Quantum theory may explain why jokes are funny

Whether we find puns and jokes funny can be predicted using quantum theory, say scientists who are developing a mathematical model that can help decode the complexity of humour.

Aiming to answer the question of what kind of formal theory is needed to model the cognitive representation

of a joke, researchers suggest that a quantum theory approach might be a contender.

Researchers at University of British Columbia in Canada outlined a quantum inspired model of humour.

This new approach may succeed at a more nuanced modelling of the cognition of humour and lead to the development of a full-fledged, formal quantum theory model of humour, researchers said.

This initial model was tested in a study where participants rated the funniness of verbal puns, as well as the funniness of variants of these jokes (eg the punchline on its own, the set-up on its own).

The results indicate that apart from the delivery of information, something else is happening on a cognitive level that makes the

joke as a whole funny whereas its deconstructed components are not, and which makes a quantum approach appropriate to study this phenomenon.

For decades, researchers from a range of different fields have tried to explain

the phenomenon of humour and what happens on a cognitive level in the moment when we "get the joke".

This is the first time that a quantum theory approach has been suggested as a way to better understand the complexity of humour, researchers said.

Previous computational models of humour have suggested that the funny element of a joke may be explained by a word's ability to hold two different meanings

(bisociation), and the existence of multiple, but incompatible, ways of interpreting a statement or situation (incongruity).