Assumptions Create Expectations
Understanding how jokes work means understanding how the mind builds an expectation. A joke’s setup creates an expectation by causing the audience to assume a particular meaning.
When we hear a setup, our minds construct a scene based on past experience. This scene isn’t real—it’s made of assumptions. We believe the setup’s implied meaning and expect it to be true. This is what makes humor possible. A joke tricks us into assuming something, then yanks the rug out from under us with the punchline.
What’s an Assumption?
You assumed you knew, didn’t you?
An assumption is any thought based on remembering, presuming, speculating, or taking something for granted. It’s everything you think you know but aren’t directly experiencing. We rely on assumptions to make sense of the world because experiencing everything at once would be overwhelming.
For example, when reading a book, you assume there are more pages beyond the one you’re currently seeing. Without assumptions, life would be exhausting—you’d have to test each step to ensure the floor would hold, verify that the backs of objects exist, or call the IRS to confirm they still want your money (spoiler: they do).
How Setups Create Expectation
A setup’s job is to mislead the audience into accepting a false assumption. Take this setup:
“I’m on the Drinking Man’s Diet. It really works, I’ve already lost three…”
Your mind fills in the blank: pounds. That’s the Target Assumption—the expectation the joke intends to subvert.
How Punchlines Create Surprise
The punchline delivers a reinterpretation that contradicts the Target Assumption:
“… days.”
Now, instead of weight loss, the subject has lost time. The unexpected but compatible reinterpretation creates surprise, which triggers laughter.
Where Do Reinterpretations Come From?
Great comedians and comedy writers have a knack for noticing assumptions and finding unexpected but logical alternative meanings. This skill is called the comic leap—the ability to identify a hidden assumption and twist it into something surprising.
Not all comic leaps lead to gold, but the more you play with assumptions, the better your odds. The funniest people don’t just accept what they see; they question it, flip it, and find new angles.
But What About Funny Comments Without Setups?
Good question. (You’re getting the hang of this.)
While structured jokes rely on setups and punchlines, humor can also arise from absurdity, contrast, exaggeration, or just being unexpected in everyday conversation. But even those rely on assumptions and reinterpretations—just in a less obvious way.
Humor is about noticing what people expect and then giving them something they didn’t see coming. So, if you want to be funnier, start by paying attention to the assumptions people make every day—and then mess with them.
