> At root, from amusement to satire to the zany, all are predicated upon our existential death anxiety.

> If we are aware of our mortality, even subconsciously, then in some way every time we laugh, we are laughing in the face of death, or at least affirming that right now we are alive.

> Nietzsche thought humans were the only animals capable of laughter but it has since been proven that laughter is an ancient behaviour far older than humans found in many mammals from primates to rats.

I don’t buy this idea that all humour is rooted in death anxiety. Are the non-human animals also laughing as a result of knowing about their own mortality?