A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpected interpretation that is also apt. He says that while there is no single format for jokes, many revolve around a sudden and surprising conceptual shift. Graeme Ritchie, a computational linguist in Edinburgh, studies the linguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines. But most modern humour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotle's belief that jokes are based on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity, when the punchline is either a nonsense or, though appearing silly, has a clever second meaning. Kant and Freud felt that joke-telling relies on building up a psychic tension which is safely punctured by the ludicrousness of the punchline. Plato expressed the idea that humour is simply a delighted feeling of superiority over others. Theories about humour have an ancient pedigree. The writer Arthur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: 'unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose'. Laughter has always struck people as deeply mysterious, perhaps pointless. 'Which side of a dog has the most hair? The outside.' Hah! The punchline is silly yet fitting, tempting a smile, even a laugh. The joke comes over the headphones: 'Which side of a dog has the most hair? The left.' No, not funny. What's so funny? John McCrone reviews recent research on humour You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-27, which are based on the Reading Passage below. IELTS Academic Reading Passage - What's so funny?
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