Comedy what makes us laugh

If somebody has a good sense of humour, they have a strong understanding of what makes people laugh, and are usually good at either making people laugh or finding something funny.

Laughter can relieve stress, strengthen relationships and improve somebodies mood to such an extent that they are more productive. Having a sense of humour can be a real benefit to your personal and professional life. Appreciating humour can correlate with other strengths, such as wisdom and a love for learning. Humour requires open-mindedness and can teach us a lot about how we view the world and tackle our own problems based on how we decide to face them.

Laughter is a physiological response to humour. Often involuntary, it is a physical and emotional reaction to something, causing our muscles to react, as well as causing a rhythmic sound.

The human race is one of the only known mammals to laugh, along with our predecessors, the apes , as well as rats, dogs and dolphins. Laughter is often completely spontaneous, impulsive and involuntary, and is a truly wonderful thing. When we laugh, we release endorphins, serotonin and dopamine, which calms you down, reduces pain perception, and in general, can help you see things far clearly.

Studies have shown that laughter can make people more productive, as the release of pent up, nervous energy reduces our stress levels. Laughter and humour give us a mental break, makes us feel good, and can brighten even the darkest days.

So, what makes humour, and what lies behind something funny? Although scientists have failed to create a clear scientific explanation, several theories have emerged over time which is generally seen as plausible explanations as to why we find certain things funny. This theory first proposed by Plato and the Ancient Greeks suggests that the philosophies of humour centre around people taking pleasure from the misfortunes of others.

Dating back to the first appearances of comedy on stage, early philosophers correlated finding something humorous with feeling superior. The Radio 4 show got 1. I had chief constables emailing me. Like Amos, Carr, who is also an actor and writer, says that to regard comedy merely as something frivolous would constitute a failure to comprehend its place in the world.

With a career spanning radio, television she currently stars in the hit drama Silent Witness , stand-up and sketch comedy, Carr was one of the pioneers in the flourishing arena of comics with disabilities. It is, she says, another example of how humour can be trained on even the most sombre of topics and prod people towards rethinking preconceived notions. Social scientist Sharon Lockyer has been studying the connection between comedy and disability. Lockyer thinks that this shift and other changes, such as disparaging jokes becoming less tolerated, are indicative of wider changes in society.

Psychologists are now increasingly interested in exploring the relationship between the comedian and the audience Credit: Getty Images. Our appetite for comedy is growing. Hugely successful performers such as Louis CK and shows like Broad City have distributed their comedy over the internet, and there is a profusion of funny Vines and YouTube clips.

But he suggests that because we are likely to experience humour much more often than emotions like fear or regret, studying it has as much academic merit as supposedly more worthy topics. Another thing I think is an important puzzle — is that when you try to be funny and you fail… you can create conflict.

You can upset people. You can anger people. It could also shed light on the nature of people who choose comedy as a career. For example, research presented in suggested that, despite their work, comedians had less activity in brain regions associated with the pleasure and enjoyment of humour compared to everyone else.

Some cognitive scientists think that humour is now the best way to study the human condition Credit: Getty Images. He recounts seeing people arrive at comedy clubs looking utterly miserable, but then leaving with a smile on their face, visibly transformed — married couples that turned up barely speaking leaving holding hands. For instance, how can the sometimes opposite functions of humor, such as promoting social bonding and excluding others with derision, be reconciled?

And when laughter enhances feelings of social connectedness, is that effect a fundamental function of the laughter or a mere by-product of some other primary role much as eating with people has undeniable social value even though eating is primarily motivated by the need for nourishment?

There is much evidence for a fundamental function. Robert Provine of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, showed in Current Directions in Psychological Science, for example, that individuals laugh 30 times more in the company of others than they do alone. In his research, he and his students surreptitiously observed spontaneous laughter as people went about their business in settings ranging from the student union to shopping malls. Moreover, humor does not always make us laugh.

In one view, knowing how to be funny is a sign of a healthy brain and of good genes, and consequently it attracts partners. Researchers have found that men are more likely to be funny and women are more likely to appreciate a good sense of humor, which is to say that men compete for attention and women do the choosing.

But views, of course, differ on this point. Even the validity of seeking a unified theory of humor is debated. In fact, I always refer to it by describing it, never by defining it. Still, certain commonalities are now accepted by almost all scholars who study humor. One, Forabosco notes, is a cognitive element: perception of incongruity. To my mind, for example, the incongruity needs to be relieved without being totally resolved; it must remain ambiguous, something strange that is never fully explained.

Other cognitive and psychological elements can also provide some punch. These, Forabosco says, include features such as aggression, sexuality, sadism and cynicism. Laughing, Tickling, and the Evolution of Speech and Self. Robert R. Peter McGraw et al. Christian Jarrett in The Psychologist, Vol.

Giovanni Sabato trained as a biologist and is now a freelance science writer based in Rome. Beyond psychology, biology and medicine, he is interested in the links between science and human rights.

Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. For that, we are left with humor consultants, who offer these tips:. One: Share funny stories from your own life experience.

We all have a few weird relatives, haywire vacations and other wacky experiences along life's trajectory. A long-suffering mother of three, for example, might share how she agreed to let her toddler use her ChapStick as long as he replaced it every time.

Weeks later, she was mortified to discover him meticulously rubbing her ChapStick to the family cat's butt. Pointing, he declared, "Chapped. Two: Use your wry tales to make a larger point. Kushner tells of a previously humor-challenged computer programmer who learned to deliver speeches that opened with a tale of his weird uncle daring tipsy relatives at family gatherings to insert large objects into their mouths.

After describing in detail how a family member had to be rushed to the ER with a sawed-off bedpost stuck in his mouth, the programmer could make a serious point, such as "Don't bite off more than you can chew.

Three: Follow the "rule of threes. Comedy Professor and author Melvin Helitzer characterizes them as firecrackers on the way to a big blast. His example: "My wife's an angel: She's constantly up in the air, continually harping on something and never has anything to wear. Four: Humor requires a target. If you make a bulls-eye out of someone weaker, particularly if you initiate the attack, you come off like a bully.

Far better to take aim at the powerful and mighty -- and better still for someone else to make you a target first. But the best strategy of all is to make yourself a target. As all successful politicians know, the most effective way to disarm a potential weapon against you is to use it first.