Humour as culture in infancy

Humour is a fundamentally cultural process, beginning in the I-Thou interactions of early infancy. Humorous engagements in infancy thus offer a unique insight into the origins and meanings of funniness, a potential diagnostic tool for assessing infant ‘typicality’ and powerfully exemplify the process of culture. Three important aspects of cultural process are its dialogicality, its particularity and its precariousness. All three are strongly evident in humorous interactions in early infancy and different aspects of infant humour are discussed to illustrate them. Infants are active participants in the cultures of humour which seek to draw them in, and contribute through humour creation and playfulness, both to their maintenance and their change.