Humor and Art

Jokes are products of human ingenuity that, when refined, are no different than art. But the art of humor is more than just jokes, more than just the laughter they produce. Humor is an aesthetic packaging of an idea. 

Our intellect finds pleasure when we're amused by the contrived absurdities of life. While laughter may be a supplementary motor area reflex, humor arises when our minds find corrections to contradictions, as if searching for the end to a maze. And the faster we travel, the funnier the destination. We laugh when we reach the goal. Like Aristotle who said, "Man is a goal-seeking animal," we wait for the delivery of the punchline, all the while seeking the creative connection intellectually. When the punchline finally unfolds, it taps into our primitive emotional circuitry, and we "get it."