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Sense of Humor and Intelligence?
Illius
Member UncommonPosts: 4,142
I'm was zombie-ing my way through work today thinking up random ways of occupying my mind trying to get through the 11 hours I was working today and a thought occured to me.
Is there a corelation between a sense of humor and Intelligence? I've often thought that you had to have at least some kind of smarts to have a good sense of humor. I'm sure there are quite a few people who would like to give anecdotal evidence as to the fact, something I look forward to reading.
I looked around the web to some studies relating to this subject but none of the tests were conclusive mainly due to the inability to quantify "sense of humor" into a scientific parameter. However I also think there are different ways to define "intelligence". One could be book smart, or just be very experienced in life and so on and so forth and that's one thing that has me guessing. Do PhD holders have a better sense of humor then say someone who never finished high school? Or if we take it the way of life experience, does a 75 year old "home body" that has barely left their home town with limited life experience automatically doomed to 2nd place as compared to someone of the same age who has been everywhere and done a multitude of things?
I figure if nothing else at least I'll get some funny responses.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Comments
I think intelligence is directly related to prudency. A high school drop-out is likely to laugh at a well timed fart, while a PhD would scoff at it, then crack up at a comic in the New Yorker. You might say the smart guy would have a "refined" sense of humor, but I just say they are smug as all s**t.
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I think it would be very hard if not impossible to study if either of those things are correlated because we cannot quantify a "sense of humor" nor can we quantify "intelligence".
inb4 IQ tests are a way to quantify intelligence.
It depends how you define a "good sense of humour". When I say "that dude's a funny chap", I'm pretty much saying it relative to my own sense of humour. Maybe someone generally has a good sense of humour if most of the people he/she knows think that.
I personally think you have a sh*t sense of humour if there are only a very small number of stand-up comedians you find funny. Unless you haven't seen many stand-up shows.
We're all Geniuses. Most of us just don't know it.
IQ tests quantify knowledge, not intelligence.
Most of the crappy IQ tests you see test knowledge, but a real IQ test is supposed to test intelligence.
I'm prepping for the Mensa exam. Their practice tests seem very knowledge based. Granted, there are a lot of logic questions, but some of the stuff - you either know it, or you don't.
You shouldn't have to "prep" for an IQ test because it's supposed to measure intelligence, not knowledge.
Sorry to rain on your parade and be off topic, but mensa is a load of crap and you're getting scammed.
How is joining a group of people who have shown they are mentally more capable than the box of rocks most people use for a brain a scam? Because they have an annual membership fee and it costs something to take their test?
Because people who are truly intelligent go out and solve problems, not get on top of a pedestial so that people look upon them in amazement.
Also, Mensa has their own brand name. It's about money, nothing else.
You go with that. I think it's mostly a group of people who want to have another reason to get together and shoot the shit.
Whatever makes him feel better.
Hey, if mensa makes you feel good then go take it, but it's not a true IQ test if it's testing knowledge.
Like I said before, quantifying intelligence is difficult if not impossible.
Imagine two people as final candidates for a job. They both have the same qualifications and credentials; however, one individual is a member of Mensa. Who do you think would get the job? Memberships within specific organizations have their perks.
Can you stay on topic?
Intelligence is a vastly complex concept. To think that you can just boil reasoning, logic, abstract thinking down to a simple number, thus quantifying it, is utterly ridiculous.
You should climb up this message chain to see who went off topic. I believe it was you.
I'm beginning to think you may be so against IQ tests because you received a low score and thought "This test is wrong!"
Actually, I have never taken an IQ test.
And no, you were the one to go off topic talking about mensa when it was clear you didn't even understand what an IQ test was supposed to be.
"IQ tests quantify knowledge, not intelligence."
You trying to act like a "higher" individual just becomes laughable.
"inb4 IQ tests are a way to quantify intelligence."
That was your tangent to which I responded. You took it off-topic. Nice dodge.
Have a nice day!
Maybe if you haven't responded to the quote, you wouldn't have helped derail the thread?.
Anywho what about the humor in sarcasm. Some people from certain countries simply don't get the humor in it and will actually take offense to sarcasm. Is that a lack of a form of intellect? or product of where you come from.
I think the lack of understanding sarcasm is different depending on where you come from.
However I've noticed that the kids that are in their teens nowadays don't understand sarcasm either, and they're not from other countries and speak the same language as I do.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
So true, Captain Hindsight.
Sarcasm is indeed pretty specific to the culture you're from. Typically English speakers use sarcasm through voice tone. However, in chinese changing the tone changes the actual meaning of the word, so their sarcasm is much more subtle. And when a Chinese person learns English (or any person learning a foreign language) it is usually harder to pick up the different tones without being exposed to it for awhile.