WHY DO WE LAUGH?

Have you ever told a joke, and discovered your listeners didn’t laugh? Don’t you know people who never seem to laugh, while other always smiles or laugh? We laugh not because of a mechanical process in our body, but to express our feelings. These feelings may be joy, lightness of heart, or amusement.

There is one ‘mechanical’ cause of laughter – tickling. This is a reflex action on the part of our body to a certain kind of stimulation. It is not related to other kinds of laughter we enjoy.

When we laugh, we spontaneously express certain feelings that are brought on by seeing, remembering, imagining, or thinking of something. Now, that ‘something’ has to provoke laughter in us. Why does it create that reaction in us?

This is really a question for psychologists, men who study human behavior, to answer. And while they come up with many theories, no one seems to have the complete answer yet.

One such idea is that laughing is a kind of ‘social’ act. If you’re watching TV alone and see something funny, you might not laugh very loudly. But if there are a group of friends watching with you, you might all laugh loudly together. A group of people sitting together telling stories might laugh and smile. You may hear what they’re saying, but since you’re not a member of their group, you probably won’t laugh.

We all know, in a general way, the kind of things that make us laugh. If somebody does something, like slipping and falling we might laugh. This may be because we feel superior at the moment, and are so pleased about it that we laugh.

Even the kind of laughter we engage in may vary, depending on the cause. Humor creates one kind of laughter, the ridiculous another, and the comic still another. It is even possible for us to laugh scornfully at someone. So, laughter is an expression of our feelings, a way of reacting to something.