The very serious science of humor

Plus: The best work of 2022 from The Goods, Culture, Even Better, and The Highlight. Will you join your fellow Vox readers? We’re aiming to add 3,000 new gifts from readers during our year-end campaign to help keep our work free for all. Will you join the 1,000 people who have given so far by making a one-time gift today? [Count me in!]( What can be said about 2022 that hasn’t already been said about every previous year on record? It was long, at times nonsensical, and at other moments, it felt joyously fun. This was the year that we tried to make sense of all of the rubble that the past two years left behind, and this was the year we all tried to be better. Here at Vox, our coverage always aims to bring clarity to our cultural landscape. From our [culture]( and [consumerism]( reporting, to our [new lifestyle section Even Better](, here is the best work that came from our team in 2022. We’ve rounded up the stories that made our readers click, cry, and come to understand where the world is headed. Plus, as an end of the year treat from The Highlight comes [“What’s So Funny?”](, a package on the powerful nature of humor in our society. We hope you’ll [check it out here](. See you in 2023! —[Melinda Fakuade](, staff editor for culture & features   The very serious science of humor [Black and white image of hands holding credit card surfing laptop]( llustration by Stephanie Ramplin for Vox To find mirth in the world is to be human. No culture is unfamiliar with humor, according to Joseph Polimeni, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba. For someone who analyzes humor, Polimeni tells me he’s still surprised by its complexity: How words and phrases and jokes have different meanings to everyone, but we all have the instinct to laugh. [Just as humans have an innate ability to understand language, Polimeni says, so, too, do they have a reflex for comprehending everyday comedy.]( Sure, there are people who are better suited at making others laugh, but “almost everybody,” Polimeni tells me, can appreciate a quip. As much as humor is universal, how it works is, to most people, a mystery. We seek out laughs in nearly every form of media, from film and TV to memes and TikToks. At the box office, popular comedies rake in big bucks. Funny people are idolized in pop culture. A desire for hilarity influences who we choose to spend time with, too. Why else, when scrolling through profiles on dating apps, would so many say they hope to date someone who’s funny (or at least claim to be “fluent in sarcasm”)? According to the 2022 Singles in America survey from online dating service Match, 92 percent of singles seek a partner who can make them laugh. (Does this explain Pete Davidson’s appeal?) The things that make us laugh today, from knock-knock jokes to satire, don’t quite resemble our ancestors’ version of humor. “Play is probably one of the original building blocks of humor,” Polimeni says. Many animals partake in it — dogs, otters, monkeys, rats, horses, fish, kangaroos — and humans’ early predecessors, similar to modern-day chimpanzees and primates, likely engaged in play, too, like mock fighting and tickling. Over time, laughter-inducing play transformed into practical uses: [Laughter and amusement signified a situation was safe, and positive emotions could be used to help cheer others up.]( Then, around 40,000 to 45,000 years ago, Polimeni says, humor evolved to serve more modern applications: to smooth over awkward social situations, to laugh at others’ mishaps. Humor would have aided early humans in having difficult or contentious conversations — topics like “Are you helping me enough?” “Do you like me?” “Why did you accidentally hit me? Or was it on purpose?” — without getting angry at one another, Polimeni says. If softening the blow of a potentially sticky conversation with a chuckle and a smile could help people deal with conflict, then it makes sense that humor and laughter matured for the purposes of social cooperation, as Polimeni and others suggest. Having an audience appreciate your humor has profound social benefits. Successfully landing a joke raises a person’s status while also lowering the status of anyone who’s the butt of a joke. Those in on the joke feel a greater sense of camaraderie, too. [Read the full story »](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](   Toward a unified theory of “millennial cringe” Remember when “epic bacon” was the height of comedy? [Read the full story »](   Help us reach our goal We aim to explain what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters. Support our mission by making a gift during our year-end campaign. [Yes, I'll give](   Is the right winning the comedy wars? Why liberals and conservatives don’t get each others’ jokes. [Read the full story »](   Some of our 2022 favorites - [The Noom paradox](by Constance Grady - [Four ways of looking at The Rehearsal]( by Alissa Wilkinson - [Two dozen tech founders living in a mansion. What could go wrong?]( by Rebecca Jennings - [After the Beanie Baby bubble burst]( by Emily Stewart - [The Chinese government’s unlikeliest standoff is with…fandom]( by Aja Romano - [The school shooting generation grows up](by Marin Cogan - [Stop worrying about what happens if we let kids transition. Worry about what happens if we don’t.](by Emily St. James - [The sleep advice no one tells you]( by Allie Volpe - [They hate to see a nepotism baby winning]( by Alex Abad-Santos - [The anti-abortion “social safety net”]( by Anna North - [Quitting Elon]( by Whizy Kim  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Manage your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe](param=goods). 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