2006-08-20 23:30:14 · 21 answers · asked by eternity 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Yes, but it has to be a "meerkat". Just being around such creatures cracks me up.
2006-08-21 01:05:19 · answer #1 · answered by niceguy2night1234 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah, some of them do. But it's an animalistic sense of humor.
I read once that the essence of humor is an aborted sense of fear; a grown-up extension of the "Whoops! Got yer nose!" game parents play with babies. It's funny because it's scary (on some level) and then it's suddenly not scary. Humor is relief.
So animals with a strong social instinct have a lot of humor ... keeps them sane among the dominance games their fellows are playing. If top dog wolf snarls, lesser wolf can either try for the alpha position or laugh about it.
Similarly, dolphins have humor. Merecats have humor. Prairie dogs have humor. Racoons have humor. Possibly ants have humor (who'd know?).
But cats don't have much of a sense of humor ... they never have to abort a fight-or-flight response; they just go with it. Feels good? Purr. Feels bad? Bite or run. That's how cats see it.
Humor is a social mechanism, so only social animals have it. And as a primate, don't expect to get the joke.
2006-08-21 06:44:15 · answer #2 · answered by Grendle 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Of course they do! Dogs, cats, I have a German Shep hard and he is a character and a half. He is typical of the breed in the sense he loves his family and will play until you give out.
They really have personalities ithat in some ways ellipses us. Think about it, how many other creatures, humans included, show their emotions as well as dogs? And I mean that is without talking.
2006-08-21 06:39:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course. They too have brains, don't they? They have a sense of thought, right? Hyenas laugh their hearts off right? So why can't they have a sense of humour.
2006-08-21 06:35:01 · answer #4 · answered by DJ 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well people have a sense of humour and were scientifically animals, right?
2006-08-21 10:28:39 · answer #5 · answered by wayfreek 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ya know I don't think so, I tell my dog jokes all the time, but when I get to the punch line he just looks at me. So he ether has a really dry sense of humor or none at all...
2006-08-21 06:38:17 · answer #6 · answered by The Prez. 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, they couldn't possibly. What with their primitive brains they have a more limited consciousness and therefore this sense of things is probably absent.
2006-08-21 06:44:41 · answer #7 · answered by happyman 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
and animals keep asking each other 'does human being have a sense of humor?'
2006-08-21 06:37:58 · answer #8 · answered by |>The GURU of NOTHING<| 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They show proof of having a personality, so I have to say without any doubt. Yes
2006-08-21 06:37:17 · answer #9 · answered by Joe K 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes just look at monkeys or Bush hang on he doesn't have sense of humor he is a joke.
2006-08-21 06:38:05 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋