It is hardly a comprehensive study although it gives a lot of detail
concerning the hystory of humor. It is just another single socially
based answer.Basically an expansion of the agression theory of humor.
If you have read my paper you will have come across this:

The aggression/superiority theory (Heyd 1982)(Gruner 1999) suggests
that we laugh at the misfortune of others, or those who we consider
beneath us in terms of power or social standing, and humorous
situations are viewed in terms of aggression and
competition.

This theory, that focuses on the motivational (a) theme and content
(b) (c) and emotional (e) aspects of a humorous event, is based on an
erroneous view of laughter. Contrary to the superiority theory, the
evidence from studying the basic laughter response in children and
adults suggests that it is emotive activity on the fear side of
approach and avoidance motivations, and not on the aggressive side,
that is central to the evocation of laughter. Power and standing can
be maintained by approval and respect, and only the fearful maintain
power through aggression. Laughing at the less fortunate is not an
act of the superior but of the frightened. We cannot inhibit the
mental process we term empathy - it is an indispensable facet of
comprehension - and because those people who laugh at the unfortunate
cannot help putting themselves in the situation of those they
belittle, the emotive weight behind their laughter is fear. These
individuals have consciously distanced themselves from the those they
see as their inferiors; they do not sympathize with the less
fortunate, but cannot escape the innate process of empathy, which
places them in the very state they find repulsive.


--- In Humorology@yahoogroups.com, "konstantin_glinka"
<konstantin_glinka@...> wrote:
>
> Did you read this comprehensive study yet?
>
> www.humortheory.com
>
> also here:
> http://outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?ISBN=1598002228
>