Infant clowns: the interpersonal creation of humour in infancy = Les clowneries enfantines : l’origine interpersonnelle de l’humour durant la petite enfance)

Research on the development of humour has largely neglected the first year of infancy and, in particular, humour creation by infants. In two longitudinal interview-based studies with parents of infants aged between 7 and 11 months, it was found that most infants were reported to make others laugh by deliberately repeating actions in order to re-elicit previously obtained laughter. Their actions are compared to actions of adult clowns, showing many similarities and developmental continuities and suggesting that the origins of humour may lie earlier in infancy than hitherto accepted. Humour creation can be seen in these engagements to be an interpersonal rather than individual process. Further, at least in infancy, humour creation is also an emotional rather than primarily intellectual process.