Assessing the Capabilities of LLMs in Humor:A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Oogiri Generation and Evaluation

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Main Authors: Sakabe, Ritsu, Kim, Hwichan, Hirasawa, Tosho, Komachi, Mamoru
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Sakabe, Ritsu
Kim, Hwichan
Hirasawa, Tosho
Komachi, Mamoru
author_facet Sakabe, Ritsu
Kim, Hwichan
Hirasawa, Tosho
Komachi, Mamoru
contents Computational humor is a frontier for creating advanced and engaging natural language processing (NLP) applications, such as sophisticated dialogue systems. While previous studies have benchmarked the humor capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), they have often relied on single-dimensional evaluations, such as judging whether something is simply ``funny.'' This paper argues that a multifaceted understanding of humor is necessary and addresses this gap by systematically evaluating LLMs through the lens of Oogiri, a form of Japanese improvisational comedy games. To achieve this, we expanded upon existing Oogiri datasets with data from new sources and then augmented the collection with Oogiri responses generated by LLMs. We then manually annotated this expanded collection with 5-point absolute ratings across six dimensions: Novelty, Clarity, Relevance, Intelligence, Empathy, and Overall Funniness. Using this dataset, we assessed the capabilities of state-of-the-art LLMs on two core tasks: their ability to generate creative Oogiri responses and their ability to evaluate the funniness of responses using a six-dimensional evaluation. Our results show that while LLMs can generate responses at a level between low- and mid-tier human performance, they exhibit a notable lack of Empathy. This deficit in Empathy helps explain their failure to replicate human humor assessment. Correlation analyses of human and model evaluation data further reveal a fundamental divergence in evaluation criteria: LLMs prioritize Novelty, whereas humans prioritize Empathy. We release our annotated corpus to the community to pave the way for the development of more emotionally intelligent and sophisticated conversational agents.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_09133
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Assessing the Capabilities of LLMs in Humor:A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Oogiri Generation and Evaluation
Sakabe, Ritsu
Kim, Hwichan
Hirasawa, Tosho
Komachi, Mamoru
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Computational humor is a frontier for creating advanced and engaging natural language processing (NLP) applications, such as sophisticated dialogue systems. While previous studies have benchmarked the humor capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), they have often relied on single-dimensional evaluations, such as judging whether something is simply ``funny.'' This paper argues that a multifaceted understanding of humor is necessary and addresses this gap by systematically evaluating LLMs through the lens of Oogiri, a form of Japanese improvisational comedy games. To achieve this, we expanded upon existing Oogiri datasets with data from new sources and then augmented the collection with Oogiri responses generated by LLMs. We then manually annotated this expanded collection with 5-point absolute ratings across six dimensions: Novelty, Clarity, Relevance, Intelligence, Empathy, and Overall Funniness. Using this dataset, we assessed the capabilities of state-of-the-art LLMs on two core tasks: their ability to generate creative Oogiri responses and their ability to evaluate the funniness of responses using a six-dimensional evaluation. Our results show that while LLMs can generate responses at a level between low- and mid-tier human performance, they exhibit a notable lack of Empathy. This deficit in Empathy helps explain their failure to replicate human humor assessment. Correlation analyses of human and model evaluation data further reveal a fundamental divergence in evaluation criteria: LLMs prioritize Novelty, whereas humans prioritize Empathy. We release our annotated corpus to the community to pave the way for the development of more emotionally intelligent and sophisticated conversational agents.
title Assessing the Capabilities of LLMs in Humor:A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Oogiri Generation and Evaluation
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09133