Welcome back to the second episode of series two from The Comedy Bureau!

In this episode we step slightly outside of our own expertise and explore some science of humour in great apes. Neither comedy academic Oliver Double, nor comedian Laura Lexx are experts in animal behaviour or apes so they are calling on as much research as they can find in this episode to explore what evidence has been presented from the science community to suggest that humour or joking is present in great apes.

First, Olly talks us through the development of humour in humans as a basis for whether we can then see the same developments in apes. This invaluable research comes from the book Humour - It's Origin and Development by Paul E McGhee. Development of humour in children involves the steps of imaginations, play and incongruous use of language in riddles.

We take a look at some of the evidence from the previous century presented by carers of Viki, Washoe and Koko. Koko in particular is a very famous ape you may have heard of previously.

Then we move on to some later studies and end by discussing why we want to be able to simultaneously gatekeep and share humour with other species.

What do you think? We absolutely love hearing from The Comedy Bureau listeners, so if you have thoughts or feedback we would LOVE to hear from you. We would also be so grateful if you would help us by leaving a glowing review of the podcast or sharing our promo videos on social media. We're a new, completely independent podcast and we really rely on you to help us spread the word about the work we're doing.

In this episode Laura mentions her other podcast... don't forget to subscribe to Lexx Education to see her tackling a subject she is not interested in at all.

Our sources for this episode were:

McGhee, Paul E, "Humour: It’s Origin and Development" (1979) WH Freeman and Co Ltd

Provine, Robert "Laughter: A Scientific Investigation" (2001) Penguin Publishing Group

Gamble, Jennifer “Humour in Apes” (2008) Here:

Cartmill, Erica "Great Apes Joke Around Suggesting Humor Is Older Than Humans" (2024)

IB Laumer, SL Winkler, F Rossano, EA Cartmill "Spontaneous playful teasing in four great ape species" (2024)