STUDY: APES HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR LIKE HUMANS

A new study suggests that apes possess a sense of humor just like humans. An international team has discovered that four species of great apes — orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas — all engage in playful teasing with one another. This behavior mirrors human joking, incorporating elements of surprise and play. The findings indicate that the foundational elements of humor may have evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago. Isabelle Laumer, a post-doctoral researcher and the first author of the study, says, “Great apes are excellent candidates for playful teasing, as they are closely related to us, engage in social play, show laughter and display relatively sophisticated understandings of others’ expectations.”
* It’s obvious that humor evolved from apes. This explains Adam Sandler movies.
* Apes love jokes. Their favorite is, “A man walks into a monkey bar. Ouch, he says.” Cracks them up.
* The weird part? They don’t find it particularly fun to pile into a barrel until it’s full.
* Also, limericks don’t even raise a smile out of them.
* Monkey joke: What do you call a monkey with a firecracker? Ba-boom.
* Another one, an intellectual monkey joke: Two monkeys are sitting in a tree. One monkey says, “Hey – what rhymes with banana?” The other monkey says, “No it doesn’t.”