Do Animals Have a Sense of Humor?

While its not possible to say whether all animals have a sense of humor, certainly some do. Humans belong to the animal kingdom and although some individuals among the species can be said not to have a sense of humor, the majority do. With regards to other animals, well, the question boils down to whether or not an animal can find something funny or amusing. For pet and livestock owners, the answer is likely an unequivocal yes-some animals other than humans seem to have a sense for things being amusing.

I've seen such a thing in action. I had a two year old and a three year old horse in a corral together. With them in the corral was a flexible rubber feed tub. The two year old filly would pick the tub up in her teeth and flip it around in the air a few times before letting it go. She seemed to find this very entertaining. After a while, the three year old colt wandered over to see what she was so enamored with. He bit down on the opposite edge of the tub. For several seconds they each pulled in opposing directions. Now, had this been a cartoon, I would have seen the light bulb flash over the head of the young filly. For a brief instant she paused. Then, she let go of her side of the feed tub. The flexible black rubber flung back to the three year old colt and thumped him on the forehead. He leaped startled by the hit he took to the face and ran off with a mad kick to the offending feed tub. The filly sauntered up and picked it back up to proceed with her flinging fun.
It didn't seem to take long and the colt was back. After a brief sniff of investigation, he once again grabbed the opposite edge. After a moment of struggle, the filly again let go such that the colt got another resounding whack to the head. This time, she tossed her head with a snort from her nostrils. My human anthropomorphic interpretation was that she laughed. This routine happened two more times before the colt decided the game was not for him. There is no doubt that he did not find the activity humorous.
Did the filly, have an animal sense of humor about the incident? She had a sense of something. Perhaps it was simply mischief, but there is no doubt that she knew when she let go of the tub it would hit the other horse. My human logic tells me this is a big cognitive leap for a horse, however, I witnessed it. The repetition of the event doesn't say a lot for the colt I'm afraid, but it has left me little doubt that some animals have a sense of humor. At the very least, they can find an activity to be fun or amusing thus producing good humor. Based on the fact that animals will repeat actions in play suggests that a sense of fun is part of their make up. Since humans are animals too, then the simple answer is that yes, animals have a sense of humor.