WHATS SO FUNNY ABOUT THAT - THE DOMAINS-INTERACTION APPROACH AS A MODEL OF INCONGRUITY AND RESOLUTION IN HUMOR

The domains-interaction approach, originally developed in metaphor res earch was used to model humor processing. Using ''jokes'' of the struc ture ''A is the B of A's domain'' (e.g., ''John Candy is the hamburger of actors''), this approach allows for precise operationalizations of incongruity and resolution in terms of between-domain and within-doma in semantic distance, respectively. Distances between 26. terms used i n 250 of these simple jokes were derived from semantic differential ra tings. As predicted, humor ratings of the jokes were positively correl ated with incongruity (between-domain distance) but not with resolutio n (within-domain distance). Also as predicted, a significant interacti on revealed that jokes with both incongruity and resolution were rated as most humorous. These findings were replicated in a second study. A third study indicated that humor perception differs from metaphor app reciation, showing main effects for both types of semantic distance, b ut no interaction, when the sentences were presented as metaphors inst ead of jokes and rated for aptness.