One could argue that there are lower forms of humour, that beings without language faculties can understand

• Schadenfreunde

• Laughing at bodily functions

These forms of humour could be understood by chimps, for example.

However, they are beyond the understanding of artificial intelligences like LLMs, as they rely on empathy, which is a sensory, temporal and transpersonal experience. This can be seen in the fact that there is interpersonal agreement that some farts and some falls are funnier than others.

Puns can be understood by any entity with access to a dictionary, and it's been demonstrated that less complex entities than chimps - like AIs - can handle this. Considering chimps as lower beings for being unable to understand puns in our language is akin to considering Spaniards are lower being for not understanding German puns - clearly absurd.

So - any form of humour that relies on an emodied experience and faculty of empathy should be considered higher order than puns.

However, there are form of language-based humour that are lower than puns. For example, yesterday I heard a 10-year old standup comedian tell the following joke:

I told my teacher a kid was bullying me. They ignored me. I said the kid hit me. They ignored me. I said the kid threw my phone away. They ignored me. I said they misgendered me, they kicked the kid out of school. laughter

This laughter is based on a tacit agreement between audience and performer (in-group) that a minoritised group (out-group) is becoming too powerful relative to the interests of the in-group.

This is beneath a pun, as it is humour derived from primitive instincts to dominate and control, rather than empathy and understanding as in the above examples, or an appreciation for language and ambiguity in the example of puns.

Similar examples would be "I saw an overweight woman struggling up the stairs. What a fat bitch!" laughter.

Another lower form of humour is "omg so random". This is beneath punning, as it requires no inventiveness and could be generated by a basic randomising device. e.g. "something something space monkey banana" laughter

Another - "oh you're from [stereotypically high status area], you must be [stereotype about high status people]" laughter - again, formulaic and banal, relying on a tautology.

Another - "I'm from [ethic background], you must think I'm [ethnic stereotype], here's a story that culminates in me accusing you of being racist because you think I am [ethnic stereotype]" laughter - again, a low form of humour that is a an accusation masked as a joke, that only connects if the audience actually is racist: it will only work with lower forms of life.

Callbacks are another low form of humour that could be understood by anything with a memory.

The highest form of humour is

"Oh X you're bad at pointing who taught you that"

gesticulates wildly

"She did"