What about the notion that "if you have to explain a joke" -- or, in this case, humor in general -- "it's not funny"? Looking forward to picking this up to answer, at least in part, that age-old question.

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6 years ago
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Angela Penrose I think that comes mainly from the idea that humor is based on shared references. If you don't share the references, you won't get the joke. In a way, all jokes are "inside jokes;" it's just that some jokes bang off of universal human experiences, so everyone is a member of the in group. A trout wouldn't laugh at a slipping-on-a-banana-peel joke, because there's nothing in their own frame of reference to match it.

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