AI’s true test of intelligence might actually be humor. Its too tricky.

Jokes are intelligent.

They operate on deliberate, incomplete communication.

If you explain the joke, you kill it.

That’s because the joke depends on something shared and common between parties but that commonality is left unsaid.

It can be obscure knowledge about a niche, shared experience in a hierarchy, common experience from hobbies and activities such gaming, gossip about a person, etc.

Thus for jokes :

• You must know what you know.
• You must also know what the other person knows.

If you miss that level, there is no joke.

Just awkward silence.

But if you hit the overlap it can go two ways.

It can become offence or it can become a joke.

That is the risk. And also the reward.

Because you are hitting something that is part of both people and both people see.

And now outcome of joke depends on how it is received.

Said with alignment, it turns into laughter.

Said without it, it turns into offense.

So joking requires judgment.

It requires awareness of yourself and of others.

It requires understanding what lives in the shared zone between two minds.

And part of the mechanism is mischief.

Because even when you know there’s overlap, you do not communicate it fully.

You leave the last part unspoken.

You say just enough for the message to rise without saying it fully.

Because if you had said it in full directly, it would have crossed a line as it is mischievous in nature.

That unsaid part is the inappropriate part.

And that tension is what decides everything.

The joke either stays playful or slips into offence based on how much that boundary is felt.

Humor bends that boundary without fully breaking it.

Thus taboo is a part of humor as we say what must not be said (without saying it fully by just hinting at it)

This whole interaction depends on perception.

It’s not about the words alone, but how they’re received by the room.

This makes humor a form of social intelligence.

It’s not personal logic, but shared logic.

You have to be judge whether the people involved would appreciate you hinting towards taboo.

And if taboo is one of the pillars of humor, then average cannot be funny.

What is average, expected or allowed by nature cannot be taboo.

What is expected creates no friction.

What is allowed creates no surprise.

And without surprise, there is no joke because humor requires violation of expectations.

To be funny, your words must carry deviation from average.

Your characters must carry edge.

Your scenes must carry contrast.

Humor needs one thing out of place.

Either the character is unusual, or the situation is.

A normal person dropped into a strange world.

Or a strange person dropped into a normal world.

That is the formula.

We either have shows like Family guy where whacky characters are in normal situations

Or we have shows like Courage the Cowardly dog where an ordinary dog is stuck in abnormal situations.

And deeper than all of this, jokes are confirmation of overlap.

They show that what I noticed, you noticed too.

What I feel, you feel too.

It is like two atoms sharing electrons to form a bond.

They show you where minds intersect.

When two people are too similar, they either become enemies or they bond deeply.

Because overlap always creates energy

Either alignment or conflict.

That same energy powers humor.

The same overlap that creates a joke can also create a friend or an enemy.

Because existence of two similar person might signal to a person that one of them is redundant.

And that fear triggers aggression.

Humor and connection use the same structure.

Overlap between people whether in perspective, traits, or experiences generates a kind of social energy that can manifest as connection, conflict, or humor.

But at end as conclusion we can say that people who are funny are living on the edge.

Quite risky people because they are constantly playing with taboos.