i44 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE NATURE, ORIGIN AND FUNCTION OF HUMOR 



By LINUS W. KLINE, Ph.D. 



I. Introduction 



~VT"0 stimulus, perhaps, more mercifully and effectually breaks the 

 -L ^ surface tension of consciousness, thereby conditioning the mind 

 for a stronger forward movement, than that of humor. It is the one 

 universal dispensary for human kind : a medicine for the poor, a tonic 

 for the rich, a recreation for the fatigued and a beneficent check to the 

 strenuous. It acts as a shield to the reformer, as an entering wedge to 

 the recluse and as a decoy for barter and trade. A German writer 

 observes that it is a parachute to the balloon of life. To change the 

 figure, it is a switch on the highway of life to prevent human col- 

 lisions. Zenophon reckons that the man who makes an audience laugh 

 has done a lesser service than the one who moves it to tears. But the 

 comedian Philippos, when Socrates asked him of what he was proud, 

 declared, " I believe that I ought to be as proud of my right to the 

 gift of arousing laughter, as Kallipides, the tragedian, of his art in 

 causing tears." 1 



Darwin points out that the causes of laughter are legion and exceed- 

 ingly complex. 2 Humor may often be a cause, in which case it is 

 the mental aspect of a psychophysical fact. The mental aspect, only, 

 forms the subject matter of this paper. It offers problems for investi- 

 gation similar to any other concrete mental fact. I propose to show 

 that the character of its stimuli, the conditions of its origin in the race 

 and in the individual, its nature and function as a mental process, are 

 discoverable, describable and susceptible of explanation. 3 



II. The Nature of the Stimulus 



(a) Non-humorous Stimuli 



The immensity of space, the infinitude of time, the motion of the 

 heavenly bodies and all cosmic rhythms are void of humor. The same 

 thing is apparent of all physical, chemical and mathematical laws, and 

 likewise of all macroscopic things of earth such as the waters, the tidal 

 movements, the cataracts, the mountains, the forests, the deserts and 



1 Nick, Fr., " Narrenfeste," Bd. I., Zeit. 2, 1861. 



2 Darwin, Chas., " The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals," 

 p. 198. 



3 The physiological conditions of laughter have been treated at length by 

 Ewald Hecker and Herbert Spencer; the latter's contribution still remains the 

 classic on this subject. 



