Do cats have a sense of humor?

My For You page on TikTok has been mostly filled with animal videos, especially of cats, since I started using the app. Yep, I haven't seen the dark side of TikTok (which definitely exists) and I'm very content with that. Because can you ever get enough of animal videos? Of course not. Am I lying in bed at night laughing out loud because a dog, cat, horse, or otter is doing something weird again? Of course I am. I'm no longer ashamed of that.

I find my cat Pebbles hilarious, and since we've been inseparable for fourteen years, I strongly feel that she feels just as much love for me as I do for her — and I think she finds me hilarious too. The only downside is that cats can't really express that. And then I wondered: can cats have or experience something like a sense of humor?

To get straight to the point: there is no scientific evidence that cats can have a sense of humor. It is more likely that dolphins and most primates do: this is because they can produce sounds that express the fun they are having — in our case, laughing. Cats do not have that ability; they can meow (and growl). ‘Play vocalizations’ is what this is called, and both dogs and cats do not fall under the animals that can express that. Unfortunately.

But (thankfully, there is a but) that doesn't mean they don't care when we are showing off for them again. Cats can feel many emotions, including happiness, sadness, but also fun. So when they play with us, they are genuinely happy and having a lot of fun. And the closest they come to humor: scaring their owners when you come around the corner, they can get a lot of fun out of that. So that's (unfortunately) not a sense of humor, but they are having a great time — and that's what it's really about.