Darwin (1872) and Hecker (1873) suggested that laughter induced by tic
kle and by humour share common underlying mechanisms. Seventy-two unde
rgraduate students participated in a study designed to explore the rel
ationship between the two phenomena. Subjects were tickled before and
after viewing comedy and control videotapes. Subjects exhibiting more
pronounced laughter to comedy also laughed more vigorously to tickle,
extending and validating self-report findings of Fridlund and Loftis (
1990). However, there was no evidence that comedy-induced laughter inc
reased subsequent laughter to tickle nor that ticklish laughter increa
sed laughter to comedy. We suggest that humour and tickle may be relat
ed only in that they share a final threshold for elicitation of their
common behavioural response (smiling and laughter).