| A five step research project to develop a taxonomy of humor that culminated in the introduction of a preliminary version of a humor assessment instrument is described. In the first step, humorous incidents excerpted from television comedy programs were judged to belong to one of the nine different categories: Wordplay, Exaggeration/Understatement, Contrast, Audience Knowledge, Aggression, Emotion, Taboo, Pratfall/Slapstick and Repetition. Intrarater agreement percentages obtained in the second step for each of the twelve programs are reported including a 72% rate of correct matches.;In the third step, the nine categories were restructured (eliminating Wordplay and Pratfall/Slapstick), to create seven categories. These categories were tested for interrater agreement using undergraduate participants trained to use the taxonomy. Overall interrater reliability percentages obtained for each category are reported.;Participants in the fourth step were asked to rate monochromatic one-frame comics on funniness and categorize them based on a refined six-category taxonomy (with Repetition being subsumed by Exaggeration). The comics found to be the purest examples of each category in the fourth step comprise a preliminary version of an instrument (with two gender-specific forms) that is intended to eventually operationalize the concept of sense of humor. Twelve comics, two from each of the six categories, were rated for funniness by subjects. Normative and test-retest reliability data were collected for each gender for future reference. Future research and test development plans are detailed. |
