Roll up, roll up. The most joyful picture show on Earth is here: the Comedy Wildlife Photo prize.¹

Entries include a monkey striking a pose in the Balian rainforest, a pair of gannetsA large seabird with mainly white plumage. embracing, a turtle smiling at a dragonfly and two Polish greenfinches appearing to have a heated debate.

But this year's deserved winner comes from Australia. It features a kangaroo appearing to shred an air guitar without a care in the world.

Humans often find humour in animals. We particularly enjoy animals exhibiting human-like behaviour. Ancient Greeks learnt morals through AesopAncient Greek writer (c.620 - 564BC) credited with hundreds of fables: short stories telling a moral lesson, often featuring animals.'s Fables, which encourage us to laugh at characters like the arrogant hare² and the foolish frogs.³

Animals acting as people have remained popular ever since. George OrwellReal name Eric Arthur Blair, a world-renowned 20th-century novelist, most famous for his political novels Animal Farm and 1984. used them to satirise StalinismThe ideologies and policies adopted by Stalin. in Animal Farm. Cartoonists from Walt Disney to the makers of Peppa Pig have put human-like animals on the screen.

We laugh at animals all the time. But do animals laugh at themselves? Recent studies have revealed that many animals do appear to have a sense of humour.

One pair of researchers found 65 species able to laugh, including foxes, dogs, cows, seals, mongooses and parakeetsA small parrot with green plumage., as well as our ape and monkey relatives. Another experiment saw rats laugh after being tickled.

If animals have a sense of humour, then surely they can experience happiness. Biology supports it. Mammals, writes science journalist Anna Brooks, "have similar emotional processing centres in the brain as humans so... they would experience basic emotions like fear, anger, grief and joy."

The lower intelligence of animals might make them happier than us. Their needs and thoughts are simpler. They do not need to think about wearing the right clothes or completing homework on time. Their horizons are smaller too. They do not spend time worrying about climate change or nuclear annihilationComplete destruction..

On the other hand, animals might not be able to reach peak happiness. The philosopher John Stuart Mill believed in higher pleasures and lower pleasures.⁴ Only humans can access the first category, which bring greater, more meaningful and long-lasting satisfaction.

Yes: Greek philosopher Epictetus wrote: "There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." Animals can do this. Most humans cannot.

No: We have become used to seeing animals as furry, scaly and feathered semi-humans. In reality, we are just projecting our own thoughts and emotions onto creatures whose minds are alien to us.

Or... It depends. Just as some people are happier than others, the happiness of an animal depends on its relative intelligence and the life it leads. A wild boar might be happy. A captive pig might not.

Gannets - A large seabird with mainly white plumage.

Aesop - Ancient Greek writer (c.620 - 564BC) credited with hundreds of fables: short stories telling a moral lesson, often featuring animals.

George Orwell - Real name Eric Arthur Blair, a world-renowned 20th-century novelist, most famous for his political novels Animal Farm and 1984.

Stalinism - The ideologies and policies adopted by Stalin.

Parakeets - A small parrot with green plumage.

Annihilation - Complete destruction.