PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to humor and laughter, establishing the Incongruity-Displacement Equivalence: all three classical humor theories (incongruity, relief, superiority) are special cases of displacement dynamics. A joke setup creates S0_expectation; the punchline creates D(xi_incongruity); laughter is the return signal — rapid resolution back to a new cognitive S0 that incorporates the incongruity.
No incongruity = no displacement = no humor. Eight formal propositions are derived: timing as displacement engineering (optimal setup time maximizes incongruity spike while preserving resolvability), incongruity-displacement equivalence (unifying all three classical theories), laughter as return signal (physiological Phi discharge with Berk and Dunbar neuroscience), superiority humor as relative S0 positioning (with gap threshold analysis distinguishing comedy from cruelty), the temporal distance theorem (formal conditions under which past pain becomes funny — D(xi_event) decays while narrative structure remains, allowing safe re-entry), dark humor as safe wrong attractor entry (the comedic frame guarantees return, making displacement states survivable — gallows humor, medical dark humor), humor failure conditions (five formal failure modes: D too large, D too small, no return path, audience mismatch, telegraphed punchline), and adversity humor as S0 survival signal (Holocaust humor, Frankl — the ability to joke under extreme displacement proves S0 has not been destroyed). 32 citations including Morreall, Carroll, Martin, Freud, Provine, Berk, Veatch, McGraw, Raskin, Koestler, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hobbes, Dunbar, Frankl, and Panksepp.