[jessetemp]

> If two people disagree on whether something is funny, who's wrong? You can't say either of them is. There's no reward function for funny.

Laughter is the reward. N of 2 is a small sample size, but if one person laughed you could say it was 50% funny.

> a really good joke is recent, relevant, and shows deep understanding of its subject

These can help, but it ultimately doesn't matter how recent, relevant, or deep a joke is. If no one laughs, it wasn't funny.

[mym1990]

Laughter is a decent signal, but it can be noise if the audience is uncomfortable or trying to please. Does the joke teller count as being part of the audience? I imagine if someone is telling the joke...they must think it is funny, so in most cases at least 1 participant thinks its funny. Sometimes jokes are unintended, maybe a faux pas, and it might be inappropriate for someone to laugh...does it make it not a joke, or does it make it not funny if I cannot laugh?

Lots of layers to this, but I guess the old adage "it depends" is very fitting here!

[jessetemp]

Laughter isn’t a perfect signal, but is the only signal in all the noise you mentioned

[mym1990]

It can get quite interesting in group dynamics between people that really know each other, inside jokes, subtle cleverness, etc...

Humor may be the saving grace of humanity!

[Tarq0n]

A lot of modern comedy is awful because it substitutes embarrassed laughter for amused laughter.