Laughing Feels Good (Response to Comic Relief 2-39)

The first two chapters of Comic Relief provoked ideas of laughter, amusement, play and humor that I had not put much thought to in the past. I laugh all the time, but I have never really analyzed what it is that makes me laugh. Why do I laugh? Why do I find the things I laugh at funny? What exactly amuses me? Why is it when I laugh, I feel good? These are some of the few questions that came into mind throughout my reading of the first two chapters. I felt frustrated because these are difficult questions to answer. The proposed theories of philosophers attempted to do so. And even though, as Morreall pointed out, each theory had its own flaws, I found that the theories were all relevant to me in a way. I started to pick out specific times when I laugh and drew connections to certain theories. I noticed something that related particularly to The Relief Theory.

I tend to laugh when I get overly emotional, whether the emotion is anger, sadness, happiness, fear etc. (Unfortunately, yes, this does means that I am not taken as seriously as I want to be taken when I am angry.) I used to think that this was a strange response but after reading the section on The Relief Theory, I realized that this laughter might just be a way of releasing the energy of repressing my emotions. I thought about it and I realized that this is probably because I am generally quite passive. Therefore, according to an idea in The Relief Theory, I unconsciously use energy to repress my emotions on a general basis. But when I finally let these emotions loose, the excess energy from unconsciously repressing these emotions is released as laughter. And in a way, it actually does make me feel better and calms me down.

But then, this raised the question, why does this laughter calm me down? Why is it pleasurable? As a student of biology, I was surprised that I had never given thought to these questions. I was intrigued by the ideas Morreall discussed, about the physiological effects of laughter, like how “20 seconds of hearty laughter gives the heart and lungs a workout equivalent to three minutes on a rowing machine.” I started to look into it and realized that in addition to the physiological effects, there would also be chemical responses that make laughter so healthy. So, I did a little bit of research and it seems as though health-enhancing hormones and antibody-producing cells are released during laughter, in turn, increasing one’s overall health. Perhaps, feeling pleasure during laughter is the body’s way of making you want to laugh frequently, so that more of these chemicals can be released and ultimately enhance your overall health.

As a whole, these introductory chapters really startled me with these underlying ideas of laughter; ideas that I am eager to further explore and attempt to understand. And perhaps, according to an idea presented by The Incongruity Theory, if I do eventually find answers to these questions, I’ll be laughing because these answers may be resolving an incongruity.