To a physiologist, it’s the stimulation of the zygomatic major muscle coupled with the constriction of the larynx via the epiglottis. To a psychologist, it’s a social bonding behavior men use to pursue women. To a comedian, especially in Barcelona, where comedy clubs have started charging customers per laugh using face recognition software mounted to the backs of seats (I kid you not), it’s a paycheck.
What do these three perspectives have in common? They each describe what a lazy instant messenger might name “haha,” what someone on a safari might call maniacal hyena sounds: laughter.
Although laughter is multifaceted, holding a variety of meanings and serving a variety of functions, its integration into daily mundanity seems uncontroversially integral to a healthy and robust life. I’d be scared to imagine a world without Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974), Louis C.K. or Youtube goldmines full of wonderful people doing wonderfully questionable things.
To limit laughter to the realm of comedy, silly youtube videos and troupes who survive on it, however, would be incredibly mistaken. In a study conducted by Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, he found that only 10 percent to 20 percent of laughter followed a joke. This is good news for those of who can’t deliver a punchline, who fall down and call it a comedy bit.
Provine concluded that “laughter is primarily a social vocalization that binds people together. It is a hidden language that we all speak.” It looks like my quest to become bilingual will be easier than anticipated.
Additionally, according to Provine, females laugh 126 percent more than their male counterparts in conversation, and speakers laugh 50 percent more than their audiences.
These statistics are nothing new. Psychologists have long considered laughing a benefit to mental and physical health, and have acknowledged its grounding in important social behavior.
But this week, my laughing tract, the neural circuit in my brain Dr. Provine suggests engenders laughter, was stifled by life’s somber realities. It was the sorrowful, sobering stifling one feels at a Relay for Life vigil, a memorial service or a family member’s funeral. Remorse trumps jubilation, and respect trumps laughter.
It’s typical, then, not to mix or exchange the two seemingly antithetical emotional expressions (smiles and tears) out of fear of being disrespectful, looking obtuse or revealing that your emotions differ from someone else’s. If muted smiles and dampened laughter do exist, they’re probably apologetic and brief. Safe and uncontroversial, such responses feel intuitive, but is this the best way for everyone to work through whatever sorrowful, sobering feelings they have?
The evidence suggests not. Different people have different ways of channeling and working through difficult feelings, and the methods people do employ are largely culturally defined. An Irish wake, for example, starkly contrasts with what the New York Times describes as the Ghanaian “over-the-top” funeral. Ghanaian ceremonies last entire nights and include drinking, dancing and “window-rattling music.” What an alternative.
Neither ceremony is more correct, but the differences do illustrate how scattered the human attempt to express and live with emotion is. Is it more proper, more respectful, to hang your head in solemn remembrance or dance and laugh in celebration of an impactful and cherished life? Expressions that are antithetical in one culture aren’t necessarily antithetical in another.
One can laugh in times of jubilation, in moments of joy untainted by melancholy, just as one can laugh in memory of a transient, great thing. Laughing is more versatile, arbitrary and expressive than strictly mournful ceremonies, sitcoms and comedy troupes give it credit for.
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