Digging through old posts, found this topic. I like the ideas brought up here, so bump.
To me, early man is little different than any other animal (or ape, whatever). Do our current close genetic cousins show similar tastes in comedy? Meaning, unpromted by a laugh track, would a video of 3 stooges be funny? I would think that they would appear as acts of violence, which are inherently not funny(?), rather than some kind of joke.