Thursday, August 30, 2007 Bendigo: Laugh on credit By Raul B. Bendigo Under my hat
MANY things have been said about laughter. Our good friend Thomas Hobbes said that the passion of laughter is "a sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves."
Philosopher Francis Hutcheson considered Hobbes’ view of laughter as egotistic. He opined instead that laughter arises in a perception of incongruity. Hutcheson's view however is also criticized as incongruity hasn't been satisfactorily shown to be a necessary or sufficient condition of something comical.
Alexander Bain identified the ridiculous with "the degradation of some person possessing dignity, in circumstances that excite no other strong emotion." He must have been a practical joker, finding humor in people being made fun of. The more dignified the victim, the funnier the joke?
The cynical Ambrose Bierce views laughter as "an interior convulsion, producing a distortion of the features and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectious and, though intermittent, incurable. Liability to attacks of laughter is one of the characteristics distinguishing man from the animals -- these being not only inaccessible to the provocation of his example, but impregnable to the microbes having original jurisdiction in bestowal of the disease.
Whether laughter could be imparted to animals by inoculation from the human patient is a question that has not been answered by experimentation. Dr. Meir Witchell holds that the infectious character of laughter is due to the instantaneous fermentation of sputa diffused in a spray. From this peculiarity he names the disorder Convulsio spargens. I don't suppose that Mr. Bierce's view should be taken seriously, as he himself does not give the impression that he does so actually, although he appears to have a point.
The act of laughing itself is called a laugh, cackle, guffaw, cachinnation, or a heehaw. Whatever you call it, laughter is an untaught ability of everyone. As there is no common agreement among our famous thinkers as to what really causes it, experience tells us that it can be caused by anything. Not just almost anything, but anything. When psychologists started theorizing that a keen sense of humor was equated with high intelligence, people started laughing louder at the slightest provocation and many comedians became instant millionaires as people in droves paid to watch their movies and shows.
As Aristotle was convinced that laughter separates us from animals which do not have a sense of humor, a human being who laughs even if he fails to get the joke is thus no different from the laughing hyenas and the smiling orangutans. Looking at a picture of a smiling orangutan, though, makes me suspect the joke is on us. That's probably why it's in the list of endangered species some trigger-happy people with a severe inferiority complex just don't find its smirk funny.
Laughter solves a lot of problems. For instance, it can probably put a stop to all the killings of and by any member of any political color. You see, when people are laughing, they're generally not killing each other.
While some people are good at laughing at jokes, a lucky few are good at telling them. The big bosses in the offices, particularly, are experts in modern neurophysiology and know that "laughter is linked with the activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which produces endorphins after a rewarding activity" and that "two structures in the limbic system, namely the amygdala and the hippocampus," are involved in producing laughter.
How else do you explain why the subordinates do not fail to double over in laughter whenever the bosses tell jokes? In fact, the higher the rank of the joke teller, the funnier his jokes seem to be. That's one marvel that has remained unsolved as we write. Of course, sometimes it happens that the biggest joke in some offices is how the boss became the boss. But that is another story and it's not really funny.
Actually, laughter and what causes it should not be analyzed; rather, laughter should be done. Just do it, as the mantra says. The physical and mental health benefits are multiple. One does not even need a sense of humor to enjoy the benefits of laughter. Studies show that the positive effects of smiling occur whether the smile is faked or for real. (Do not mind what they say about how fake-looking fake smilers are. What do they know? Since the 16th century until now, they haven't yet decided whether Mona Lisa's smile is faked or real.)
Faked laughter also provides the health benefits as real laughter does. So, fake your smile and your laughter, if you have to, more often, and you'll still get the positive effects. It is a small wonder then that some politicians live a lot longer than some of us want them to.
If you have nothing to laugh at, it is best to laugh at yourself. If you find it ridiculous to laugh at yourself, and have nothing to laugh about, laugh on credit. There is only one caveat about laughter and it comes from Mr. Woody Allen who wasn't joking when he said, "I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose."
