Elements of Humor

Abstract

We performed a preliminary online survey to explore if verbal and non-verbal robot humor elements influence how humans rate a robot's funniness. The video-based survey comprised four conditions, each showing a short clip of a NAO robot in a receptionist scenario, showing different behavior. Although participants' ratings of the funniness level did not differ significantly between robot behaviors, we interpret this result as an indicator that humor is not made from single elements. Humor is multilayered and often only works when different signals are combined. Creating funny robots will require more detailed research on multimodal behaviors.