I think this all makes sense. Just a couple of thoughts to add, which I think are consistent with what you’ve said:
Laughter from tickling seems like an incentive to play-fight. I think humor is an evolutionariy outgrowth of that to incentivize intellectual sparring. Like physical play-fighting, this sharpens skills. Both can also demonstrate skills to improve one’s position in a hierarchy, or desirability as a mate. There are theories about humor as a mating display; I’d like to call it stotting or pronking. Those technically are about signaling fitness to predators, not competitors or mates, but maybe we could broaden the term for the sake of humor?
From this perspective, humor is a serious business.
The danger/safety juxtaposition or switch might actually be created by the moment of confusion in parsing a joke.
I have some memories of being an adolescent, not getting the joke, and feeling distinctly in danger. Was I the butt of the joke? Or was I proving I was in the out-group by not getting it?
Even outside of social situations, confusion could be evolutionarily dangerous. Am I lost? Did I misinterpret the clues about where I could find food?
The click as you get the joke brings you back to safety.
As a side note, this perspective implies that humor doesn’t need to extend accidentally from the same principles that create laughter from play-fighting, since it’s been actively adapted to serve a purpose from that starting point.
I think this all makes sense. Just a couple of thoughts to add, which I think are consistent with what you’ve said:
Laughter from tickling seems like an incentive to play-fight. I think humor is an evolutionariy outgrowth of that to incentivize intellectual sparring. Like physical play-fighting, this sharpens skills. Both can also demonstrate skills to improve one’s position in a hierarchy, or desirability as a mate. There are theories about humor as a mating display; I’d like to call it stotting or pronking. Those technically are about signaling fitness to predators, not competitors or mates, but maybe we could broaden the term for the sake of humor?
From this perspective, humor is a serious business.
The danger/safety juxtaposition or switch might actually be created by the moment of confusion in parsing a joke.
I have some memories of being an adolescent, not getting the joke, and feeling distinctly in danger. Was I the butt of the joke? Or was I proving I was in the out-group by not getting it?
Even outside of social situations, confusion could be evolutionarily dangerous. Am I lost? Did I misinterpret the clues about where I could find food?
The click as you get the joke brings you back to safety.
As a side note, this perspective implies that humor doesn’t need to extend accidentally from the same principles that create laughter from play-fighting, since it’s been actively adapted to serve a purpose from that starting point.