Timing is Everything: Temporal Scaffolding of Semantic Surprise in Humor
Timing is Everything: Temporal Scaffolding of Semantic Surprise in Humor
时机就是一切：幽默中语义惊喜的时间支架
Abstract: Humor is a fundamental cognitive phenomenon in which humans derive pleasure from the expectation violations and their resolution, exemplifying the brain’s dynamic capacity for predictive processing. 摘要： 幽默是一种基本的认知现象，人类从中获得的愉悦感源于对预期违背及其解决过程，这体现了大脑在预测处理方面的动态能力。
Classical humor theories emphasize semantic incongruity as the primary driver of amusement, yet overlook temporal dynamics despite comedians’ intuition that “timing is everything.” 经典的幽默理论强调语义不协调是产生愉悦感的主要驱动力，但却忽视了时间动态，尽管喜剧演员们常说“时机就是一切”。
The extent to which temporal structure contributes to humor appreciation and how it interacts with semantic content remains poorly understood. 时间结构在多大程度上促进了对幽默的欣赏，以及它如何与语义内容相互作用，目前仍知之甚少。
Here, we propose the Dual Prediction Violation (DPV) framework to capture the interplay between content and timing. 在此，我们提出了双重预测违背（Dual Prediction Violation, DPV）框架，以捕捉内容与时机之间的相互作用。
By analyzing 828 professional Chinese stand-up performances, we show that temporal features substantially outweigh semantic incongruity in predicting audience appreciation. 通过分析 828 场专业的中文脱口秀表演，我们发现，在预测观众的欣赏程度时，时间特征的重要性远超语义不协调。
Specifically, we find that peak semantic violations matter more than average incongruity levels, and pauses systematically lengthen before high-surprise punchlines—a strategic coupling that distinguishes successful from unsuccessful performances. 具体而言，我们发现峰值语义违背比平均不协调水平更为重要，且在带来高度惊喜的“包袱”（punchlines）之前，停顿会系统性地延长——这种策略性的结合是区分表演成功与否的关键。
These findings reframe humor as temporally scaffolded, where timing and semantic content operate in strategic coordination rather than independently. 这些发现将幽默重新定义为一种具有时间支架的结构，其中时机与语义内容并非独立运作，而是处于一种策略性的协调之中。
Our DPV framework bridges humor theory with predictive processing, demonstrating that temporal structure plays a central role in naturalistic humor appreciation with implications for understanding multi-scale prediction integration in linguistic processing. 我们的 DPV 框架架起了幽默理论与预测处理之间的桥梁，证明了时间结构在自然幽默欣赏中发挥着核心作用，并对理解语言处理中的多尺度预测整合具有重要意义。