Laughter

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

A bad joke, that's who.

Hopefully, you didn't laugh at that. If you did, you have an unfortunate sense of humor.

But where does one acquire a sense of humor? From everything we know, it would appear that we are in fact born with the ability to laugh. And that's because laughter is a rather universal thing. Humans have thousands of languages, and hundreds of thousands of dialects, but everyone laughs in almost the same way. Babies can laugh before they are able to speak (even as early as 17 days old), and children that are born blind and deaf retain the ability to laugh. Even some animals can laugh.

There are some theories as to why laughing is so deeply ingrained in human behavior. A prominent one is the relief theory -- that laughter is a gesture of shared relief at the passing of danger. This theory can also be used to explain why people laugh at jokes: a tense situation is created, and the audience must deal with the buliding tension. At the right moment, comic relief is used, and the audience laughs, realizing that the "dangerous" situation is in fact a harmless one. Another theory is the incongruity theory. At the beginning, a mismatched scenario is presented. The audience attempts to connect the different parts of the story. Finally, when an unexpected punchline is revealed, the audience laughs, as they are having to deal with two sets of emotions and trains of thought.

And, a lot of what we know about jokes indicates that these theories might be correct. Jokes that have a nonsensical punchline aren't really funny. If a joke is obvious from the start, it's not very funny. The most laughs, the deep, belly laughs, come from punchlines that you aren't expecting in the slightest.

So where does our laughter come from? Although the frontal lobe controls most of the body's emotional responses, laughter came from all over the place. Both sides of the cortex, the frontal, and the occipital lobes were used in processing a joke. However, it does seem that the limbic system is central to our ability to laugh.

It's been long known that laughter has the miraculous ability to make us feel better (as demonstrated by a poorly-made Robin Williams movie), and deal with life's ubiquitous stressors, but did you know that it also helps in coping with major illness? It does this by strengthening our immune systems, boosting our T and B lymphocytes, and lowering those hormones which stress us out. Even better for our bodies is the fact that laughing 100 times is the equivalent of spending 15 minutes on an exercise bike, working the abdominal, respiratory, leg, and back muscles.

Laughter can be quite cathartic, and allows us to release negative emotions like fear, anger, and sadness. Many people believe that another purpose of laughter is to make and strengthen human connnections. We're able to laugh in the presence of others when we're comfortable being around them, and when we laugh, it strengthens the bond we share with those people. Laughing with others creates a positive feedback loop of comraderie, and explains why laughter is usually contagious.

So find a comedy show or a stand-up comedian who makes you come close to peeing your pants with laughter, and watch it more often. Surround yourself with funny people, and be with them every chance you get. Perhaps even take a class on how to be a better joke-teller. Variety may be the spice of life, but laughter, quite frankly, is the frosting.