This was one of the issues touched upon by Eysenck, when he created personality sub types according to fixed scales.
I seem to recall, he demonstrated that sense of humour is individual, but he suggested it was essentially genetic. For everyone else, it's just flawed.
I recall, a number of cartoons which he showed. We had to pick the one we found funny. I just couldn't stop chuckling at an image of a refreshment queue inside a cinema, where one of those in line was a king, complete with crown, while his queen sat in, what was presumably, the royal box. It later occured to me that this could also have been interperted as two people playing King and Queen, lording it over others, but still having to visit the refreshment queue like everyone else. I confess, I didn't find that perpective funny at all.
I recall, once, a patient who had manic depression with rather dramatic extremes. In his manic phase, I quickly discovered some of the things he found funny. Then in his next depressive phase, I discovered he still reacted to that type of humour.
Do you think sense of humour might be a necessary component of human personalities?
There doesn't appear to be much evidence for it in other animals, particularly. Many animals seem to have, which might be termed, rather agressive moments of humour. I had a cat that would make sure he was noticed, sometimes. If I was sleeping he liked to jump on me then run away. If I was watching TV, he would stand in front of the screen. He was easily distracted by being fed, even when he was clearly not hungry. That could be humour, or simply passive agression. Or perhaps they are the same thing?
be intersted in your thoughts.
