This thread reminds me of an Asimov short story where someone discovers that humor is just a vehicle for psychological experimentation being done on humans by an extraterrestrial intelligence. Now that humans know where jokes come from, it’s no longer a useful tool to the observers and is removed from the testing environment…
“The gift of humor is gone,” said Trask drearily. “No man
will ever laugh again.”
And they remained there, staring, feeling the world shrink
down to the dimensions of an experimental rat cage—with
the maze removed and something, something about to be put
in its place.
Double twist: he’s the actual psych researcher and they’re the research subjects.
Triple twist: They’re all just cartoon drawings, and we’re the research subjects.
& we don’t get to see the psych researchers.
This thread reminds me of an Asimov short story where someone discovers that humor is just a vehicle for psychological experimentation being done on humans by an extraterrestrial intelligence. Now that humans know where jokes come from, it’s no longer a useful tool to the observers and is removed from the testing environment…
http://blog.ac-versailles.fr/villaroylit/public/Jokester.pdf