Why are funny things funny? In fact, why did humans evolve humor?
Specifically, what is the evolutionary advantage of having a sense of humor? Was there some point in prehistory when tribal survival benefited from being able to have a good belly laugh?
I am imagining two tribes of protohumans at war with each other. One tribe comes at the other with sticks and rocks and a readiness to draw blood.
The members of the other tribe suddenly realize the absurdity of the situation and begin to laugh. The aggressor tribe slinks away in shame and disgrace.
And so the good guys survived to live another day. Humor is funny that way.
I feel like funny is linked to language, our perception of reality, chaos and order. We found funny stuffs we know inconsciously but cannot quite put into words. Humour is perceiving order in chaos and being able to communicate that with others, it’s the elation to understand one another and the world on a strange new dimension. That might be a reasson why there is dad jokes and each new generation invent its own meta-language shaped from our contemporary quirkeness.
Also, probably linked to Marcel Duchamp’s concept of inframince somehow.