Looking at the Identification Function of Humor in my personal life

    It is a common thing for people to say that they share a joke or a humorous experience with certain people. These jokes and experiences which are often only understood by specific people and that others would have a hard time understanding. What this is known as is the Identification function of humor. It is a function that is meant to unite people since humor is used to say or find something that truly seems relevant between them. Through the use of this function people are then able to bond with each other and build up their relationships.

    I actually find that this is my favorite function of humor. It reminds me a whole lot of my relationship with one of my cousins who is a few years younger than me and who I rarely see since she lives in another state. However, when she does come to visit it is usually because of some family gathering at my grandparents' house. Our use of the identification function of humor all started during one of these visits when we were younger, and she had approached me to ask me what type of phone I had. At the time I had the latest iPhone, so I simply responded, and we left the conversation at that. However, a couple of months later she came to visit again and asked me the same question, so I once again responded. Then when she visited for the third time, she asked me the same question and I believe it was during this third time that I finally reacted and told her that she always asked me the same question. When I told her this, I used a normal conversational tone but once she paused to think she realized that she did in fact ask me the same question every time she visited so she then started laughing. Which led me to laugh as well. This, however, was not the end of this question since it became a joke between us and now, she purposely asks me this question every time she visits. When she does so, we always laugh because we remember exactly how the joke of this question started between us. However, my other cousins and family members would probably not find this as funny as we do since they did not go through this experience with us.

    It is ultimately through the identification function of humor that me and my cousin were able to turn this shared experience into a joke. Which has further allowed us to maintain a close relationship regardless of the distance between our locations and which will likely be a joke between us for many more years.