Blogg 2

In Laughing Matters the author compares human laughter with animals that laugh, mainly gorillas and apes. The author goes into the idea of how do we really know that animals are laughing instead of using some different form of communication with one another. The author takes a look into scientific research conducted in order to conclude what is considered laughter by animals. They talk about what causes humans to laugh and that laughter is a release of tension from a fearful situation. It talks about how scientist have studied why people laugh and what are the health benefits from laughing, if there are any. Then they talk about a guy names Tim Vine who is in the Guinness Book of World Records because he can say the most jokes in on hour. Then they go into the machine called STANDUP. This machine was built to make jokes in a certain format. STANDUP is an acronym for System to Augment Non-speakers Dialogue Using Puns. This machine was mainly built for children who have disease that enables their speaking abilities to learn how to speak and tell jokes. Chapter 2 in Comedy Writing talks about the 8 main reasons of why we laugh: Surprise, superiority, instinct, incongruity, ambivalence, release, puzzle solving, and regression. The element of surprise makes us laugh in the sense that we do not know what to expect in the joke so we wait for the punch line to occur. Making jokes boost peoples confidence if the audience laughs at their jokes. This causes comedians to feel superior of the audience thinking they have control over them. Laughing has become instinct to humans where you do not think about laughing before you do so. Incongruity is when you laugh when something is inconsistent with its self. When something or someone is doing something they do not normally do in the real world. Ambivalence is where you have an experience out of the ordinary from the real world. We laugh when we want to release some tension or get nervous. When you solve a puzzle you want people to know so they will think better of you and in order to do this you start to laugh. Regression is similar to release as to where you need to release feelings you don’t know any other way to do but laugh.
I do not understand how scientists are able to “study” laughter and how people tell jokes affects an audience. Everyone is different which causes the experiments to never be able to repeat the same thing over again on different subjects. I agree with the essay where it talks about how laughter is good for the body and releases endorphins to make people happier. I understand how scientist can study laughter in that since. But to me I do not understand how laughter can be measured or studied in laboratory. I do not believe that laughing can help cure people by realizing so much endorphins and I do not believe such a study can be conducted. I agree with Comedy Writing where they talk about the reasons people laugh but I do also think there are other reasons people laugh for as well. In chapter 2 the subject of testing humor waves in the brain to see what people think is funny is mentioned as well as the fact that people have different views of what is funny and what isn’t. I do not agree with sick humor but I do find myself thinking oh that’s finny but then at the same time saying to myself I shouldn’t laugh at that its morally wrong.
Question: Do you think studying humor in a laboratory is accurate?