ABSTRACT
Play and humor are closely connected conceptually, in that both are enjoyable, reality bending, cognitively rich, internally motivated and controlled, and facilitated by social interaction. However, although theorists and researchers have described possible connections between play and humor development and hypothesized that they arise from similar sources, most researchers who study play have not addressed the play and humor linkage. Much remains to be learned about this important play-humor relationship. This chapter first reviews the knowledge base on humor and then describes the theoretical and research-based interface between humor development and play development.
