On Tuesday, August 14, 2018, I was in a Lyft and they were
playing an interview with a book author at 9 pm on KALW, 91.7, SF local public
radio.*
It;s the broadcast and podcast series IN DEEP with Angie Coiro, and the author was Ken Jennings (Wiki here) and his new book, "Planet Funny."
He was talking about comedy, and he made an interesting point. Most things we “like” have survival value. We like food (biologically wired via taste, hunger), which has survival value. We like sex (biologically wired via affection, sex drive) which has survival value.
He was talking about comedy, and he made an interesting point. Most things we “like” have survival value. We like food (biologically wired via taste, hunger), which has survival value. We like sex (biologically wired via affection, sex drive) which has survival value.
Why do we like humor?
Humor is seeing the incongruity between two things in a surprising
way. We like that. But why would that evolve? It may be an offshoot of problem
solving. To survive, human beings must
solve all kinds of problems, see what’s there, what’s wrong, how to fix it,
evaluate the difference. So if we LIKE
doing that, it has survival value. Maybe
this is why we like the logic, comparing, and cognitive surprises in humor. He made a comment we are as much “homo
ludens” or “homo ridens” (playing or laughing) as homo sapiens.
(See also the book by Steven Johnson “Wonderland: How PlayMade the Modern World.”)
