Having fun on demand is not so easy. You may be funny when you’re with your friends, but you’re embarrassed to crack jokes with strangers. Are you someone who appreciates humor more when someone else is the source of the fun, rather than yourself being the source of laughter?
Being funny and able to appreciate humor are signs of above average intelligence.
Related news
In one study, researchers Gil Greengross Y Geoffrey Millerboth of the University of New MexicoY Rod. A. Martinof the University of Western Ontariostudied a group of college students and asked them to perform a fun task by creating made-up profiles of people based on basic information.
Later, study participants rated how funny the other participants’ responses were and were asked to complete tests of general intelligence, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, sociability, and neuroticism.
The researchers found that general intelligence was a strong predictor of mood, independent of the other variables. The researchers concluded that humor is a sign of underlying cognitive ability and fitness.
In another study conducted by William E Hauck Y John W Thomas of the Bucknell Universitythe researchers studied 3 variables: creativity, intelligence and sense of humor. They found that while creativity and intelligence were independent of each other, humor was related to both creativity and intelligence.
There are many different types of humor: slapstick, deadpan, dirty, topical, dark, satire, parody and surreal. Some require a higher degree of intelligence to appreciate than others, such as satire.
Satire is one of the most difficult types of humor because it depends on intelligence to be successful.
Amy Schumer, who is funny in many different ways, has a great talent for satire. His parody skit 12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer It was one of the funniest skits on television all year. Obviously it took intelligence both to write it and to enjoy it, as many elements were needed to fully appreciate it.
It was a departure from a 1957 black-and-white televised play, commenting on how actresses are judged on their looks or their «bangability»and highlighted the misogyny that tends to be an undercurrent in Hollywood. Did you have to understand all those things to find it funny? No, but having the intelligence to recognize these things made the humor even funnier.
You can’t make fun of something if you don’t understand it first, and it takes creativity to use the right kind of platform for your fun.
Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s brightest and most intelligent scientists, is known for his sharp sense of humor. Funny people are more likely to simply be smarter.