Table 4.

Operational categories used to analyze the explanations provided by participants in Study 2.

Curiosity	Definition in Humor: Curiosity is associated with realizing that there is something incongruous in the text that needs to be understood, and this incongruity elicits a state of tension which activates the person to look for meanings. Once the resolution of a joke is achieved, a positive feeling of knowing something new (i.e., getting the joke) arises and this leads to a final state of relief. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “It stimulated my curiosity and made me want to understand the meaning” [bats]; “It made me curious and it interested me; this pushed me to look more carefully at the snake…it was clear that there was something humorous hidden somewhere…” [mice]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “From the beginning, it left me indifferent and did not stimulate any reaction in me or any curiosity [dogs]”; “It did not catch my attention, and therefore it did not make me want to understand its meaning” [igloo].
Virtuosity	Definition in Humor: Virtuosity is the feeling of being able to understand a joke. It occurs more frequently when the joke is perceived as witty or is based on intellectual or specific domain knowledge than when it is perceived as trivial and can be understood by everyone. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “It was ironic to the right point: you needed to think about it a bit” [igloo]; “It offers a brilliant comparison; it is not immediately clear” [igloo]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “It is much too convoluted and complicated, and did not make me laugh immediately” [bats]; “I was not able to understand immediately what the point of the joke was; I focused on an irrelevant aspect…” [dogs].
Violation of expectations	Definition in Humor: Violation of expectations is related to discovering that the joke plays on contravening/contrasting expectations toward which the reader has been biased by the text/image at the beginning of the interpretative process, and to discovering that the resolution of the joke requires a re-structuring of the initial interpretation. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “It is paradoxical. Exactly the opposite of what is true for humans!” [bats]; “It is uncommon and unusual, and it excited my interest precisely because it is absurd” [mice]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “It did not amuse me because the cartoon is too far from reality, it is unreal, absurd.” [fish]; “I did not enjoy the igloo cartoon because the solution is too far from what actually happens” [igloo].
Feeling of surprise	Definition in Humor: Feelings of surprise arise when a new interpretation, which is achieved by resolving an incongruity, is perceived as unusual. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “The punch line was unexpected” [fish];“The punch line surprised me” [mice]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “It is banal and predictable” [shark]; “The end was predictable” [fish].
Joy of verification	Definition in Humor: Joy of verification is experienced depending on the proximity of a person's understanding to the correct interpretation of the joke. (note: this category differs from Virtuosity in that the participants did not explicitly refer to their ability to understand quickly or to the subtlety of the jokes but rather mentioned the outcome of their understanding matching the “official”interpretation of the joke). Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “It is an easy and immediate punch line, it does not require reasoning and you understand it quickly” [shark]; “I got it immediately and this made it very humorous” [igloo]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “I could not get the meaning from the drawing and the text” [dogs]; “If I had not been given the explanation of the joke, I would have never have thought it was meant to make people laugh” [dogs].
Diminishment	Definition in Humor: Diminishment is experienced when the reinterpretation of the text (i.e., the resolution of the incongruity) implies that the characters or the event on which the joke is focused are less attractive (e.g., honest, innocent, loyal, clever) than they seemed from the first impression. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “It is amusing that the little mice have not realized before that they have been eaten”; “The husband, with the excuse of taking a picture of his wife, tries to give the shark time to eat his wife, who apparently has no idea what is happening [shark]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoon): “It plays on the perceived stupidity of mice” [mice]; “I was sorry for the mice and felt bad when I realized that they had understood that they were in a snake's belly.” [mice]
Happiness	Definition in Humor: a pure expression of amusement (i.e., appreciation of a joke), without any specific explanation for its cause. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “The idea of a fish flying tied to a balloon makes me laugh.” [fish]; “It was ironic and playful” [shark]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “There is nothing amusing about this” [dogs]; “I did not enjoy it for no specific reason but I simply find it not very ironic” [mice].
Content type	Definition in Humor: an expression of appreciation and amusement connected to a specific humorous genre or humorous topic. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “The stereotypical topic of an annoying wife who exasperates her husband is always humorous” [shark]; “It made me laugh because it plays on the customary parody of wife and husband. The relationship between the two is often compared to the formula “love-hate relationship.” [shark] Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “It represents typical masculine humor that is based on the idea that you need to get rid of the no longer desired wife, without caring about her general wellbeing. Male chauvinism.” [shark] ; “It is not amusing because it relates to the issue of suicide, so I think it is black humor” [fish]
Superficial aspects	Definition in Humor: An expression of amusement and appreciation related to the superficial and formal aspects of a joke. Examples (most enjoyable cartoons): “I enjoyed the characters and the facial expressions used to convey the humorous meaning” [fish]; “I found the caricature of the characters funny” [shark]. Examples (least enjoyable cartoons): “I did not appreciate it mostly because of the style of the drawing” [shark]; “The characters in the cartoon are animals which I do not like” [mice].