Humor, Language, and Metaphor

Abstract It has long been assumed that humor and metaphor are connected. However, little direct empirical examination of this connection exists. We sought to directly test a popular theory of humor--the disparagement theory--in a metaphor form. Thirty male and 30 female introductory psychology students judged 32 metaphor pairs. One half of the pairs disparaged the topic of the metaphorical sentence, whereas the other half of the pairs uplifted the topic. Consistent with the disparagement theory, the disparaging metaphors were perceived to be more humorous than their uplifting counterparts. Moreover, men showed a much greater propensity to follow this pattern. We then discussed the advantages of simultaneously examining humor and metaphor to gain insight into both areas.