Do animals have a sense of humour?

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I've just returned home after a shopping trip, and my dog was delighted to see me (as usual, and who can blame him?)

But not content with just wagging his tail and cavorting about with joy, he also started grinning and making sort of Muttley 'tee-hee' noises. He does this other times, too - if there are a group of us sitting in the garden, having a few drinks and telling jokes, he sort of joins in by grinning like this when we are all laughing about something.

Do animals have a sense of humour? Do you think they are able to understand the concept of jokey behaviour or being teased for fun, etc?

― C J (C J), Saturday, 12 July 2003 09:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Dogs: I don't think they do have a sense of humour per se, but they can probably mimic what we do when someone is telling a joke...as pack animals, it is in their interest to go along with what everyone else is doing.

I would imagine that the same is true of other social animals which are highly inteligent - dolphins and non-human primates, for example.

I don't think cats have a sense of humour, but then they are solitary.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 12 July 2003 09:51 (twenty-two years ago)

dogs definitely have a sense of humour but really it's extremely fuckin feeble, they laugh at any dumb shit.

― duane, Saturday, 12 July 2003 10:02 (twenty-two years ago)

my kittens definitely have a sense of fun, but i don't think they get my humour when i'm fuckin' with 'em

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 12 July 2003 10:29 (twenty-two years ago)

ew (sorry)

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 12 July 2003 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

They are rubbish at puns.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 12 July 2003 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I took a course on Animal Behavior with a guy -- R4y Coppinger -- who was vehement about dogs not having emotions that could be mapped onto human ones, beyond "content," "happy," "discontent," and "afraid," but this was after one of those "The secret emotional language of puppies" books had come out, and he took several breaks in the semester to go debate its author for TV shows. So he had a real chip on his shoulder.

I think even after all his arguments, after a minimum it comes down to this: dogs and cats can and will do things they know gets a certain response. If you laugh when your cat plays in the sink, and smile, and aim all that positive attention at it, the cat is happy, and the cat knows you are happy because of it, and it'll do it again. Whether or not it knows it looks funny with its fur wet and spiky, who knows.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 12 July 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I heard dogs can actually laugh when they're having fun, but usually it's no louder than a kind of wheezing pant.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 13 July 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

My pigs laugh at me all the time, I should eat them

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 13 July 2003 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

In Poole there's (allegedly) a pub called the "Whispering Pig". Said pig lives in the pub garden and has a problem with it's snout which makes it "whisper" 'It's alright, it's okay, it's alright, it's okay" in a comforting manner.

Can anyone confirm this or is it just a bullshit?

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 13 July 2003 23:49 (twenty-two years ago)

My dog grins at me while we're walking along and I grin back. I don't think he gets jokes though.

― estela (estela), Sunday, 13 July 2003 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

andrew i didn't know you had pigs.

― duane, Monday, 14 July 2003 00:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Yup. I'm not actually going to eat them.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 14 July 2003 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

If I was a monkey, I'd find it fairly hilarious the way those so-far-up-themself-they-need-a-compass-to-find-their-way-out-again homo sapiens have got the whole evolutionary sequence so arse-about.

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Monday, 14 July 2003 03:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I sure hope so.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Monday, 14 July 2003 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, she may not have a sense of humour, but my cat cracked me up this afternoon when another cat suddenly appeared at my window. Complete panicked surprise. I think she jumped about five feet up in the air.

― s1utsky (slutsky), Monday, 14 July 2003 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

You're all morons. Death to you.

― tom bettany, Monday, 26 July 2004 04:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Sadie Mae Glutz is humorless. I'm always making off-color jokes around her and she never laughs, so either she's a big prude or she's just dumb. I still love her though

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 26 July 2004 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)

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