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You may wonder why some people find science jokes and memes funny while others couldn’t care less about them. Well, it all comes down to a broader question of why and how people find particular things funny. Previously, Bored Panda spoke with a British neuroscientist and Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow at University College London, Sophie Scott. Scott has been investigating the cognitive neuroscience of voices, speech and laughter, particularly speech perception, speech production, vocal emotions, and human communication. So she shed light on this amusing topic!
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Turns out, the first requirement for something to be received as funny is that people need to understand that joke, pun, saying, or meme. But how do we do that? Well, Scott argues that it comes down to the intended meaning that makes a particular thing funny.
“One simple thing about not getting a joke is not realizing that it's a joke at all, assuming that someone is being serious and saying something stupid,” the professor explained.
Moreover, it’s not as easy as it looks. Hence, so many badly received jokes that land the joker eyerolls, or cringe at most. “It often has to do with as much the person telling the joke or where the joke is coming from, as the content of a joke,” Scott explained, adding that in order for the joke to be received as such, the audience needs to be aware of the fact that it is a joke.
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What makes things funny shouldn’t be rocket science but there are multiple complex theories about it. One of them is “the idea that sometimes you laugh because it makes you feel better about yourself, you feel superior to tell the joke.”
Another theory argues that “you laugh because there’s some sort of complexity set up and then it’s resolved and that’s part of getting the joke.”
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Scott also argues that the reason we laugh often has to do with “some kind of taboo” which is perceived as acceptable when mentioned in the joke context. On other occasions, “we laugh because laughter is a behavior associated in humans and other mammals with play,” Scott explained.
At the same time, the most important role for saying (writing) and receiving jokes is a pretty straightforward one–“just to be playful and you’re kind of acknowledging that and what has been done for you in the name of the play.”
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It’s important to note that according to Scott, jokes have less to do with our absolute personalities (so don’t jump to conclusions about a person if they find or don’t find your joke funny!) and more with who we are and our life experiences. Scott argues that the things we find funny may also be directly influenced by the relationship with the person who’s telling the joke.
