Comedy in Action

This article presents a general theory of humor elicitation that specifies the conditions in which humor is experienced in both social and nonsocial situations. The theory takes into account the interpretation of a stimulus event that is necessary to elicit humor, the difficulty of identifying the humor-eliciting features of this interpretation, and the cognitive elaboration of implications of the event. The influence of these factors is postulated to depend on subjects' information-processing objectives at the time a stimulus event occurs. The theory is used to conceptualize the humor elicited by jokes, witticisms, and social events that are neither intended nor expected to be humorous. Particular attention is given to the cognitive underpinnings of responses to ethnic humor and to the humor that is elicited by one's own behavior in social situations.