ABSTRACT
There is no getting away from the fact that what makes wit comic is the trick it plays upon the mind. What makes it rich, riotous or exciting is another question. You have to distinguish the atom from the molecule. You can never explain any pointed joke without that distinction. Humor is an element; the atom of humor is a playful unpleasantness or frustration. A joke is a compound; the jocular molecule contains an atom of humor mixed with an atom or atoms of no matter what other kinds of value. With apologies to both chemistry and brain physiology, we may lay that down—until “science” means more, because it knows more, than it does now—as a scientific fact and no metaphor.
