If you’ve ever owned a dog that stole your sock, ran just out of reach, and then presented a "play bow" while wagging its tail, you might have suspected that your pet was pulling a prank. The dog knows the sock isn't theirs, they know you want it back, and they are intentionally subverting your expectations for their own amusement. Does this mean dogs have a sense of humor?
For decades, the idea that animals could possess a sense of humor was dismissed by the scientific community as mere anthropomorphism (projecting human traits onto non-human entities). Humor was widely considered a uniquely human trait, tied to complex language and advanced cognition. However, recent studies in animal behavior, primatology, and evolutionary biology are challenging this assumption, suggesting that the roots of humor extend far deeper into our evolutionary tree than previously thought.
The Evolutionary Roots of Laughter
To understand animal humor, we must first look at laughter. In humans, laughter is often an involuntary physiological response to something funny, but it also serves a crucial social function: signaling that a situation is safe and playful.
Evolutionary biologists trace human laughter back to the "play panting" of early primates. When apes like chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans engage in rough-and-tumble play, they emit a breathy, rhythmic panting sound. This vocalization signals to their playmates, "I am pretending to attack you, but this is just a game. Do not escalate to actual violence."
Dr. Marina Davila-Ross, a primatologist at the University of Portsmouth, conducted extensive acoustic analyses of tickle-induced vocalizations in great apes and human infants. Her research concluded that human laughter and ape play-panting share a common evolutionary origin, dating back millions of years to our shared ancestor. If apes share our physical mechanism for laughter, do they share the cognitive mechanism that triggers it?
Primate Pranks and Teasing
The strongest evidence for a proto-sense of humor in animals comes from our closest relatives: great apes. Observational studies in both the wild and captivity have documented numerous instances of apes engaging in behavior that closely resembles human teasing or practical joking.
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall observed young chimpanzees deliberately annoying older, more serious members of their troop—sneaking up on them, pulling their hair, or poking them with sticks, and quickly retreating before they could be reprimanded.
More strikingly, great apes taught sign language have demonstrated the ability to use humor intentionally. Koko, the famous gorilla known for her extensive sign language vocabulary, was documented making puns and engaging in comedic misdirection. For example, she once tied her trainer's shoelaces together and signed "chase." When asked what color a white towel was, she repeatedly signed "red," only correcting herself and signing "white" when her handlers grew visibly frustrated. This deliberate use of incongruity—knowing the right answer but supplying the wrong one to provoke a reaction—is a fundamental component of human humor.
The "Play Bow" and Canine Comedy
While dogs lack the cognitive complexity of great apes, they exhibit clear signs of playfulness that border on humor. In the canine world, the "play bow"—front legs extended, chest low to the ground, hindquarters raised—is the universal signal for a joke.
A dog might growl fiercely, bare its teeth, or charge at another dog, behaviors that typically signal aggression. However, if accompanied by a play bow, the message is instantly recontextualized: "Everything that follows is a joke."
Behaviorist Marc Bekoff, a pioneering researcher in animal emotions, argues that dogs exhibit a rudimentary form of humor based on unpredictability. Dogs often invent games that rely on subverting expectations, such as dropping a toy for a human to throw, but snatching it away at the last second. The dog finds amusement in the unexpected outcome and the human's reaction.
Incongruity and the Element of Surprise
In human psychology, the "Incongruity Theory" is one of the leading explanations for why things are funny. We laugh when there is a mismatch between our expectations and the actual outcome.
Can animals perceive incongruity? The evidence suggests they can. A famous study published in Animal Cognition demonstrated that dogs react differently to magic tricks (where an expected outcome is subverted, such as a treat disappearing) than to normal events. The dogs exhibited behaviors analogous to human surprise and amusement, suggesting an awareness of the incongruity.
Similarly, parrots have been known to purposely mimic the sound of a ringing telephone or a crying baby, waiting for their owner to react to the false alarm, and then exhibiting signs of excitement or pleasure at the deception.
Redefining Humor
So, do animals have a sense of humor? If we define humor strictly as the ability to understand a verbal punchline or a complex pun, then the answer is no. However, if we define humor more broadly as the ability to play, to find joy in the unexpected, to engage in harmless deception, and to signal safety through vocalizations and body language, then many species certainly share this trait.
Animal "humor" is likely less about intellectual cleverness and more about social cohesion. Just as human laughter bonds us together and diffuses tension, the play-panting of a chimp or the play bow of a dog serves to strengthen social ties and communicate intentions. The next time your dog steals your shoe and looks back to see if you're chasing them, recognize the behavior for what it is: an invitation to share a joke.