---
language:
- en
license: cc-by-4.0
task_categories:
- text-generation
tags:
- humor
- benchmark
- evaluation
pretty_name: Humor Transfer Bench (HTB)
size_categories:
- n<1K
dataset_info:
  features:
  - name: id
    dtype: string
  - name: domain
    dtype: string
  - name: prompt
    dtype: string
  config_name: default
  splits:
  - name: test
    num_examples: 400
---

# Humor Transfer Bench (HTB)

**Full name:** Humor Transfer Bench  
**Paper:** [HumorGen (Ajayi & Mitra, 2026)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09629)

---

## What HTB is for

HTB is an **evaluation-only** set of **400 English input prompts** for testing **humor generation** in language models.

Each row gives you an **input prompt**. You pass it to your model with **your own** system/user template and decoding setup—HTB does not include or require a fixed generation instruction.

HTB is **not** for training. Use it to compare models on the same inputs across eight prompt categories.

---

## File: `htb_dataset.tsv`

| | |
|--|--|
| **Format** | TSV, UTF-8, tab-separated |
| **Rows** | 400 (+ header) |
| **Columns** | `id`, `domain`, `prompt` |

**`id` format:** `HTB_{A–H}_{001–050}` (e.g. `HTB_A_001`)

---

## Domains (as in the file)

50 prompts per domain. The **`domain`** column is the label stored in the dataset.

| ID letter | `domain` value | Example `prompt` |
|:---------:|----------------|------------------|
| **A** | Fun Facts | Apples float in water because they are 25 percent air. |
| **B** | Daily Life | My houseplant is judging my life choices. |
| **C** | Social Terms | Generational amnesia. |
| **D** | Object Voices | My calendar shrieked: You have no free time! |
| **E** | Fantasy Creatures | A genie grants a wish for more wishes. |
| **F** | Twisted Definitions | A game is a challenge you can accept. |
| **G** | Direct Prompts | Tell a joke about emojis. |
| **H** | News Headlines | Researchers find link between sleep quality and memory retention |

The HumorGen paper appendix discusses the design rationale for these eight categories in more detail.

---

## How to use

1. Load `htb_dataset.tsv`.
2. For each row, feed **`prompt`** to your model with whatever generation prompt / chat template you use.
3. Evaluate outputs with your chosen method (pairwise judging, human eval, etc.) and report your protocol.

The HumorGen paper reports one such setup (15 models, Llama-3.3-70B and Qwen-2.5-72B judges). That is **their** protocol, not a requirement of the benchmark.

---

## License

Domains **A–G:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) (HTB-authored prompts).

Domain **H (News Headlines):** Headlines sourced from publicly available BBC News text, with basic content filtering applied. Used as evaluation prompts only.

---

## Citation

If you use HTB, cite the HumorGen paper:

```bibtex
@misc{ajayi2026humorgen,
  title        = {HumorGen: Cognitive Synergy for Humor Generation in Large Language Models via Persona-Based Distillation},
  author       = {Ajayi, Edward and Mitra, Prasenjit},
  year         = {2026},
  eprint       = {2604.09629},
  archivePrefix= {arXiv},
  primaryClass = {cs.CL},
  url          = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09629}
}
```

---

## Authors

Edward Ajayi, Prasenjit Mitra — Carnegie Mellon University Africa