A few psychologists recently came up with a new theory. They propose that humor arises from the so-called benign violation or "something that threatens a person’s well-being, identity or normative belief structure but that simultaneously seems okay," they wrote in a paper about the theory.
Benign violation can explain why a number of things make us laugh, including being tickled: that is, tickling benignly invades someone's physical space.
You can't tickle yourself because that doesn't constitute a violation and complete strangers can't tickle you to the point of laughter because you won't perceive it as a benign act.
Following this line of thinking, various animals do, in fact, have "humor," if only they can be tickled.
Research shows us that our primate relatives — chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans — all produce laughter-like sounds when tickled (as well as when they're wrestling and play-chasing).
This also suggests that humor and our ability to laugh likely came from humans' and great apes' last common ancestor.
Additionally, another study discovered that chimpanzees can make silent "laugh faces" just like humans.
Dogs are also known to have a kind of panting laugh and play face that's suggestive of humor.
So who knows, maybe these animals are actually laughing at us? Or at least with us?
