Overview

• Great apes, including orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas, engage in playful teasing behaviors, mirroring human joking.
• Playful teasing in great apes involves one-sided provocation, repetition, and elements of surprise, similar to early human teasing.
• The study suggests that the cognitive foundations for humor and teasing were present in the last common ancestor of humans and great apes.
• Researchers hope the findings will inspire further studies on playful teasing in more species to understand the evolution of humor.
• The study emphasizes the importance of protecting endangered great apes and highlights the similarities we share with our closest relatives.