Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.
Humor is a deeply ingrained human behavior. It triggers reflex reactions across the globe. Clearly, it evolved for a reason. So what is humor for?
Abstract
A theory for the evolutionary origin and selective advantage of laughter and humor is proposed. In brief, I propose that laughter evolved to signal to third parties that all is well with a situation that might otherwise seem disturbing, signaling the cause of the laugh as friend, and that humor co-opted this mechanism, with jokers developing signals (jokes or funny acts) that elicit laughter to gain the approval by others conferred by a laugh, which signals that the laugher considers the joker a friend.
Requirements of a successful theory of humor and laughter
Any theory of humor must explain:
* Why we laugh
* Why we tell jokes
* What came first, jokes or laughter?
* Why humor plays an important role in seduction, and women are attracted to funny men
* Why so many jokes revolve around laughing at someone
* What is funny
* Why tickling makes people laugh
* Why children are tickled by their parents
* Why the same actions by a friendly parent that trigger tickling do not tickle when done by a stranger, or by the tickled herself
* The paradox of tickling: why those tickled experience laughter and pleasure in being tickled, yet try frantically to escape it
* Why laughter is contagious
* Why men are more likely to be comedians than women
Read the answers at http://alexbacker.pbwiki.com/The-Evolutionary-Advantage-of-Humor .
Read more of Alex Backer's Science articles here.