates through many [symbolic](symbols.md) associations to create a unique form of amusement.

At its core, humor is an out-of-place connection. It can come from various places:

- Exaggeration and blowing things *way* out of proportion
- A play on [words](language.md) (i.e., puns)
- Broken [logic](logic.md) where "fixing" the logic is literally impossible
- Connecting unrelated things by a purely coincidental or incidental association

Humor is *highly* contextual for the simple reason that it requires an [emotional](mind-feelings.md) connection to something [familiar](understanding.md).

Humor is similar to [horror](mind-feelings-fear.md) in that it defies [reality](reality.md). However, while horror directs us further into the [unknown](unknown.md) or toward [severe hardship](hardship-ptsd.md), humor simply defies our [expectations](imagination.md) in every conceivable direction, *including* our expectations of the unknown or severe hardship!

APPLICATION: Any effort by leadership to impose [rules](people-rules.md) against humor is guaranteed to backfire, simply because all forms of order generate more of the [unknown](unknown.md).

The mechanism to create humor requires a very specific skill of performing several tasks in sequence:

1. Mentally assemble an [imaginary model](image.md) of the experience.
2. Detect any discrepancies in all the [possible interpretations](understanding.md) of the experience. This particular step requires *severe* [awareness](awareness.md) that only comes through pushing past any [trauma](hardship-ptsd.md) or [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md).
3. Remove any uninteresting perspectives from that set of experiences to only leave the discrepancies and their relationships.
4. Add [artistic flair](mind-creativity.md) to those discrepancies to distort those relationships even further.

Imitation constitutes a significant portion of humor. Exaggeration creates "parody", and imitating [power](power.md) is "satire". Since *all* power has [its season](trends.md), all satirical humor will become dated within a decade or two. However, satire strips away power because it reminds people of the [finite humanity](humanity.md) of the people wielding that power.

There are a few ways to stretch reality to make humor:

- Farce makes [improbable](math.md) things probable by delivering the concept through a distorted form of [logic](logic.md). Adults behaving precisely like [children](maturity.md), for example, is a profound source of humor.
- Hyperbole exaggerates [truth](reality.md) to the point of [emotional](mind-feelings.md) extremes, which includes body language ("pantomime").
- Metaphor and puns create [symbolic](symbols.md) connections that create extra [meanings](values.md).
- Like with magicians, re-framing and timing can exploit [expectations](imagination.md) to [fool](image-distortion.md) the audience into believing an implication.

Often, when a [trope](https://tvtropes.org/) is used frequently enough, people become savvy enough to [predict](imagination.md) it. At that point, a humorist *must* invert the trope and do something else unexpected. Naturally, as [understanding](understanding.md) scales, most funny things become less funny.

Humor always has the same components that form into a [story](stories.md):

1. A setup that builds up expectations, usually by imitating [reality](reality.md) somehow. It can be as simple as saying "a lawyer" or "a man walks into a bar". Typically, it's when a comedian walks on stage or when someone crouches a little in an "I'm going to hunt" pose.
2. A drawn-out delivery. The more drawn-out, the more people are setting [expectations](imagination.md), at least until they get bored.
3. A concluding punchline that violates the audience's expectations. It might be something spoken, a visual gag, or (in the case of an inversion) the *absence* of something expected.

Every funny idea has at least two of six dimensions:

1. Familiar - something someone has previously [experienced](understanding.md)
   - This varies wildly across people.
   - The more familiar, the less you need other dimensions.
2. Cute - someone weak and lovable
   - e.g., puppies, children, kittens, adorable animations
   - They can be visual or simply have a lovable personality.
3. Cruel - something mean or [unfair](morality-justice.md)
   1. While it must hurt, it must *also* be unfair pain.
   2. At its most extreme, cruel humor is called "dark humor".
4. Bizarre - breaking from [reality](reality.md)
   - It must be surreal, but it can't be unbelievable because people must keep believing that it could theoretically happen.
   - The simplest version of this is to imagine a world where everything is the same except for one small detail.
5. Naughty - breaking a [taboo](morality-taboo.md)
   - Naughty things are dirty, unclean, lewd, or inappropriate, and often sexual.
   - The funnier the joke, the more you can get away with.
   - Handle this dimension carefully in polite company.
6. Intuitive - [creative](mind-creativity.md) application of an idea
   - There are many ways to creatively build [humor](humor.md) outside what people expect.
   - All you have to do is surprise people with your connection.

If [death](hardship-death.md) wasn't as tragic or [unknown](unknown.md), *everything* about humanity would be varying degrees of hilarious. This is, in some ways, the basis of [religious joyfulness](religion.md).

APPLICATION: There's a humorous side to absolutely every situation, even when it takes [creativity](mind-creativity.md) to find it. However, the seriousness of a [culture's](people-culture.md) [traditions](habits.md) (e.g., [religion](religion.md)) is often [harshly opposed](morality-taboo.md) to levity.

The punchline is often either far more elaborate than the rest of the story or far simpler. Since it's the climax of the story, it's *the* most important part of any good humor.

No matter what, the punchline *needs* both pain and surprise. Someone has to suffer a pratfall, public shame, embarrassment, or future pain (such as from a mess). In the case of a practical joke or bad pun with a long delivery, the *audience* is the one in pain.

A punchline can sometimes extend beyond the joke:

- A "brick joke" uses the failed punchline of a previous joke as the punchline of a future one. It's aptly named from a not-funny joke that ends with someone throwing away a brick, then the next joke's punchline involving someone getting hit with a brick out of nowhere. Brick jokes allow [creative](mind-creativity.md) comedians to recover from a failed joke.
- A "running joke" uses a successful punchline of a previous joke to recall all the associations of the first joke into another one, often adding extra components to the joke in the process. It repeats itself as a [trend](trends.md), much like musical choruses.

Since humor draws from something familiar, it usually includes truths about reality. The attitude of the comedian *must* resonate with the audience for them to find something funny:

- Everyone does silly or dumb things, so a dimwitted person is funny.
- Many people have base thoughts (e.g., farts, sex jokes), so they find them funny.
- When someone behaves rudely or harshly to someone else, everyone either identifies with the aggressor or the victim.
- An irreverent comedian is violating [social rules](people-rules.md) that almost everyone, [deep down](personality.md), would love to explore themselves.

Many comedians [influence crowds](influence.md) toward their [reasoning](logic.md) by softening harsh, painful ideas with humor. The easiest method is to blow reality *way* out of proportion until it's surreal, then add silly things to it. Most of the best comedy will mix in other [feelings](mind-feelings.md) (e.g., sadness, [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md)) because it will subversively confront aspects of the [good life](goodlife.md) and [bad systems](mgmt-badsystems.md) while people are laughing.

The simplest expression of humor comes through a formalized [public speech](language-speaking.md) called "standup comedy". It's comparatively easy to perform, so all other forms of humor [trend](trends.md) from standup, with the possible exception of [written](language-writing.md) humor. There are a few broad, non-mutually-exclusive classes of standup comedy:

- A string of relatively unrelated one-line quips, often by talking very fast or speaking [offensively](morality-taboo.md) (e.g., Rodney Dangerfield).
- Offense humor, often aimed at shocking the audience or directly offending at least some of them (e.g., Sacha Baron Cohen).
- Casual humor, usually relaxed and amicable with a flourish of shock at the end (e.g., Steve Martin).
- Conversational humor, typically involving a long and generally uninteresting story, with a contrasting surprise at the end (e.g., Lucille Ball, most 1950s/1960s humor).
- Observational comedy, which addresses the absurdity of specific mundane things, and frequently safe for [families](maturity.md) (e.g., Jerry Seinfeld).
- Exaggerating typical nuisances of life, frequently with the manic intensity of a string of stories (e.g., Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Foxworthy).
- Anger rant, with the punch line directed at the comedian by stating petty observations about tiny, frustrating things mixed with extreme, cold truths that are often [political](groups-large.md) (e.g., George Carlin, Denis Leary).

Humor isn't merely jokes and comedians. We find humor frequently throughout life in [communicating](people-conversation.md) and [action](results.md), but usually when reflecting on [patterns](trends.md) from the past. [Writing](language.md) allows for a slow buildup of various ideas together to form a highly complex funny idea.

Generally, the more painful *and* unique an experience is, the more humor we'll draw from it later once we get over the [trauma](hardship-ptsd.md) from it. We won't find humor in the present-tense if we're [afraid](mind-feelings-fear.md) of anything.

One aspect hiding behind humor is that it's a reliable [stress relief](mind-feelings-happiness-focus.md) from the awful things that can happen to us. It's why [successful](success-1_why.md) people tend to also have a sense of humor.

One of the easiest ways to [influence](influence.md) others is through adding at least a bit of humor to pretty much everything. It's difficult to hate someone you find funny.

APPLICATION: Humor is necessary for [the good life](goodlife.md) because it helps us cope with [stress](mind-feelings-happiness.md), specifically with surprising and painful things. While serious-minded people may appear to be [successful or competent](success-1_why.md), they are frequently mentally unwell.

APPLICATION: To dismantle a [centralized power structure](groups-large.md), learn to be funny. Many [wars](people-conflicts-war.md) have been fought over, in part, giving people [the right to laugh](people-boundaries.md) at their leadership.

By understanding humor, we can understand the social commentary that hides behind it, which is a key part of gaining [wisdom](understanding.md). Taking comedians seriously is living in a profoundly simple and audacious [image](image.md) of [reality](reality.md).