Development of wit
In the same way as any art style, the same goes for wit. Its acceptance depends on many factors, including political regime, general level of culture of the population, social demographics, and so on. Throughout its history, wit has been used as a form of entertainment all over the world to this or that degree independently of the historical epoch. Both social etiquette and certain intelligence were always appreciated. It was the German author Georg Lichtenberg noticed that "the more you know humour, the more you become demanding in fineness".
It is interesting how an individual finds this or that thing funny. It accounts for the mechanism when brain recognizes a pattern that surprises it. Once the brain appreciated this or that witticism, it has certain mechanism of remembering this model and recognizing in case of doing with it again. The ability to recognize patterns and laugh at them simultaneously is the cognitive arsenal of human beings.
As for the history of wit, it became especially popular in the 17th-18th centuries in Europe and America. It was the time of substantial political, social and economic changes that provided literature with much more prominent place it had occupied before. Suddenly, it stirred up enormous interest in the public while satire and wit became the most effective instruments aimed at depicturing backstage activity of any acting government. The Middle Ages were over with the emergence of immense public interest to press and literature. From that moment on, wit has been one of the main literary tools of political satire.