I felt like this article over-promised and under-delivered. There was a lot of ink spilled on the animal kingdom, and a weak/unconvincing analogy to human humor.
I bet physicists also assert that bumblebees cannot possibly fly, right? For God’s sake...
“NSAIDs such as ibuprofen work by inhibiting the cyclooxygenase (COX) enzymes, which convert arachidonic acid to prostaglandin H2 (PGH2). PGH2, in turn, is converted by other enzymes to several other prostaglandins (which are mediators of pain, inflammation, and fever) and to thromboxane A2 (which stimulates platelet aggregation, leading to the formation of blood clots).”
This explanation of "why" ibuprofen works is as good as the article's explanation of "why" exaggeration jokes work. It's so unfortunate that otherwise rational people have been made incurious by modern education, enough to believe that "there is a change in the level of one neurotransmitter" is a good explanation for "why a pain medicine works".
Boo. This is lazy and anti-intellectual, akin to “debunking” climate change by claiming that since we don’t know everything that influences climate, we don’t know anything at all. Someone who complains of “incuriousity” should do better than this.
As for pointing out that an explanation is not sufficient, it is perfectly reasonable to point out the gaps in our knowledge. If those gaps are extremely large, it’s reasonable to call that out as well. It’s not reasonable to claim that the knowledge we do have is meaningless simply because there are still gaps in our knowledge. We don’t understand the origin of the universe, and yet we still manage to fly rockets pretty well. We managed to predict eclipses with perfect accuracy long before modern astronomy existed. The gaps in our knowledge don’t prevent the existing knowledge from being useful or accurate.
The article talks about wit because the article is an excerpt from a book on wit. Maybe that section was not fit to be an article with such a specific title?
There are a lot of jokes I see coming a mile away, but there's a grade of execution for comedians too. If the timing is tight, even the most expected joke can still earn a laugh.