This essay is concerned primarily with the question of what humor is, and with the somewhat distinct question, of what the bases or grounds of humor are. Traditional theories of humor are reviewed, an analysis of humor is proposed, and the issue of goodness in humor is briefly addressed. It is argued that the essence of humor is given by none of the traditional theories or their variants, residing instead in a particular pleasurable affect,amusement, elicited through cognition, and bearing a non-accidental relation to the behaviour known aslaughter.
Keywords: incongruity, goodness, amusement, cognition, laughter