Abstract

This paper presents the Sudden Movement Theory of Humor which posits that humor arises from a sudden movement of any structural systems of knowledge or their representations, resulting in a revelation about these systems or their representations. Structural systems of knowledge include epistemology, ontology, linguistics, and other cognitive frameworks for processing and interpreting experiences. The observer of humor experiences a sudden movement when at least one structural system of knowledge is internally utilized or altered by the observer’s independent mental operation whether consciously or subconsciously. This formulaic approach to humor provides an emotionally-neutral explanation for how humor can be understood as distinct from comedy, whereby comedy is the use of comedic techniques to present humorous scenarios to elicit laughter. This approach allows for a formulaic approach of humor to subsume and supplement existing theories of humor. This paper will first show where other theories of humor lack in explanatory power. The Sudden Movement Theory will then be developed by providing new definitions for an approach to humor, demonstrating applicability, and stress-testing itself against verbal, non-verbal humor, and meta approaches to humor.