Are there theories of humor that don't boil down to "setup expectation juxtaposed with punchline reality"? If there was ever a grand unified theory of humor, that would be my guess.
There's a song that I find rather funny. This is to be sung to the tune of M*A*S*H's theme.
Through the upturned glass I see
a modified reality--
which proves pure reason kant critique
that beer reveals das ding an sich--
Consider this video https://youtu.be/rUibuIDNANg - is it funny? If so, why? Would "laughing at the misfortune of others" be a better explanation than "setup of expectations and punchline?"
Or consider some of the many PBF Comics. Consider https://pbfcomics.com/comics/nude-beach/ (NSFWish - there are nipples). This falls more into the "sneaking past the censors of taboo" classification.
https://pbfcomics.com/comics/battleship/ (this one is safe for work) also doesn't fall into the "setup expectation" since, what is the expectation of a rat and a bat playing battleship? If it is "the first frame is funny because of incongruity - then why is the third frame funny?" Would https://pbfcomics.com/comics/sir-leopold/ be better described with relief theory?
I suspect that a selection of PBF comics would be an excellent test of "pick which theory of humor best describes {comic} and why" for a philosophy class. Is it relief? misfortune of others? benign violation?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_line
Has a nice round up, though the section on the etymology of the term is a little disappointing.