Children's Humor: Foundations of Laughter Across the Lifespan

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Across the human lifespan, silly faces, funny noises, jokes, and other forms of humorous communication considered to be playful (Bateson, 1972) occur along with many forms of communication considered to be serious. Like its serious counterpart, humorous communication can affect many aspects of daily life: adults’ health and wellness (Cousins, 1979), the quality of adults’ relationships (Bippus, 2000, 2003; Young & Bippus, 2001), how college students learn (Bekelja Wanzer & Frymier Bainbridge, 1999; Bekelja Wanzer, Bainbridge Frymier, Wojtaszczyk, & Smith, 2006), and even how adults learn about politics from late-night TV comedy shows (Baek & Wojcieszak, 2009). In contrast to childhood, everyday adult life seems to be dominated by episodes of serious communication punctuated by moments of play and laughter as when viewing TV comedies, enjoying standup comedy acts, attending social gatherings to interact with friends who make us laugh, and more.