Pun-intentionally sadistic: Is punning a manifestation of everyday sadism?

Abstract

While most successful attempts at humor are met with laughter or smiles, an exception is found in puns. Puns are often met with groans, a reaction which seems distinctly negative and indicative of anguish. We therefore conducted two studies to investigate punning as a form of everyday sadism, a personality trait which describes an individual's tendency to find enjoyment in the suffering of others. We assessed personality and preferences for and desired reactions to a taxonomy of jokes. First, unexpectedly, enjoyment of making puns was unrelated to everyday sadism. In fact, puns were found to be one of the types of jokes most enjoyed by audiences, despite an evident desire for groans in response to puns. These findings suggest groans in response to puns may be insincere, or even an indication of approval. Some jokes seemed to be enjoyed and made by over 90 % of the sample (puns, observational humor) while others were more divisive and avoided by nearly half of participants (scatological jokes, insult humor) with these negative types of humor showing relationships with everyday sadism and the dark triad. Results suggest the facets of humor may be more complex and disparate than the use of an umbrella term would imply.