Can quantum theory explain why jokes are funny?

"Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 789"

This overused pun may or may not make you giggle but your reaction is indeed due to the ambiguity of the joke. Have you ever thought about why we laugh at such simple jokes? Well researchers recently published and article in Frontiers in physics suggesting a novel approach to the complexity of humor; quantum theory.

 

The real question is; what kind of formal theory is needed to model the cognitive representation of a joke. Researchers are developing a mathematical model that can help decode the complexity of humor. This article outlines a quantum inspired model of humor. Researcher are hoping that this new approach may "succeed at a more nuanced modeling of the cognition of humor than previous attempts and lead to the development of a full-fledged, formal quantum theory model of humor." This model has been tested in a study that had participate rating the funniness of verbal puns, as well as the funniness of variants of these jokes. Researchers came to the conclusion that apart from the delivery of the information,something else is happening inside our brains, on a cognitive level, making jokes funny. Whereas its deconstructed components are not, researchers have concluded that the quantum approach appropriate to stud this phenomenon. 

For years and years people have tried to come to the conclusion of why jokes are funny. Today researchers from all different fields are working together to explain this phenomenon. To explain the complexity of humor, researchers said; 

"Previous computational models of humour have suggested that the funny element of a joke may be explained by a word's ability to hold two different meanings (bisociation), and the existence of multiple, but incompatible, ways of interpreting a statement or situation (incongruity)." 

During the build-up of the joke, we interpret the situation one way, and once the punch line comes, there is a shift in our understanding of the situation, which gives it a new meaning and creates the comical effect.  

Researchers have concluded that it is not the shift of meaning in a joke but it is instead the ability to perceive both meanings simultaneously, that makes a pun funny. This is where the theory of quantum physics comes in, the approach might be able to account for the complexity of humor in a way that earlier models can not. 

"Quantum formalisms are highly useful for describing cognitive states that entail this form of ambiguity," said Liane Gabora from the University of British Columbia.  

"Funniness is not a pre-existing 'element of reality' that can be measured; it emerges from an interaction between the underlying nature of the joke, the cognitive state of the listener, and other social and environmental factors," said Gabora.