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The research is not too solid at this point, but there is some evidence that laughter does a lot of really good things for us – mentally and physically. Among other things, it:
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But do we really need to know the research in order to be encouraged
to laugh? When comedian Chris Rock was asked to explain why some people
are funny, he said, “You want to know what’s not funny? Thinking about
it.”
We laugh because it’s fun, it feels good, and it helps us take ourselves a little less seriously.
With apologies to Chris, we’re going to spend just a moment thinking about what’s funny and why we laugh.
Very often, the thing that makes us laugh involves a sudden shift in perspective. Things looked like they were going to be one way, but turn out to be very different. Take this bar joke:
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A grasshopper walks into a bar. |
It
starts out with a grasshopper walking into a bar, and talking to a
bartender. Since we know it’s a joke, we aren’t really surprised to
hear about a grasshopper talking to a bartender. But if we know there’s
a drink called a “grasshopper,” finding out his name is “Bob” takes us
by surprise.
When we’re really feeling gloomy, when we’re caught
up thinking about bad things that have happened, or worrying about bad
things that might happen, one of the most powerful effects of humor is
to shake us free of our gloomy preoccupations.
To put it in terms
of the wheel of awareness, when we’re gloomy (or worried, or angry, or
in a lot of pain of any kind) our attention is almost always stuck in
some way or other on the rim of the wheel. And that takes us away from
the “hub” – away from our core. Laughter has the power to get us
unstuck – if only for a moment – and bring us back to the simplicity,
ease, and joyfulness of the core.
With more apologies to Chris Rock, we’re going to be serious for just a bit longer.
Playfulness
– that is, doing things for the joy of it without a goal – is so
important to our well-being, that its absence can be harmful to both our
physical and mental health.
Researchers have found that
children who play a lot – especially outdoor, physically active
kind of play, not just sitting for hours playing video games – generally
have fewer symptoms of ADHD, are usually closer to their ideal body
weight, and do better in school. Studies done on young monkeys and
other social mammals have found that, when deprived of opportunities to
play, they grow up to be emotionally fragile adults who have difficulty
handling stress, and even have problems learning how to mate properly!
Many of us these days have little time for play, whether we’re children
or adults. As adults, we may feel that it’s been so long, we no longer
even know how to play. But fortunately, you can start learning, or
remembering how to play at any age.
Madan Kataria, a medical
doctor in India, felt so strongly about the important benefits of play
that he started what’s come to be known as a “laughter club.” He began
by asking participants to bring their favorite jokes. That worked for a
while, but by the third or fourth session, they ran out of jokes. So
Dr. Kataria came up with a new strategy – they would just simply choose
to laugh.
The first formal laughter club session began with
five people in a public park. In recent years, this has grown into a
movement with more than 8,000 Laughter Clubs in over 60 countries around
the world. People getting together just to laugh. For no reason at
all.
Try it. Just start pretending to laugh. You can do it by
yourself, but after you get over the initial shyness, you’ll find that
it’s much easier with other people. It will probably feel fake at first,
but if you persist, you’ll be amazed to find you’re laughing for real.
Whether
through laughter clubs or spontaneous play, imagine what the world
would be like if more grown-ups could play like children. Or for that
matter, if more children could play like children!
If you don’t buy the whole shift-in-perspective-from-the-rim-to-the-hub
theory of what makes something funny, you might prefer Aristotle’s
theory. He thought that what caused us to laugh was something that made
us feel superior to someone else.
The following pronouncements were made by a variety of experts:
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Here are some of the “names” of staff persons for the National Public Radio show, “Car Talk”:
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And in a somewhat different vein, here is a collection of some actual answers to test questions about United States and World History given by 8th to 12th graders, collected and arranged by Richard Lederer, author and teacher known for his books on word play and the English language :
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During the Napoleonic
Wars, the crowned heads of Europe were trembling in their shoes. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense
and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inheret his power, but since
Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear him any children.
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And, over time, we'll be adding more ways to help you loosen the knots that chain you to the rim of the wheel.