This article argues that the relationship between humor and the body is far more complex, and less linear, than typically presumed in theories of humor. First, cognitive linguistic studies suggest that our folk concepts of humor are fundamentally embodied, as well as mostly metaphorical. Second, psychological research demonstrates that people produce and understand stimuli as being humorous via embodied simulation processes in which they imaginatively project themselves into language or some real world event. Finally, the pervasive influence that bodily thoughts and actions have on humorous experiences greatly complicates attempts to empirically study how humor works and to theoretically describe the behavioral antecedents and consequences of humor in everyday life. Proper recognition of the tight link between humor and the body opens up many empirical and theoretical possibilities for future studies in cognitive linguistics and cognitive science.
Gibbs, Raymond W., Patrawat Samermit & Christopher R. Karzmark
2023. The Varieties of Ironic Experience. In The Cambridge Handbook of Irony and Thought, ► pp. 60 ff.
Jensen, Thomas Wiben
2018. Humor as interactional affordances: an ecological perspective on humor in social interaction. Psychology of Language and Communication 22:1 ► pp. 238 ff.
2023. The Scope of Irony. In The Cambridge Handbook of Irony and Thought, ► pp. 15 ff.
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