Well, regarding jokes, if all people are making a same joke repetitively, so you heard about it many many times, do you still feel that you could laugh out naturally? (I mean laugh not for the sake of laugh, alone)
I just feel that the reason why a joke is a joke, is because you have never heard of it (or at least have never got it) in the past...So this difference -- or this independence from the past -- is the creativity in your sense...
> Feynman represents a good example of this, achieving social success by using his creativity as a fount of humour.
If, there have already been 500 people making jokes in the same way as Feynman did -- for instance, if before reading his book, everyone already played prank on some waitress girl in a restaurant by putting the tips under an upside-down filled cup, would they still find the description in the book funny? Just like what I typed, do you still find this re-description of Feynman's joke funny, like the first time you read about it?