What makes a thing funny?

I'm tired of talking politics all the time so let's do something fun. Blatham says there were threads on Abuzz about de-constructing humorous situations. So I thought that would be fun to do here.

Here's a starter:

A few years ago, my daughter brought her kitten home while she stayed with us for a few days. The kitten (named Barstow, Bar for short) escaped out the front door of our house and, having not been declawed yet, climbed a very large [tall] tree in our front yard.

Well, I won't go through all the contortions we went to to try to save that little helpless and meowing kitten up in the tree, but eventually my daughter insisted I call the fire department.

Now I didn't think that the fire department would come for such a task. I thought it was just something depicted in children's books and cartoons. However, she was so distraught, I called.

And they showed up at our front door in a jiff. While the three hugely physic-ed firemen set up their ladder and one climbed to the very top of it, the kitten climbed higher. The fireman had to really stretch to get him. One other fireman was on the ground holding the very long ladder and the other behind the top guy to receive the poor innocent kitten when he was successfully retrieved. Well, I started laughing and so did my daughter......I don't know why, but it suddenly just struck me as funny. The guy on the ground said in a very unpleasant tone of voice, "Don't laugh at my boss!" And I was amazed to find that he didn't see the humor in the situation.

So now, what do you think was funny (I'm not interested in what wasn't funny) in this situation? I'll tell what I think later. And please, feel free to add your own situations. We'll analyze away and let the Republicans continue to take over the country.