Humor
Humor is the quality or experience of perceiving something as amusing or comic. It can arise from language, situations, character, or incongruity.
Incongruity theory: A theory that humor arises when an expectation is disrupted by an unexpected idea or event. It explains why surprising turns often trigger amusement.
Incongruity: A mismatch between elements, expectations, or interpretations that seem not to fit together. Many comic effects depend on noticing a mismatch between what was expected and what occurs.
Stand-up comedy: A comic performance in which a performer addresses an audience, usually with prepared jokes or stories. It makes timing, audience response, and spoken humor central to the form.
Humor styles: Patterns in how people use humor, including affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating styles. Different styles distinguish humor that connects people from humor that targets or diminishes them.
Wit: The ability to make clever, often concise and surprising verbal remarks. Wit is a style of comic expression, not the broader experience of amusement.
Relief theory: A theory that humor releases or manages psychological tension. It treats laughter as an outlet for tension built before a joke’s payoff.
Punch line: The concluding words or event of a joke that deliver its comic turn. It often supplies the surprise that makes a joke’s earlier setup newly meaningful.
Satire: A form of expression that uses wit, ridicule, or irony to expose faults in people, institutions, or society. It directs humor toward criticism rather than amusement alone.
Humor and health: The study of associations between humor, laughter, and physical or psychological health. It examines whether humor supports well-being and how those effects depend on context.
Comedy: A genre or mode of creative work organized around comic situations, characters, or effects. Comedy is a form of expression; humor is the quality or experience it may produce.