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Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks , which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours ( Latin : humor , "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.
There are many theories of humor which attempt to explain what it is, what social functions it serves, and what would be considered humorous. Although various classical theories of humor and laughter may be found, in contemporary academic literature, three theories of humor appear repeatedly: relief theory, superiority theory, and incongruity ...
Humor research (also humor studies) is a multifaceted field which enters the domains of linguistics, history, and literature. Research in humor has been done to understand the psychological and physiological effects, both positive and negative, on a person or groups of people.
In his book Humor and Laughter: An Anthropological Approach, [38] the anthropologist Mahadev Apte presents a solid case for his own academic perspective. [103] "Two axioms underlie my discussion, namely, that humor is by and large culture based and that humor can be a major conceptual and methodological tool for gaining insights into cultural ...
Also in Poetics, Aristotle defined comedy as one of the original four genres of literature. The other three genres are tragedy, epic poetry, and lyric poetry. Literature, in general, is defined by Aristotle as a mimesis, or imitation of life. Comedy is the third form of literature, being the most divorced from a true mimesis.
The use of humor and laughter in literary works (for example the homeric laughter (ἄσβεστος γέλως, ásbestos gélōs, “unceasing laughter”) in Greek epics like the Iliad and Odyssey) has been studied and analyzed by many thinkers and writers, from the Ancient Greek philosophers onward.
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or shaming the perceived flaws of individuals, corporations, government, or society itself into improvement. [1]
Analysis on elements and functions of laughter and humor date back to Ancient Greece (384 BCE to 322 BCE) and Roman empire (106—43 B.C.E). Most notably, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero formulated early theories on the function of humor and laughter and paved the way for further philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes (17th century) to expand their positions.