Infusing Humor In Unexpected Events
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The document discusses humor facilitation in smart environments, exploring how intentional and accidental humor can be created through the design of interactive experiences. An experiment tested the impact of fictional commentary on humor responses in different animated scenarios, revealing that contextual reframing significantly enhances perceived humor and surprise. The authors conclude that humor facilitation is a distinct computational task that could advance the creation of humorous interactions in digital environments.
![Humor Facilitation
(Nijholt 2014): Towards Humor Modelling and Facilitation
in Smart Environments
“Now that we can design and control our environments similar to our control of
our writings, can we design humorous events just as we can design humorous
texts?”
“We looked at humor as it can emerge accidentally or created intentionally
during our daily activities in our physical world. [...] In the former case it can lead
to funny situations, in the latter it is aimed at creating funny situations.”
“We think that artificial environments [...] can have the possibility to create
humorous events and interactions [...] by introducing ambiguities and
incongruities in these environments.”
July 20, 2016 4](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/infusing-humor-160729155442/85/Infusing-Humor-In-Unexpected-Events-4-320.jpg)
![Humor Facilitation
(Nijholt 2014): Towards Humor Modelling and Facilitation
in Smart Environments
“Now that we can design and control our environments similar to our control of
our writings, can we design humorous events just as we can design humorous
texts?”
“We looked at humor as it can emerge accidentally or created intentionally
during our daily activities in our physical world. [...] In the former case it can lead
to funny situations, in the latter it is aimed at creating funny situations.”
“We think that artificial environments [...] can have the possibility to create
humorous events and interactions [...] by introducing ambiguities and
incongruities in these environments.”
July 20, 2016 5
detecting](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/infusing-humor-160729155442/85/Infusing-Humor-In-Unexpected-Events-5-320.jpg)
![Humorous Reframing
(Attardo 2014): Encyclopedia of Humor Studies
“Reframing is a term that signifies a shift in perspective or
understanding of a situation. [= frame shifting or re-
interpretation]”
“Humorous reframing occurs when the shift in perspective
or understanding is experienced as humorous.”
July 20, 2016 7](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/infusing-humor-160729155442/85/Infusing-Humor-In-Unexpected-Events-7-320.jpg)
![Mediators and Moderators
In social psychology:
(Baron and Kenny, 1986: The Moderator-Mediator
Variable Distinction in Social
Psychological Research)
“A variable may be said to function as a mediator to the
extent that it accounts for the relation between [two
variables]."
“A moderator is a [...] variable that affects the direction [...]
of the relation between [two variables]”
July 20, 2016 12](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/infusing-humor-160729155442/85/Infusing-Humor-In-Unexpected-Events-12-320.jpg)
![Definitions
Humorous response: mirthful laughter (characterized by
probability and intensity)
Humor: capability of inducing a humorous response (See.
Attardo 2014: perlocutionary definiton of [humorous text: a text]
whose purpose is to produce the perception of humor)
Facilitation: positive moderation
Humor facilitation: positive moderation of the link between
surprise and dimension (either probability or intensity) of
humorous response
Humor facilitator: agent capable of performing humor facilitation
July 20, 2016 14](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/infusing-humor-160729155442/85/Infusing-Humor-In-Unexpected-Events-14-320.jpg)
Infusing Humor In Unexpected Events
- 1. Infusing Humor in Unexpected Events Alessandro Valitutti Tony Veale July 20, 2016 1
- 2. Outline 1. Context: Humor facilitation 2. Experiment: Adding a fictional commentary to an interactive animation 3. Discussion: Current limitations, next steps, and conclusions July 20, 2016 2
- 3. 1. Context July 20, 2016 3
- 4. Humor Facilitation (Nijholt 2014): Towards Humor Modelling and Facilitation in Smart Environments “Now that we can design and control our environments similar to our control of our writings, can we design humorous events just as we can design humorous texts?” “We looked at humor as it can emerge accidentally or created intentionally during our daily activities in our physical world. [...] In the former case it can lead to funny situations, in the latter it is aimed at creating funny situations.” “We think that artificial environments [...] can have the possibility to create humorous events and interactions [...] by introducing ambiguities and incongruities in these environments.” July 20, 2016 4
- 5. Humor Facilitation (Nijholt 2014): Towards Humor Modelling and Facilitation in Smart Environments “Now that we can design and control our environments similar to our control of our writings, can we design humorous events just as we can design humorous texts?” “We looked at humor as it can emerge accidentally or created intentionally during our daily activities in our physical world. [...] In the former case it can lead to funny situations, in the latter it is aimed at creating funny situations.” “We think that artificial environments [...] can have the possibility to create humorous events and interactions [...] by introducing ambiguities and incongruities in these environments.” July 20, 2016 5 detecting
- 6. July 20, 2016 6 Humor Facilitation Humorous Reframing “Fictionalization”
- 7. Humorous Reframing (Attardo 2014): Encyclopedia of Humor Studies “Reframing is a term that signifies a shift in perspective or understanding of a situation. [= frame shifting or re- interpretation]” “Humorous reframing occurs when the shift in perspective or understanding is experienced as humorous.” July 20, 2016 7
- 8. Agneta and Frida Picture from Höök et al. (2000). July 20, 2016 8
- 9. Pelicans July 20, 2016 9 Click here to play the video
- 10. Cat at the Door July 20, 2016 10 Click here to play the video
- 11. Mediators and Facilitators In distributed computing: Mediators and facilitators are components designed to ease the coordination and the communication among agents (Shen and Norrie, 1997: Facilitator, Mediator or Autonomous Agents) July 20, 2016 11
- 12. Mediators and Moderators In social psychology: (Baron and Kenny, 1986: The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research) “A variable may be said to function as a mediator to the extent that it accounts for the relation between [two variables]." “A moderator is a [...] variable that affects the direction [...] of the relation between [two variables]” July 20, 2016 12
- 13. Mediators and Moderators In Humor Studies (Alden et al., 2000: The Effects of Incongruity, Surprise and Positive Moderators on Perceived Humor in Television Advertising) “Surprise plays a mediating role in the incongruity-humor relationship.” “Playfulness moderates the surprise-humor link in a positive manner” Nijholt’ appropriateness of humorous acts is another type of moderator July 20, 2016 13
- 14. Definitions Humorous response: mirthful laughter (characterized by probability and intensity) Humor: capability of inducing a humorous response (See. Attardo 2014: perlocutionary definiton of [humorous text: a text] whose purpose is to produce the perception of humor) Facilitation: positive moderation Humor facilitation: positive moderation of the link between surprise and dimension (either probability or intensity) of humorous response Humor facilitator: agent capable of performing humor facilitation July 20, 2016 14
- 15. 2. Experiment July 20, 2016 15
- 16. Research Question Let us suppose: 1. to have an interactive situation containing unpredictable events; 2. to be able to add textual comments reframing the situation as a fictional script Is the fictional commentary capable of performing humor facilitation? July 20, 2016 16
- 17. Methodology Implementation of three versions of the same interactive animation (with and without textual commentary) Crowdsourcing recruiting of 40 subjects and online evaluation Form with questions about humor and surprise Two derived variables for measuring the probability (humorousness) and the intensity (funniness) of the humorous response Data analysis: hypothesis testing July 20, 2016 17
- 18. Animations July 20, 2016 18 • Animation 1: No Text • Animation 2: Bully • Animation 3: Love
- 19. Questions to the Subjects: Humor July 20, 2016 19
- 20. Questions to the Subjects: Surprise July 20, 2016 20
- 21. Example of Output Data Humorous Response Humor Term Humor (Intensity) Surprise (Yes/No) Surprise (Intensity) No No 0 No 0 Mood Humorous 3 Yes 2 Smile Hilarious 4 Yes 3 Smile Funny 2 Yes 3 Mood Funny 2 Yes 2 Laughter Hilarious 4 Yes 3 Laughter Funny 2 Yes 3 No No 0 No 1 Smile Hilarious 2 Yes 2 No No 0 No 1 July 20, 2016 21
- 22. Averages July 20, 2016 22 Avg Funniness Humorousness (i.e. rate of subject judging the stimulus as funny) No Text 1.44 0.44 Bully 2.47 0.71 Love 2.03 0.72
- 23. Comparisons Relation P-Value Fun(NoText) < Fun(Bully) 0.003 Hum(NoText) < Hum(Bully) 0.02 Fun(NoText) < Fun(Love) 0.04 Hum(NoText) < Hum(Love) 0.02 Fun(Bully) > Fun(Love) 0.11 Hum(Bully) < Hum(Love) 0.6 July 20, 2016 23
- 24. Correlation between Funniness and Surprise Setting Correlation P-Value No Text 0.56 0.0001 Bully 0.89 6e-15 Love 0.63 1.5e-05 July 20, 2016 24
- 25. 3. Discussion July 20, 2016 25
- 26. Limitation of Current Experiment 1. Only three situations: we need a large collection of situations, systematically arranged and related to the specific context (e.g. physical vs. virtual environment) 2. How to perform humor facilitation by fictionalization computationally? Possible resources: MetaphorMagnet, NOC List, Scalextric (Veale) Next steps: Collection and classification of potentially surprising events occurring in smart environments Development of a knowledge base of comic characters and related events/behaviors July 20, 2016 26
- 27. Conclusion Humor facilitation as a specific computational humor task (separated from humor detection and humor generation): Positive moderation of bi-dimensional humorous response Combination of surprise detection and humorous reframing by storytelling First empirical evidence that fictional ideation can perform humor facilitation of an unexpected (i.e. surprising) event in an interactive situation July 20, 2016 27
- 28. Thank You! A comedian does funny things. A good comedian does things funny. — Buster Keaton Additional material: hcii16.valitutti.it Email: alessandro.valitutti@gmail.com July 20, 2016 28