How do mistaken identities create humor in situational comedy?

In situational comedy, mistaken identities create humor by forcing the audience to perceive a single event through two mutually incompatible frames of reference simultaneously. This phenomenon, known as bisociation, occurs when characters act according to a logic that is consistent within their own misunderstanding but clashes with the reality of the situation.1

When a character is mistaken for someone else, the audience observes the character operating on one plane of reality while the other characters involved in the scene operate on another. The humor arises from the "delightful mental jolt" of the sudden leap between these two contexts. Because the characters are trapped in a "ludicrous complex of circumstances," the audience experiences the tension between the characters' false assumptions and the actual truth. This clash of perspectives exposes the absurdity of the situation, as the characters' reactions—while logical to them—are revealed as incongruous or ironic when viewed from the perspective of the audience who understands the true identity.12