[eli5] Why do babies laugh? Are they capable of finding things funny at such an early stage?
In: Other
I think absolutely babies do find things funny. But their idea of funny is maybe different, just anything that is surprising or unexpected, and incongruent with what they think should happen. So they have to be old enough to have experienced some things to be able to know what’s outside of normal (ie- keys jangling and making noise is unexpected and different from most other things they see that don’t make that noise). Adults similarly laugh at a punchline because it is unexpected or incongruent with how we expect things to be, but our experience is broader so we have more subtle jokes.
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