Editing Humour (section)

==Theories==
{{main|Theories of humour}}
Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves. The prevailing types of theories attempting to account for the existence of humour include [[psychology|psychological]] theories, the vast majority of which consider humour-induced behaviour to be very healthy; spiritual theories, which may, for instance, consider humour to be a "gift from God"; and theories which consider humour to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a [[mysticism|mystical experience]].<ref>[[Raymond Smullyan]], "The Planet Without Laughter", ''[[This Book Needs No Title]]''</ref>

The benign-violation theory, endorsed by [[Peter McGraw]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGraw |first1=A. Peter |last2=Warren |first2=Caleb |last3=Williams |first3=Lawrence E. |last4=Leonard |first4=Bridget |title=Too Close for Comfort, or Too Far to Care? Finding Humor in Distant Tragedies and Close Mishaps |journal=Psychological Science |date=October 2012 |volume=23 |issue=10 |pages=1215–1223 |doi=10.1177/0956797612443831|pmid=22941877 |s2cid=2480808 | issn=0956-7976}}</ref> attempts to explain humour's existence. The theory says "humour only occurs when something seems wrong, unsettling, or threatening, but simultaneously seems okay, acceptable or safe."<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGraw |first1=Peter |last2=Warner |first2=Joel |title=The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funn |date=2014 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4516-6541-3 |page=10 |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> Humour can be used as a method to easily engage in social interaction by taking away that awkward, uncomfortable, or uneasy feeling of social interactions.

Others believe that "the appropriate use of humour can facilitate social interactions".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kuiper |first1=Nicholas A. |last2=Aiken |first2=Audrey |last3=Pound |first3=Maria Sol |title=Humor use, reactions to social comments, and social anxiety |journal=Humor |date=2014 |volume=27 |issue=3 |page=424 |doi=10.1515/humor-2014-0072|s2cid=146821665 |postscript=,}} citing:{{bulleted list|{{cite journal |last1=Kuiper |first1=Nicholas A. |title=Humor and Resiliency: Towards a Process Model of Coping and Growth |journal=Europe's Journal of Psychology |date=2012 |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=475–491 |doi=10.5964/ejop.v8i3.464 |doi-access=free|ref=none}}|{{cite journal |last1=Samson |first1=Andrea C. |last2=Lackner |first2=Helmut Karl |last3=Weiss |first3=Elisabeth M. |last4=Papousek |first4=Ilona |title=Perception of other people's mental states affects humor in social anxiety |journal=Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry |date=2012 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=625–631 |doi=10.1016/j.jbtep.2011.08.007 |pmid=21946039 |url=https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:98024 |ref=none}}}}</ref><ref>[[Nicholas Kuiper]], "Prudence and Racial Humor: Troubling Epithets" {{full citation needed|date=September 2019}}</ref>