ELI5: What makes something funny?

Imagine you're building a tower of blocks.

What makes it funny when it falls down? It's usually one of these things:

• Surprise! You thought it was stable, but bam, it topples! Unexpected things are often funny. Maybe someone trips over their shoelace, that's a surprise!

• Silly Mistakes! A cat trying to jump onto the table, but missing. It’s funny because it's not what we expect a cat to do.

• Exaggeration! If someone pretends to cry super loudly because they dropped their ice cream, that's funny because it's more than what's really needed.

• Being Out of Place! Imagine a dog wearing a tiny hat. Hats are for people, not dogs! Seeing something where it shouldn't be is funny.

• Relief! If you're scared of a loud noise, but it turns out to be just a balloon popping, you might laugh. You're relieved it wasn't something dangerous.

• Word Play! Like a pun. "Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything!" The double meaning of "make up" is funny.