What makes something funny?

Question

How do we know when to laugh at something or distinguish what is funny/sad etc.
How is a joke funny - what is funny???? x x x

Answer 1

Only your perception of a scene or spoken words. Your brain determines that.

Answer 2

That depends on our individual personality and sense of humor. It also depends on our mood at any given moment. What's funny right now, might not be an hour from now.

Sad would be someone dying, becoming critically ill or injured, losing a family member or good friend, losing a job, getting divorced (for most), etc. Few could laugh at those things (except out of nerves).

Answer 3

Wow, hard question.

Any brain-related question is a very hard one, because there are so many factors involved; natural processes, DNA, nurturing, your upbringing... All those and many more factors give you the mindset that a certain type of behaviour is worth remembering and worth praising by the methods of a rather hard to ignore sound and physical movement, the laugh. All sorts of things are involved in this kind of questions, so there is no concrete answer, I think!

By the way, I'm not a scientist or anything, just an average Joe on the internet.

Good luck,

n0tr3sp0ns1bl3

Answer 4

Humour is the ability or quality of people, objects, or situations to evoke feelings of amusement in other people. The term encompasses a form of entertainment or human communication which evokes such feelings, or which makes people laugh or feel happy.

Answer 5

funny is how it is written
how it is said
the facial features when being said
we laugh by what we think is funny
our moods at the time
if you are sad sometimes something that would normally be
funny isn't

Answer 6

Incongruity.

Answer 7

It may be the instant realization of irony, truth, and something absurd.

Answer 8

Your sense of humor behind it.