ABSTRACT
Humor has been defined by Steven Leacock as “the kindly contemplation of the incongruities of life and the artistic expression thereof.” Most any form of humor must have INCONGRUITY, the juxtaposition of the expected with the unexpected. The basic structure for humorous material consists of three elements: a commonly understood situation, a build-up of tension, and the unexpected twist or punch line. The build-up of tension is a function of the length of the humorous material up to the punch line. In an anecdote, there is time to build tension as the story unfolds and details are revealed. The humor formula can be extended to multiple-choice format items where the stem builds tension and the three to five choices are basically one-liners, each with its own punch. The final element in humor is the sudden and unexpected twist, the quick flip from sense to no-sense.
