Development of humor

I undertook some of the early work on the incongruity and resolution theory of humor, ideas that are still used in contemporary psychological and brain-imaging research. The essence of this theory is that humor results from noticing and resolving an incongruity (example below). Incongruity is defined as a surprise (defeated expectations), typically conveyed in the punchline. The theory was supported by evidence that removing a joke's resolution ruined the joke, and removing the incongruity ruined the joke even more.  A developmental finding was that understanding of incongruity emerges before understanding of resolution, explaining the young child’s fondness for material that adults would consider merely silly rather than funny.
  • Chan, Y. C. et al. (2012). Towards a neural circuit model of verbal humor processing: an fMRI study of the neural substrates of incongruity detection and resolution. Neuroimage, 66, 169–176.
  • Shultz, T. R. (1974). Order of cognitive processing in humour appreciation. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 28, 409-420.
  • Shultz, T. R. (1974). Development of the appreciation of riddles. Child Development, 45, 100-105.
  • Shultz, T. R., & Horibe, F. (1974). Development of the appreciation of verbal jokes. Developmental Psychology, 10, 13-20.
  • Shultz, T. R., & Scott, M. B. (1974). The creation of verbal humour. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 28, 421-425.
  • Vrticka, P., Black, J. M., Neely, M., Shelly, E. W. & Reiss, A. L. (2013). Humor processing in children: influence of temperament, age and IQ. Neuropsychologia, 51, 2799–2811.
  • Vrticka, P., Black, J. M., & Reiss, A. L. (2013). The neural basis of humour processing. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience, 14, 861-868.
A representative example of the incongruity and resolution theory is provided by the Ocean View Restaurant joke. Over the years, there have been many versions of this joke. This version is probably closest to that presented by Garrison Keillor on his radio show A Prairie Home Companion.
  • On their honeymoon, a couple went to the Ocean View Restaurant because it was so romantic.
  • On their 10th wedding anniversary, they went to the Ocean View Restaurant because they liked to dance.
  • On their 25th wedding anniversary, they went to the Ocean View Restaurant because it had a heart-healthy menu.
  • On their 40th anniversary, they went to the Ocean View Restaurant because it offered an early bird special.
  • On their 50th anniversary, they went to the Ocean View Restaurant because it was wheelchair accessible.
  • On their 60th wedding anniversary, they decided to go to the Ocean View Restaurant because they had never been there before.
A shorter example involves 3 more recent jokes. The Montreal Gazette of 16 May 2024 reported an incident in Newfoundland wherein police arrested a “very irate male” who attacked them with a block of cheese. Comments from readers included 3 spontaneous jokes: “I mean how dairy?” “The man was up to no gouda.” “Wonder what cheesed him off.” In each case, the incongruity of an initial dairy term is resolved by recognizing that each such term has a homophonic second meaning. Notice that explaining a joke unfortunately kind of spoils it.