The Pattern Recognition Theory Of Humour
Alastair Clarke

The Pattern Recognition Theory of Humour presents Clarke’s revolutionary explanation of humour, detailing the mechanism, function and implications of this fundamental human cognitive process.

The Complete Edition provides a substantial presentation of the mechanism of humour and includes Clarke’s completed field research on the causality of laughter during social interaction. This research is the first to be undertaken in the light of the theory’s implications and is consequently the only accurate study of its kind.

By describing the constitution of patterns and the processes by which they are identified in any information available to the human brain, the theory explains the evolutionary significance of the humorous faculty, positing its fundamental role in the development of the intellectual and perceptual capacities of the species. Since the existence of patterns is not content-dependent, a faculty promoting their swift and unconscious recognition provides an endlessly adaptable tool for environmental assessment.

Further, the theory revises our assumptions about the role of laughter, identifying it as a declaration of data communication, transmitting a large volume of information by its presence or absence. Despite being universal in its nature, Clarke’s explanation identifies humour as an egocentric process that is entirely dependent upon the individual’s subjective recognition of patterns by which they are surprised. As a consequence nothing can be said to be inherently funny, and humour can be found in any stimulus at any time.

Since the publication of the Concise Edition, the theory has received global interest and is set to become required reading for a variety of undergraduate disciplines.