“Now, I think the one thing we have in common is that we all want to laugh and that is a beautiful thing.” –Ellen DeGeneres

Laughing is a beautiful thing and it is an important aspect of human psychology.

According to Richard Boston, author of An Anatomy of Laughter, “Laughter exists in an area that includes comedy, humor, wit, mirth, jokes, fun, funniness, smiling, play, games, fooling, clowning, satire and parody. Laughter is not the same as smiling, or humor, or wit, or comedy, though it has obvious close relations with all of them.”(Boston, 16)

‘’’What does it mean to laugh?’’’

Laughter first occurs in human infants around the fourth month. Boston states that there are two components of laughter: “the more voluntary facial act of smiling, an the more automatic laryngeal and respiratory phenomena of laughing.” (Boston, 19)

‘Another description states that the primary component of laughter is an abrupt, strong expiration, followed by a series of expiratory-inspiratory microcycles superimposed upon the larger expiratory movements: the mouth is opened, the teeth are bared and there is a generalized tremor, sometimes amounting to convulsion.” (20)

‘’’Why do we laugh?’’’

Thomas Hobbes first explained that “laughter is that sudden glory we feel on becoming aware of our own superiority to others or to ourselves in the past.” (Boston, 29) But we do not only laugh at what is aggressive or obscene. There are often times when laughs are simply playful.

Laughter can be spontaneous. “We laugh at a thing merely because we ought not. If we think we must not laugh, this perverse impediment makes our temptation to laugh the greater…and [it] breaks out more and more violently in peals of laughter.” (Boston, 50) Laughter is not limited to what is funny. According to Boston laughter can come from unpleasant situations and absurdities. “We laugh at absurdity; we laugh at deformity…we laugh at the dress of foreigners, and they at ours…We laugh at what we do not believe…Someone is generally sure to be the sufferer by a joke.” (Boston, 49)

‘’’Why is laughing so important?’’’

Laughter helps restore homeostasis, stabilize blood pressure, oxygenate the blood, massage the vital organs, stimulate circulation facilitating digestion, relax the system and produce a feeling of well being. (Boston, 27)

Laughing has been described as an extremely infectious condition, and capable of reaching the state of an epidemic. Therefore, it’s a form of connection, linking people to each other through similar outbursts.

Connections

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