Humor is the glorification of a concept

Humor is unique to human beings. Animals don’t have humor. They can’t laugh and consider something funny the way humans do. So humor has to do with something that makes humans unique. What makes humans unique in comparison to animals is our ability to think in concepts.

So what is humor? How exactly is the original impulse that causes us to experience something as ‘funny’ created?

Humor is, simply put, the glorification of a concept. The alleviation that is felt the instant we believe we can be saved from our existential misery by a concept, expresses itself through an emotional release which is called humor. That is why in psychoanalysis humor is considered an ego defense mechanism.

In order to see this you need to pay very close attention to what exactly causes you to think of something as being funny. You have to ‘rewind’ the movie of your subtle memory after you felt the humor, and then study that emotion closely with your intelligence and sensitivity.

Let’s clarify this through an example. Think about something you consider funny. Why do you think it’s funny? That’s because what you are thinking about invokes a vision of reality that is very one-sided and simplistic, like a cartoon of reality, thereby causing a perception of certainty, control, security and comfort.

The discrepancy between the usual existential ignorance which the ego cannot handle on the one hand, and the momentary believe in a vision of reality which the ego CAN handle on the other hand, causes a pleasant release of tension which we call humor.

Having a sense of humor is part of being human, but we should not exaggerate the importance of humor. That’s why it gets annoying when humor takes on the character of an obligation as it often does in conventional society. A popular saying amongst the masses is "A day without laughter is a day wasted." That’s one of the reasons why I’m a bit of a hermit...