Laughter is Medicine: Definitions and Theories of Humor

What is humor? A wide variety of disciplines have attempted to define and describe humor. Philosophers, psychologists, psychoanalysts, anthropologists, sociologists, dramatists, playwrights, poets, satirists, comedians, ... seemingly anyone with an opinion has attempted to explain what tickles us and makes us laugh.

The word "humor" derives from two words, the Latin word umor and the medieval word humor, meaning fluid. Both were originally medical terms that referred to a biological temperament or disposition. Medieval theory of health and illness was based on humoral theory: that variations in temperament and illness are based on various quantities and mixtures and of four body fluids, called "humors": black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. Each of these humors was associated with a corresponding mood: black bile with melancholy, yellow bile with anger, phlegm with apathy, and blood with confidence. When their quantities varied within a person, the varying mixture was said to result in a person being in "good" or "bad" humor.

According to Webster's Dictionary, humor is "the quality that makes something seem funny, amusing, or ludicrous." Vera Robinson, a nurse who wrote about the use of humor in healthcare settings, defined it as "any communication which is perceived by any of the interacting parties as humorous and leads to laughing smiling, and (or) a feeling of amusement."

Humor is definitely a form of communication. By any definition, humor relates to delivery of a message and a person's perception of that message. This message may then be interpreted in as many different ways as there are recipients. This leads to humor's subjectivity: what one person finds funny, another could find offensive, and vice versa. Some people may not even "get it" at all.