1. Use of Statistical Language Recognition in Computational Humor Julia Taylor (Julia.Taylor@ca.com) Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory ECECS Department University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0039

2. What Is a Joke Hetzron: A joke is a short humorous piece of oral literature in which the funniness culminates in the final sentence. Punch line -- the final sentence Setup -- the text before punch line

3. The structure of a Joke Koestler: –a joke calls for the presence of two conflicting logics within one story line; and the punch line is the point of collision between these two trains of thought. Suls: two-stage model – punch line creates incongruity – cognitive rule enables the content of the punch line to follow naturally from the information established in the setup

4. What creates a joke Some of the mechanisms for a joke creation: *surprise *ambiguity contradiction inconsistency disparagement

5. Structure of punch line straight-line jokes A woman goes to the rabbi: “Rabbi, what shall I do so that I wouldn’t become pregnant again?” The rabbi says: “Drink a glass of cold water!” “Before of after?” The rabbi replies: “Instead!” dual jokes The Parisian Little Moritz is asked in school: “How many deciliters are there in a liter of milk?” He replies: “One deciliter of milk and nine deciliters of water” – In France, this is a good joke; in Hungary, this is good milk. rhythmic jokes A newspaper reporter goes around the world with his investigation. He stops people on the street and ask them: “Excuse me Sir, what is your opinion of the meat shortage?” The American asks: “What is ‘shortage’?” The Russian asks: “What is an ‘opinion’?” The Pole asks: “What is ‘meat’?” The New York taxi-driver asks: “What’s ‘excuse me’?”

6. Suls’ algorithm As text is read, make prediction While no conflict with prediction, keep going If input conflicts with prediction –if not ending – PUZZLEMENT –if it is the ending, try to resolve: no rule found – PUZZLEMENT cognitive rule found – HUMOR

7. Statistical recognition of text Analysis of a text – linked decisions Decisions are based on what we know Is it raining … It is raining outside. It is raining in the fall. It is raining in the desert. It is raining in the house.

8. N-gram model Uses n-1 previous words to predict the next one each string is assigned the probability in relation to all other strings of the same length.

9. N-gram model A newspaper reporter goes around the world with his investigation. He stops people on the street and ask them… A newspaper reporter goes around the world with his investigation end-of- sentence he stops people on the street and ask them… Takes into account where a sentence ends

10. N-gram model: training corpus A woman goes to the rabbi: “Rabbi, what shall I do so that I wouldn’t become pregnant again?” The rabbi says: “Drink a glass of cold water!” “Before of after?” The rabbi replies: “Instead!” A newspaper reporter goes around the world with his investigation. He stops people on the street and ask them: “Excuse me Sir, what is your opinion of the meat shortage?” The American asks: “What is ‘shortage’?” The Russian asks: “What is an ‘opinion’?” The Pole asks: “What is ‘meat’?” The New York taxi-driver asks: “What’s ‘excuse me’?” P(rabbi | the) = ?

11. N-gram: value of n P( world | the) < P( world | around the) A newspaper reporter goes around the world with his investigation. He stops people on the street and ask them: “Excuse me Sir, what is your opinion of the meat shortage?” The American asks: “What is ‘shortage’?” The Russian asks: “What is an ‘opinion’?” The Pole asks: “What is ‘meat’?” The New York taxi-driver asks: “What’s ‘excuse me’?”

12. N-grams and Jokes As joke is read, make prediction of the next word using N-gram model Once punch line is reached (last sentence of text), make prediction using regular corpus. At some point, probabilities should differ significantly, detecting conflict.

13. What has to be addressed What n is most accurate? Training corpus What probability is high enough to match prediction? What probability is low enough for a conflict?