ABSTRACT

The idea that jokes rely on faulty logic is very widespread, but the details have not previously been fully worked out. It is essential to decide which of the two systems, internal logic and audience inference, might be suitably flawed. Jokes often rely on worlds which are very different from reality. This can be seen as faulty internal logic, typically localised to the viewpoint of a joke character and flawed in comparison to some higher viewpoint. There is no evidence that the underlying reasoning mechanism is faulty, but statements in the internal logic can be inaccurate. The faultiness must be such that the logic is detectable by the audience. Hence it must be possible for audience inference to devise candidates for statements of the internal logical, and these then need to be assessed for the disbelief-suspension required. The latter gives a rating of the oddity of the joke world.