"Laughter often gives birth to foul discourse, and foul discourse to
actions still more foul. Often from words and laughter proceed
railing and insult; and from railing and insult, blows and wounds."
Superiority Theory
Hobbes
Our laughter expresses feelings of
superiority over other people or over a
former state of ourselves.
Schopenhauer
"The laugh of scorn announces with triumph
to the baffled adversary how incongruous
were the conceptions he cherished with the
reality which is now revealing itself to him."
Incongruity Theory
Kant
"In everything that it to excite a lively
convulsive laugh there must be
something absurd."
Schopenhauer
"The cause of
laughter in every
case is simply the
sudden perception of
the incongruity
between a concept
and the real objects
which have been
thought through it in
some relation."
The cause of laughter is the perception of
something incongruous - something that
violates our mental patterns and perceptions.
Relief Theory
John Dewey
"Laughter marks the ending...
of a period of suspense, or
expectation."