More aggressive cartoons are funnier.

Abstract

Independent rankings of humor and aggressiveness were obtained for sets of cartoons drawn randomly from two different magazines. The correlation of median humor and median aggressiveness rankings ranged from .49 to .90 in six studies involving six different sets of cartoons and six different groups of subjects, including children and adults, high and low socioeconomic status (SES) individuals, and native- and foreign-born individuals. This correlation is consistent with Freudian, arousal, and superiority theories of humor. Another prediction of Freudian theory, that high-SES subjects should be more appreciative of aggressive humor than low-SES subjects, was not supported.

Neural Correlates of Hostile Jokes: Cognitive and Motivational Processes in Humor Appreciation

“…A state of hostility presumably leads to an appreciation of hostile humor. A number of behavioral studies are broadly consistent with these humor theories, which have suggested that more aggressive humor is funnier (e.g., McCauley et al, 1983). However, the behavioral evidence in favor of such theories is far from conclusive (Strickland, 1959; Byrne, 1961).…”

“…There have been numerous theoretical links between humor and aggression in humor appreciation. Humor and aggression in humor appreciation have been most influential in social motivation theories, such as the psychoanalytic, superiority/disparagement, and arousal theories (McCauley et al, 1983). The Freudian theory of the joke was the first to propose aggression as a motivation of humor.…”

“…Numerous humor appreciation studies investigating hostile humor have shown that aggressive humor is funnier. Several studies have also indicated that the Freudian cathartic influence of aggressive humor is funnier (e.g., Gollob and Levine, 1967; Berkowitz, 1970; McCauley et al, 1983). For example, the ratings of humor and aggressiveness are consistent with the Freudian, arousal, and superiority theories of humor, which suggest that the tendency of more aggressive humor appears to be funnier (McCauley et al, 1983).…”

“…Several studies have also indicated that the Freudian cathartic influence of aggressive humor is funnier (e.g., Gollob and Levine, 1967; Berkowitz, 1970; McCauley et al, 1983). For example, the ratings of humor and aggressiveness are consistent with the Freudian, arousal, and superiority theories of humor, which suggest that the tendency of more aggressive humor appears to be funnier (McCauley et al, 1983). The perceived characteristics of protagonists in an aggressive joke have a significant effect on the humor degree of the joke, and a victim who is thought to deserve hostility elicits more humor (Gutman and Priest, 1969).…”

Eliciting positive, negative and mixed emotional states: A film library for affective scientists

“…One of the most recent humour theories is the benign violation theory (McGraw & Warren, 2010), which claims that humour occurs only when a violation (of an expectation or a belief) occurs in a situation that is perceived to be benign and nonthreatening. Several studies examined the association between aggression/cruelty and humour, and found both a linear relationship (McCauley, Woods, Coolidge, & Kulick, 1983) and an inverted-U-shaped function (e.g., Herzog & Anderson, 2000). Research on more negative types of humour that induce amusement and aversion and studies that aimed at examining other mixed emotional states (e.g., combination of happiness and sadness) have been done in the past using cartoons (Samson & Meyer, 2010), music (Hunter, Schellenberg, & Schimmack, 2008) and film clips (Larsen & McGraw, 2011).…”