My aim is to explore some traditional and contemporary theories on the relation between humor, the emotions, and meaning. The first part has as its focus John Morreall’s analysis of traditional approaches to this relation. This includes a discussion of his view that humor does not necessarily involve emotions and Noël Carroll’s critique of such a position. The second part uses Morreall’s and Carroll’s works as point of departure to explore the relation between humor, emotion, and meaning from a phenomenological perspective. Accepting their basic view that humor is comic amusement at finding something funny, this part concentrates on two related arguments. First, I argue that comic amusement comprises different emotional states of which the comic mood is the most basic state. Second, I make the argument that comic amusement is, like standard emotions, an intentional state that is attuned to and directed at objects through their conceptually shareable meaning within sociocultural contexts.