Scholars of all varieties have been trying to track down this quick-silver thing for a long time. They believe that man is the only living creature to enjoy laughter, but as yet, no one is quite sure what it is that makes us laugh. It has been suggested that as man's life has grown easier, his sense of humor has mellowed. Public executions were once a common form of entertainment, and people once howled with laughter at the sight of a badly crippled person or a lunatic.
People still laugh when someone suffers a minor misfortune like falling into a mud puddle.
This site is worth a long look. Politically conservative and linked to the Whig resistance to Andrew Jackson, the writers of this school combined tall tales, thick regional dialect, ironic humor, and a tradition of tricksterism in their stories and sketches.