# "Not Human, Funnier": How Machine Identity Shapes Humor Perception in Online AI Stand-up Comedy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12763 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.12763/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 113 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Feb 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Looking Inward: Language Models Can Learn About Themselves by Introspection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.13787/) (2024)
- [A Robot Walks into a Bar: Can Language Models Serve as Creativity Support Tools for Comedy? An Evaluation of LLMs' Humour Alignment with Comedians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20956/) (2024)
- [ChatGPT is fun, but it is not funny! Humor is still challenging Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.04563/) (2023)
- [Open Character Training: Shaping the Persona of AI Assistants through Constitutional AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.01689/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models for Subjective Language Understanding: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.07959/) (2025)
- [Witscript 3: A Hybrid AI System for Improvising Jokes in a Conversation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.02695/) (2023)
- [Humor Mechanics: Advancing Humor Generation with Multistep Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.07280/) (2024)
- [When Teams Embrace AI: Human Collaboration Strategies in Generative Prompting in a Creative Design Task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21731/) (2025)
- [AI Humor Generation: Cognitive, Social and Creative Skills for Effective Humor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07981/) (2025)
- [Designing AI Personalities: Enhancing Human-Agent Interaction Through Thoughtful Persona Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.22744/) (2024)
- [CleanComedy: Creating Friendly Humor through Generative Techniques](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09203/) (2024)
- [Agent-to-Agent Theory of Mind: Testing Interlocutor Awareness among Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.22957/) (2025)
- [Can a Humorous Conversational Agent Enhance Learning Experience and Outcomes?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.11259/) (2021)
- [The Theater Stage as Laboratory: Review of Real-Time Comedy LLM Systems for Live Performance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.08474/) (2025)
- [Can AI Prompt Humans? Multimodal Agents Prompt Players' Game Actions and Show Consequences to Raise Sustainability Awareness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08486/) (2024)
- [Exploring the Effects of Chatbot Anthropomorphism and Human Empathy on Human Prosocial Behavior Toward Chatbots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20748/) (2025)
- ["Ronaldo's a poser!": How the Use of Generative AI Shapes Debates in Online Forums](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09693/) (2025)
- [Extreme Self-Preference in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.26464/) (2025)
- [No Joke: An Embodied Conversational Agent Greeting Older Adults with Humour or a Smile Unrelated to Initial Acceptance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.08242/) (2024)
- ["Becoming My Own Audience": How Dancers React to Avatars Unlike Themselves in Motion Capture-Supported Live Improvisational Performance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18606/) (2025)
- [RetroChat: Designing for the Preservation of Past Digital Experiences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17208/) (2025)
- [The Role of Generative AI in Facilitating Social Interactions: A Scoping Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.10927/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Chatbots are increasingly applied to domains previously reserved for human actors. One such domain is comedy, whereby both the general public working with ChatGPT and research-based LLM-systems have tried their hands on making humor. In formative interviews with professional comedians and video analyses of stand-up comedy in humans, we found that human performers often use their ethnic, gender, community, and demographic-based identity to enable joke-making. This suggests whether the identity of AI itself can empower AI humor generation for human audiences. We designed a machine-identity-based agent that uses its own status as AI to tell jokes in online performance format. Studies with human audiences (N=32) showed that machine-identity-based agents were seen as funnier than baseline-GPT agent. This work suggests the design of human-AI integrated systems that explicitly utilize AI as its own unique identity apart from humans.