Editing Humour (section)

{{Short description|Tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{Redirect-several|dab=off|Hilarity (ship)|Hilarious (film)|Hilarius (name)|Humour (disambiguation)|Funny (disambiguation)}}
{{EngvarB|date=December 2016}}
{{multiple image
| perrow            = 2
| total_width       = 300
| image1            = Volunteer Community Relations DVIDS190255.jpg
| width1            = 3000
| height1           = 1996
| image2            = People of Tibet8.jpg
| width2            = 2592
| height2           = 3872
| image3            = Filho da natureza (cropped).jpg
| width3            = 960
| height3           = 720
| image4            = Laugh Out Loud.jpg
| width4            = 900
| height4           = 600
| footer            = From top-left to bottom-right or from top to bottom (mobile): various people [[laugh]]ing from [[Islamic Republic of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], [[Tibet]], [[Brazil]], and [[Malaysia]]
}}

'''Humour''' ([[English in the Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth English]]) or '''humor''' ([[American English]]) is the tendency of experiences to provoke [[laughter]] and provide [[amusement]]. The term derives from the [[humorism|humoral medicine]] of the [[ancient Greeks]], which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as "humours" ([[Latin]]: ''{{Lang|la|humor}}'', "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.

People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny (such as a pun or joke)—and thus are considered to have a ''sense of humour''. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by subjective personal [[taste (aesthetics)|taste]], the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including [[geographical location]], culture, [[Maturity (psychological)|maturity]], level of education, [[intelligence]] and [[wikt:context|context]]. For example, young children may favour [[slapstick]] such as [[Punch and Judy]] puppet shows or cartoons such as ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' or ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', whose physical nature makes it accessible to them. By contrast, more sophisticated forms of humour such as satire require an understanding of its social meaning and context, and thus tend to appeal to a more mature audience.