xiii, 359 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

1. Introduction -- 2. What is humor for? --

3. The phenomenology of humor -- Humor as a property of objects or events -- Duchenne laughter -- The systematic ineffability of humor -- Funny-ha-ha and funny-huh -- The knowledge-relativity of humor -- Mating and dating --

4. A brief history of humor theories -- Biological theories -- Play theories -- Superiority theories -- Release theories -- Incongruity and incongruity-resolution theories -- Surprise theories -- Bergson's mechanical humor theory --

5. Twenty questions for a cognitive and evolutionary theory of humor --

6. Emotion and computation -- Finding the funny bone -- Does logic or emotion organize our brains? -- Emotions -- The rationality of emotions -- The irrationality of emotions -- Emotional algorithms -- A few implications --

7. A mind that can sustain humor -- Fast thinking: the costs and benefits of quick-wittedness -- The construction of mental spaces -- Active beliefs -- Epistemic caution and commitment -- Conflict; and resolution --

8. Humor and mirth -- The contamination of mental spaces -- Mirth among the epistemic emotions: the microdynamics -- Rewards for a dirty job well done -- "Getting it": basic humor in slow motion -- Interfering emotions --

9. Higher order humor -- The intentional stance -- The difference between the first person and the thrid person -- Anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism -- Intentional stance jokes --

10. Objections considered -- Falsifiability -- Epistemic undecidability -- Apparent counterexamples -- A brief glance at other's models -- Graeme Ritchie's five questions --

11. The penumbra : non-jokes, bad jokes, and near-humor -- Knowledge-relativity -- Scale of intensity -- Boundary cases -- Wit and other related phenomena -- Huron on the manipulation of expectations --

12. But why do we laugh? -- Laughter as communication -- Co-opting humor and laughter -- The Art of Comedy -- Comedy (and Tragedy) in literature -- Humor that heals --

13. The punch line -- Twenty questions answered -- Could we make a robot with a sense of humor?