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Why do humans laugh?

T

thesoundofmotion

Bluelighter
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
104
First off,

Are humans the only animals that laugh?

This question isn't the important one though.

The important question is, Why do we laugh? What causes something to be funny?

I usually find myself laughing at things that I feel are abnormal. Something that is out of the ordinary is what is funny to me. We tend to laugh at things that are different to us such as comedians making fun of different cultures and races.

Usually I find myself laughing at things that could be quite mean to others. I find that people often laugh out of insecurity or when they are scared.

So what is the root of laughter? We always equate laughing and something funny to equal something positive and good but what really lies behind it?

Is laughing just a tool we use to deal with abnormalities or perhaps things we can't really accept in our reality? You always hear people laugh at things they don't believe even if the said thing is true.
 
we laugh in order to sound like birds.



seriously, it's a good question. it's much like an itch or reflex action. as for the nature of humour, it's also a tricky one, even for one who uses jokes constantly. my joke saying is as compulsive as my laughter. it comes from elsewhere, i swear.

during a recent pop culture sociology unit i did, they noted an interesting thing on comedy and tragedy. paraphrased it was something like:
tragedy is when serious matters are revealed to be meaningless, whereas comedy is when the meaningless become significant.

i, for one, take my comedy very seriously. (i've said this for many years)
 
haha

yeah i think other animals laugh in their own way, my cat does.

she will give me those looks like she is sometimes, and start prancing around. i think that show she laughs...we though, we like to sound like birds as L2R mentioned.
 
I think laughing predates any discernable language. It is an audibal communication between mammals.

Take note of a conversation between people that want to superficially get along and express a positive feeling, even if the jovality seems a bit forced. I bet the participants laugh more often than seems necessary or approriate, lol.
 
Nobody knows. I suspect that it serves more than one purpose: bonding, tension release, defense. People also laugh for seemingly incongruous reasons; people sometimes laugh hysterically when severely wounded, or if they're nuts to begin with, or after orgasm. I hope we find out why, someday, because learning about the origins of our sense of humor would--IMO--go a very long way towards explaining where our self-consciousness came from as well.

If I had to venture a guess, I think laughter began as a reaction to terror. Imagine a laugh as something that, in our distant past, was actually a sound of alarm, or a warning of imminent danger. In the context of actually being under mortal threat, it made sense, but suppose our ancestors learned to decontextualize it, perhaps as a coping mechanism. That is, it became a symbolic sound and action rather than a realistic one, and by stripping it of context we could approach uncomfortable topics (sex, death, mutilation, sickness, etc.) in an at least neutral fashion. I wouldn't be surprised if this went hand in hand with the rise of storytelling itself, e.g., "Man, you should've seen the bear that literally scared the shit out of Thak! (Hah-hah-haaahh!)"

tragedy is when serious matters are revealed to be meaningless, whereas comedy is when the meaningless become significant.
Click to expand...

Good quote, and good topic.
 
Our mental faculties are higher than other animals. So for some reason that means we can see or make up things that are funny.
 
Belisarius said:
If I had to venture a guess, I think laughter began as a reaction to terror. Imagine a laugh as something that, in our distant past, was actually a sound of alarm, or a warning of imminent danger. In the context of actually being under mortal threat, it made sense, but suppose our ancestors learned to decontextualize it, perhaps as a coping mechanism. That is, it became a symbolic sound and action rather than a realistic one, and by stripping it of context we could approach uncomfortable topics (sex, death, mutilation, sickness, etc.) in an at least neutral fashion. I wouldn't be surprised if this went hand in hand with the rise of storytelling itself, e.g., "Man, you should've seen the bear that literally scared the shit out of Thak! (Hah-hah-haaahh!)"
Click to expand...
maybe your ancestors :p


seriously now, that is a bloody good theory.


edit: while reading a 5th century hagiography yesterday i came across a bishop name "Hilarius".... seriously

edit2: even better, he was pope! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Hilarius
 
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