Understanding Laughter

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Why We Laugh: A New Understanding is a most interesting and thoughtful discussion of why we, as humans, and others in the animal kingdom, share a common vocalization that we call "laughter". Its basis is scientific and focuses on the studies and experiences of John C. Simon's career as a research biologist. In its application, the text combines laughter's origins and evolution with its modern-day expression in humor and personality traits such as those displayed in bullying and group dynamics

This study in the relationship between religion and the comic focuses on the ways in which the latter fulfils a central function in the sacred understanding of reality of pre-modern cultures and the spiritual life of religious traditions. The central thesis is that figures such as tricksters, sacred clowns, and holy fools play an essential role in bridging the gap between the divine and the human by integrating the element of disequilibrium that results from the contact between incommensurable realities. This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural series of essays is devoted to spiritual, anthropological, and literary characters and phenomena that point to a deeper understanding of the various mythological, ceremonial, and mystical ways in which the fundamental ambiguity of existence is symbolized and acted out. Given its interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective, this volume will appeal to scholars from a variety of fields.

The thesis of this book is that neither laughter nor humor can be understood apart from the feeling that underlies them. This feeling is a mental state in which people exclude some situation from their knowledge of how the world really is, thereby inhibiting seriousness where seriousness would be counterproductive. Laughter is viewed as an expression of this feeling, and humor as a set of devices designed to trigger it because it is so pleasant and distracting. Beginning with phonetic analyses of laughter, the book examines ways in which the feeling behind the laughter is elicited by both humorous and nonhumorous situations. It discusses properties of this feeling that justify its inclusion in the repertoire of human emotions. Against this background it illustrates the creation of humor in several folklore genres and across several cultures. Finally, it reconciles this understanding with various already familiar ways of explaining humor and laughter.

Do men and women laugh at the same things? Is laughter contagious? Has anyone ever really died laughing? Is laughing good for your health? Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject.

From Thomas Hobbes' fear of the power of laughter to the compulsory, packaged "fun" of the contemporary mass media, Billig takes the reader on a stimulating tour of the strange world of humour. Both a significant work of scholarship and a novel contribution to the understanding of the humourous, this is a seriously engaging book' - David Inglis, University of Aberdeen This delightful book tackles the prevailing assumption that laughter and humour are inherently good. In developing a critique of humour the author proposes a social theory that places humour - in the form of ridicule - as central to social life. Billig argues that all cultures use ridicule as a disciplinary means to uphold norms of conduct and conventions of meaning. Historically, theories of humour reflect wider visions of politics, morality and aesthetics. For example, Bergson argued that humour contains an element of cruelty while Freud suggested that we deceive ourselves about the true nature of our laughter. Billig discusses these and other theories, while using the topic of humour to throw light on the perennial social problems of regulation, control and emancipation.

Anthropological writings on humor are not very numerous or extensive, but they do contain a great deal of insight into the diverse mental and social processes that underlie joking and laughter. On the basis of a wide range of ethnographic and textual materials, the chapters examine the cognitive, social, and moral aspects of humor and its potential to bring about a sense of amity and mutual understanding, even among different and possibly hostile people. Unfortunately, though, cartoons, jokes, and parodies can cause irremediable distress and offence. Nevertheless, contributors’ cross-cultural evidence confirms that the positive aspects of humor far outweigh the danger of deepening divisions and fueling hostilities

Laughter itself might really be a funny thing. For, while we all laugh and some of us would even prefer nothing else to laughing, nobody seems to quite know what laughter itself is. And this is puzzling. So far, humans are known as the only animals who laugh and who are in need of laughter; and we do so in many ways and for a host of reasons. Yet, none of the great minds have ever managed to say once and for all what laughter is, in its essence. But that is about to change. In "Funny Haha: The Philosophy of Laughter in Three Easy Chapters Plus One," you will learn that laughter is nothing but the physical reaction of understanding. This proposition is validated by the observation that of all human physical reactions, only laughter depends strictly on understanding. As the pivotal premise of the book, this paves the way for a systematic discussion of the constitutive elements of the "comedic" and the "comical" as expressed in what in real-life situations, as well as on the stage, is considered to be "funny," and consequently makes you laugh. Building on a conceptual distinction of the concepts above, an original philosophical examination is put forward that sheds light on what exactly goes on, for instance, when you laugh at getting tickled, when you laugh to yourself, and on why we all tend to find it "funny" when somebody falls. Drawing on examples from popular comedies such as Nathan for You, Silicon Valley, The Big Bang Theory, and Seinfeld, and on comedy acts like those of Chris Rock, John Oliver or Joan Rivers, a philosophical bridge is projected from real-life situations to staged funniness and jocularity. Thus, a comprehensive philosophical understanding emerges of what it means to be funny-haha. And, at the same time, a methodic analysis is provided of the techniques that give funny-haha its essence. After reading this book you will get to know yourself, maybe not better but a bit deeper. For you will have developed an individual consciousness of what is it that makes you laugh and what for you is haha-funny. And that might even make you more human.