April 11, 2020
LAUGHANALYSIS
Why do we laugh? I am particularly interested in quick laugh responses, those which burst out before we have understood why we are laughing; or even those for which we cannot figure out why we laughed, no matter how much we think about it.
I have found this article extremely interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughter
I propose this related rule: the faster the laugh response, the more the reaction is primitive or genetically controlled. (involuntary)
This in turn must mean that some laugh responses have survival values which were preserved in the evolutionary development of Homo sapiens. This might explain our tendency to laugh when someone slips on a banana peel or is hit on the head by a coconut. It may be a residue from a time when those were good events because all organisms that were not ourselves were potential predators or competitors for food. In other words, there is an inborn physical response to what we now call schadenfreude. (pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.)
Laughter has physiological and psychological benefits. It allows increased blood flow and reduces stress hormones. This may mean that the caveperson who laughed in the face of a saber-toothed tiger may have been able to run faster and was therefore more likely to survive.
Laughter also strengthens the immune system, something of particular importance as we seek to avoid the corona virus epidemic. I found one excellent corona virus joke which may be used for this purpose: "Before Corona Virus I used to cough to cover a fart, now I fart to cover a cough."
The evolutionary explanation of simple body movements was brought home to me when I was considering another short joke for discussion. In that joke the jokester first says to a friend, "Ask me why Jews have short necks." When the friend complies, the jokester wordlessly shrugs his shoulders,(a gesture meaning "I don't know") thus visibly shortening his neck.
When I "performed" this shrug myself, I realized that it also caused a widening of the eyes (and a mouth movement I can't explain). This made me think that the "I don't know" gesture is an archaic vestige of a time when early Homo sapiens was in a state of puzzlement about direction or the location of something and this coordinated movement increased its power of vision.
Getting back to the subject of the therapeutic effect of laughter I should mention that Norman Cousins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins/ found pain relief from watching Marx Brothers movies. It may be that the more primitive or "slapstick" humor (comedy based on deliberately clumsy actions and humorously embarrassing events) has greater beneficial effects.
That brings me to Jerry Lewis, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lewis/ the famous comedian, known for wacky behavior. I once saw him walking with a small entourage on Fifth Ave. in New York City. He was using the curved handle of his umbrella to "accidentally" hook the arms of people walking in the opposite direction and entangle himself with them.
I now think of this as a very revealing episode in many respects. It obviously showed his compulsion to engage with people and create unexpected situations. It also created an amusing situation for spectators, even if they did not recognize him.
But, looking back on it now, I think the most important effect to consider is the one it had on the persons he intercepted. I seem to recall that it was primarily befuddlement (a state of confusion or puzzlement - which I believe is also beneficial -maybe I will go into this at some other time) or, laughter, either with or without recognition of him as a famous person.
And this leads to the lesson for today - that it is generally healthy and beneficial if our reaction to the interruption of our expectations is laughter at the human comedy and the unexpected, rather than anger, annoyance and frustration. This is relatively easy to do if it involves such things as the little dance of two people walking in opposite directions who can't figure out how to get past each other. It is noticeably harder when the impediment is a financial loss or a disease.
Now, for dessert, I offer you a few jokes selected by Arthur Koestler, a deep thinker who wrote well about creativity and humor, among other things.
1. A masochist is a person who likes a cold shower in the morning so he takes a hot one.
2. An English lady, on being asked by a friend what she thought of her departed husband’s whereabouts: “Well, I suppose the poor soul is enjoying eternal bliss, but I wish you wouldn’t talk about such unpleasant subjects.”
3. A doctor comforts his patient: “You have a very serious disease. Of 10 persons who catch it, only one survives. It is lucky you came to me, for I have recently had nine patients with this disease and they all died of it.”
4. Dialogue in a French film:
“Sir, I would like to ask for your daughter’s hand.”
“Why not? You have already had the rest.”
5. A marquis of the court of Louis XV unexpectedly returned from a journey and, on entering his wife’s boudoir, found her in the arms of a bishop. After a moment’s hesitation, the marquis walked calmly to the window, leaned out, and began going through the motions of blessing the people in the street.“What are you doing?” cried the anguished wife. “Monseigneur is performing my functions, so I am performing his.”
END
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