What makes you laugh?

~ Incongruity: When we see or hear something incongruous, we are surprised into laughter, as a sort of relief.

~ Superiority: Those who tell us funny stories about their own foibles – or those of others – help listeners feel momentarily superior to the jokester or to the people who’ve been made the butt of the joke.

~ The Pattern of Three: Comedians have long believed that jokes work best in a pattern of three parts. Offer two straightforward examples and then a third one to shatter the pattern.

V. S. Ramachandran, in Phantoms in the Brain, wrote, “The main purpose of laughter might be to allow the individual to alert others in the social group that the detected anomaly is nothing to worry about.”

(source: http://sayitbetter.typepad.com)