Comedians, actors, writers and psychoanalysts have long sought to
discover the secret of what makes something funny. Sigmund Freud thought
humor stemmed from a feeling of superiority or incongruity, while Mark
Twain suggested that its secret source was not joy but sorrow.
Now, scientists at the University of Colorado claim to have put an end
to the argument once and for all. Humor, they say, stems from a benign
violation of the way the world ought to be. People find an incident humorous when it goes against the normally accepted way of things, providing it is harmless.
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