Laughter - The science behind not being a Grumpy Sh*tface
As soon as you enter your classroom full of teenagers, you can spot the different character personalities of the group. At the first row, of course, the nerds and geeks. Really up close to their beloved professor. Struggling in the background, the Pandemonium is unleashed, a syndicate of children with behavior issues. In between, the warm, undefined ones that are looking for a spot to sit at, according to their shading gradient. Of course, I was in the back; not because I wasn't a nerd, but because anything the professor had to say, I already read it 2 months ago and I was BORED (burden I still take with me at anything I do; anyone that knows me can be my witness). Despite having the best grades, my lack of attention in class (and my ability to trigger the same trait in others) led me to visit the Principal's office way too often.
I LOVED to unleash havoc. I had to, to not be bored. I was more in charge of the planning and logistics rather than the execution, I left the last for the grunts I had near me, so easily manipulable, almost like pets. Yet, there was one task I preferred above all, it consisted on making questions, and asking MORE questions; leading into a predictable response by the professor... and my inevitable joke, comment or any kind of dumb interaction that could trigger my plans; sometimes I was SO good at it, even the professor joined the chaos (Lovely times, If you are by any chance reading this Eduardo; Engineer an Math teacher of my younger years: You were right, I made it far, and thanks to you... But admit that it WAS funny!). As years pass by one starts to calm down, abandons the utopia and becomes pragmatic. Yet I still have that instinct: interrupt a speech, break a story line or defeat logic in a clever "ad hominem", just to make them a bit more FUN, different, original.
Now, why would anyone laugh at the stupidities I say or type in my Win98 WordPad?
Average Steemian female, getting away from the computer after an exhausting laughing session over several screens with me.
Deeper question, why would anyone laugh at all? What is that clumsy and strange sound that several times tried to murder us while we were having dinner?
There's a science for any piece of the universe that requires an explanation. Funny, laugh has its own science: Gelotology. HA! One of the most renowned folks in this field is Robert Provine, obviously, a very funny guy and neuroscientist that dedicated his entire life to study this particular strange behavior of opening our mouths, showing our teeth, and emitting primitive sounds while we bash the table, cry and, in some cases forget to control some urethral muscle. Robert studied this phenomenon across cultures and species, and showed us that studying something as trivial as the laugh can display a lot of information about our behavior, about our brain and our evolution history.
Average male Steemian, grabbing his cryptography books, after enjoying hilarious article about the topic. (Laughing can encourage education!)
Lets analyze it:
We can attempt our first approach from the perspective of physics (after all, everything ends up in that field, so: why not start there, for a change?), simply analyzing the characteristics of the sound we emit while laughing. Technically, it is easier than singing and speaking. Laughter is a sequence of basic sounds, almost percussive, that has a stereotyped structure across all ages and cultures, we all laugh "ha ha ha", "he he he"... and so on; this is, and "h" + a vowel (phonetically speaking, ofc). Interesting fact: mixing is not allowed. Nobody spontaneously laughs "ha he hi ho hu ha ha he". Another fact: laughter is a rather unconscious emotional act over which we have nearly no control. This makes it hard to fake. Ass a matter of fact, there's research that prove that we are very good spotting a fake laugh; so don't even try.
We all sometime cried while laughing. Wicked, since laughing and crying share no common denominators: They are part of those things we all do and have no idea why; why did they prevail over time through the evolution of our species.
Are we the only species able to laugh?
Sometimes; several questions, can be bundled into a single one. This is a case. Even when we all know the answer.
Robert did not only stalk people laughing and chatting in public locations, he also sneaked into zoos to check if we are alone in the laughing universe. Not by a chance. All the superior primates share some kind of laugh in some minor detail they slightly differ from our laugh; being this "minor detail" the same one responsible of our ability to speak. Yet the interesting part to analyze is not the phenomenon itself, but, what triggers it.
Our laughter scientist detected laughs as monkeys played, for example, but mainly as he tickled them, something that forced him to always keep his Social Security info at hand. We need one more element into the mix to fully understand. For this, we need an element that ruined more than one happy couple's existence and peaceful sleep... Babies.
What is the first thing people do when they look at a baby?
Yeah, they start talking to it as if it was an idiot and play the "where's the baby?" game to make him/her laugh. But there's a trick that never fails: Tickles. Babies, children, adults, we all laugh when tickled, something that literally drives us insane, because nobody enjoys tickles yet... we laugh. WTF is wrong with us apes?! Why this contradiction? the answer: Tickles' "hot spots". Think: abdomen, sides of the body and neck. It appears that those "weak spots" would also fit into the template of weak spots we'd have in a fight. Some propose that the tickles are a positive sign that inducts adults to tickle babies and children, so that they may learn how to protect their vulnerable areas. That also makes sense, if we consider we cannot tickle ourselves, fighting against oneself would be a really funny spectacle to watch. Adding to the pool, it looks like primates are not the only species where tickles were detected. Different kinds of laughter and tickles were found while observing several mammals like dogs and even rats (yes, there's people that work tickling rats). Rodent's laughs are in a frequency of sound not audible for humans. That explains why your Hamster does not laugh at your jokes.
Laughter in everyday life:
Everyday's laughter is not triggered by tickles. We laugh for several reasons, mostly in group. Cool fact: we laugh 30 more times when we are with people compared to when we are alone. This says a lot about the social aspects of laughter. Robert found several things about this aspect; for example, who laughs more during a conversation? It is not whoever is listening but the spokesman/woman. Or, that women laugh more than men, regardless of the gender of whomever is speaking. Men trigger laughter in others more often. the only sad fact is, you never know if they are laughing with you or of you.
Looks like laughing is a mean of communication that teaches us how to play, socialize and defend ourselves; from a long time ago. It probably is the most genuine ""sign of approval" our species has; thus, we cannot fake it. It takes us out of stressing situations and locates us quickly within a group, connecting us with the people that laugh about the same things than us as separating us from the rest, that obviously, can't understand the joke. Even in a couple: if the laughter is not shared, then probably nothing is.
We need more laughing in this hard process we call "living". It won't save your life, but it will enhance it. Since we all know we will eventually die. We may as well, try to enjoy the process: Live.
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I laughed alone this time (but with your post) ;)
I enjoyed this my friend, interesting stuff too. Good work :D