*** Second Call for Participation for MWAHAHA at SemEval 2026 (Task 1) ***
Can computers be funny?
MWAHAHA – Models Write Automatic Humor And Humans Annotate at SemEval 2026 (Task 1)
https://pln-fing-udelar.github.io/semeval-2026-humor-gen/
While Humor Understanding has been the focus of many shared tasks, Humor Generation remains an even more challenging and largely unexplored frontier. MWAHAHA (Models Write Automatic Humor And Humans Annotate) is SemEval 2026's Task 1 https://semeval.github.io/SemEval2026/ and is the first task dedicated to advancing the state of the art in Computational Humor Generation. We invite participants to develop systems capable of generating genuinely humorous content under various constraints.
Our goal is to push NLP models beyond memorization and towards true humorous creativity. By using carefully designed constraints, we aim to ensure fairness in evaluation and encourage the generation of novel jokes. This task has significant implications for more engaging conversational AI, creative writing tools, and a deeper understanding of the complex nature of humor itself.
The development data for the evaluation trial phase has just been released, and we are accepting submissions for this phase!
The task is organized into two subtasks:
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Subtask A: Text-based Humor Generation
Systems must generate jokes following constraints (related to a news headline, or containing certain words). This subtask is in English, Spanish, and Chinese.
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Subtask B: Image-Based Caption Generation
Systems must generate a caption given a GIF image that enhances its comedic effect. Subtask B1 uses only an image, while B2 uses an image and a starting prompt. This subtask is in English only.
The participating systems will be evaluated based on human preferences on 1-on-1 arena-style battles.
To participate in this task, please join our CodaBench competition:
https://www.codabench.org/competitions/9719/
Important Dates:
* Development data release: September 1, 2025
* Evaluation trial phase starts: October 15, 2025
* Evaluation trial phase ends: December 15, 2025
* Evaluation period starts: January 10, 2026
* Evaluation period ends: January 31, 2026
* System description paper submission: February 28, 2026
* Notification of acceptance: March 31, 2026
* Camera-ready papers due: April 30, 2026
* SemEval 2026 Workshop: July 2026