Paradox in Perspective: A Liar’s Guide to Humor Prof. Stephen Palmquist “But if I agree with you, we’ll both be wrong!” Why do we laugh at jokes? Numerous theorists have attempted to answer this question. Probably the most commonly-held answer is that laughter arises as a way of releasing a build-up of tension. For example, the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), claimed: “Laughter…arises if a tense expectation is transformed into nothing.” 1 He thinks a well-formed joke causes the listener to expect one kind of outcome, but the punch line delivers a different result. The psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) defended a similar “relief” theory of humor: laughter releases the psychic energy built up by some unconscious tension. 2 Another philosopher, Henri Bergson, argued in his book, Laughter (1900), that humor is intrinsic to the human situation, but is normally valid only for a particular, socially-defined target audience; laughter arises when we abstract from the feeling-content of a situation, viewing it from a purely intellectual point of view. But does all humor fit these rules? The one-line joke quoted above can serve as an example to illustrate the limits of such accounts of humor. Do you think the opening quote is funny? If so, why? Did it release a tension you were previously experiencing? I doubt it. Admittedly, Bergson is right most of the time: very few jokes can be translated literally into another language and still be funny. But some can. Why? My theory of humor is not inconsistent with the foregoing accounts, but raises them to a new level of generalization. I maintain that humor arises first and foremost out of a momentary deception caused by an unexpected mixing of perspectives. (A “perspective” is a way of looking at a particular subject matter, or an “angle” from which to view something.) When a listener is led to believe that the speaker is assuming one perspective, but then a very different perspective suddenly comes into play, the result (for those who recognize the mixing of perspectives—i.e., who “get” the joke), is laughter. To claim to “agree” with one’s opponent 1 Critique of the Power of Judgment, tr. W.S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987), p.332. 2 Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, tr. A.A. Brill (New York, 1916), pp.27-8.