Well he certainly looks like he has a cheeky grin on him, even though he is asleep, or is he pretending!
I think all cats have different characters, and this one definitely has a cheeky character.
My pedigree silver Persian cat was melancholic. He was allowed outside, otherwise he was very depressed. He sulked for 2 weeks when we had to put him into a cattery when we went on holiday for a week and had no one to look after him.
My cat used to drive me insane too. He would let you know by tapping on you that he wanted something and would sit and stare at the door. I'd let him out. After a few minutes he's knocking and meowing wants to be let in. No sooner you let him in, he meowks and wanted to be let out.
I agree with you, I'm sure they do it deliberately to annoy us.
When you say "I swear he has a look of satisfaction on his face after one of his antics!" LOL. He looks like he is dreaming about one of his antics too, because he seems to have a cheeky grin on his face.
Have fun.
You have beautiful cats! And, as we all know, cats are playful creatures who will play with almost anything: including us! A bored cat is a cat about to do something 'bad'. They do it for attention, and they find it to be fun, so I would say this counts as a sense of humor. You just can't go round creating mass mayhem with a serious state of mind, unless you're psychotic. Your cats are not psychotic. They are playing with you. Play requires an intense ability to concentrate on deliberate behaviors, which your cats do. They do find it amusing, and that is the point for them, as every cat lives to be amused when not sleeping. Case in point: I have six cats. All of them are allowed in and out whenever they want. Thing is that we must open the door for them. Use your imagination: six cats, a human door-opener... and ya wonder why i wanna tear my hair out. They must go in and out one at a time, NOT all at once, of course. And I have two that want in and out literally as much as i am willing to open and close the door. There is a window we have screened to keep bugs out that's right next to the door. We like to keep it open for fresh air. It has a six- inch ledge on the outside. Whoever wants in will sit at that window and stare and bang on the frame and yell. It's ridiculous. I know they think this is funny, since we love them and cannot ignore them. YES, CATS HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR. Blessings - Blu
Cats are certainly playful. Anyone watching a kitten play would have no doubt.
Whether they have a "sense of humor" in the way humans do, I would suggest it is a very ironic one. The kind of thing where they jump onto the desk and sit down, start scooting your pencil around, knock it onto the floor, look down at it, and then look at you with a totally straight face. Maybe the humor is in the eye of the beholder, but it also seems to be in the heart of the cat at those moments.