August 11, 2011 • 42 mins
The response to humor starts with electrical activity, potentially translating to physical responses that make up laughter. Science still can't pin down what makes one thing amusing and another not (which is pretty funny). Tune in to learn more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Ay,
(00:22):
you have tape on your You have tape on your
new cover. Well that's because it's mine and mine alone.
So I'm gonna write Chuck on it at some point.
That's gonna affect something. It will. How does he sound, Jerry,
I'll screwed up. For those of you that don't know,
I got my own microphone cover because all the other
ones your smell bad. So I got one to keep
(00:45):
in my drawer, and uh, it's Chuck's. And I'm paranoid
that I'm making the microphone cover smell bad. Well there's
three of them now, yeah, Well you keep switching them
out and I can't smell it. So I'm like, all right,
I got something for you. Speaking speaking of you, just
laughing right there? You ready for this? Right? What do
you think I have integrity? I'm buying a cinnamon right now.
(01:09):
I'm buying a cinnamon at the airport that I arrived
at you understand why that's extra disgusting. Right when you're leaving,
if you're at your destined you know, when you're at
(01:30):
the airport, you're leaving. But you can go like, oh,
I gotta eat. I need to do food because I
might be trapped in the sky forever, and I obviously
to eat right now. But this is I've landed, the
trip is over. Not too shabby. Check. That's the great
Louis c. K. If I'm not mistaken, Yes, who I
(01:52):
think is one of the funnier people on the planet today.
I agree with you. You know, I started as a
Saturday Night Live writer. Doesn't surprise me. Um. And that
was from his h his special, right, like his like
what's it called chewed up? Yes, chewed up? His stand
up special? One one of his stands. Very good. Okay,
so I've got one for you. Okay, all right, I
(02:14):
mean you couldn't get you to laugh here, listen up, chucker.
All right. When I finished, I want to take all
my graduation money and buy myself a motorcycle, but my
mom said no, she who died in a horrible motorcycle
accident when he was eighteen, And I could just have
his motorcycle. He's that guy. That's Anthony Jeselnick. He's hilarious.
(02:42):
Oh you saw him live, yeah, south By Southwest. Okay,
that was that guy. So okay, all right, we're laughing.
This is a pretty good it's a pretty auspicious start
to the podcast on how laughter works. Yeah, now we
just have to be as funny as Louisa. Kay. Yeah,
I don't think we should even try no pressure, Yeah, no, no,
I think we should just be ourselves here and explain
how after it works. Like this is a robust how
(03:05):
stuff works articles. Actually it was written by Marshall Brain himself. Yeah. Um,
and he went to town, uh, figuring out exactly how
um laughter works why we laugh? And you can't up
with a bunch of really good data on it. We're
gonna share here. He gets right into it too. Did
you notice that with the joke with nothing man, it
(03:27):
was like, oh no, I cut all that out. I think,
oh you did. You didn't see the joke about Bill
Gates and the president of General Martin. I cut all
that out. No, wonder it seemed like he got right
into it. Yeah, I cut that part out. Well. Yeah, well,
after after that, after the intro. He does start out
with you know, first of all, laughter is not the
same as humor and quote uh and that's a pretty
good point. Laughter is the physiological response to humor. Right,
(03:51):
So humor is a joke or um, Mo Howard slapping
Larry Fine, Um, whatever is your bad Tom, you know,
chasing Jerry, Jerry makes it into his mousehole and then
Tom smacks's face or modaba tenda. That's where I thought
you were going when you said Mo, No, Mo Howard
(04:12):
another funny moment, that's mo. What's most last name? Moda tenda?
No he has the last name? Does he? Is it? Like?
I don't know what it is. His first name is momar,
but I can't remember what his last name is. Well anyway,
So any of that is humor, and then we respond
to in a certain way. And what's awesome is although
we can't really say like why things are funny or
(04:35):
why we even have a capacity to find things humorous. Um,
we have a pretty good understanding of what happens in
the brain, right we do. UM. And we also know
that what happens physically, like there's a there's a cascade
of events that takes place in a very unfunny way.
Um that that starts with your face, right, that's right. Uh.
(04:59):
Right off the bat, fifteen facial muscles will contract. It's
going to stimulate the zygomatic major muscle, which is the
apparently the lifting mechanism of your upper lip. Yeah, and
think about it. When you're trying to stifle laughter, what
you're doing is focusing on keeping that muscle from lifting,
because once it hits that one point of no return,
(05:20):
you're you just crack up. That's right, and that crazy Uh.
Your respiratory system is upset, and your epiglottis apparently half
closes your larynx, so that's why you sometimes can't catch
your breath, and if you really get going, it's gonna
activate your tear ducks. That's why you cry with laughter sometimes. Yes,
(05:40):
And I guess those happen in a sequence depending on
how hard you're laughing. Right. Um. Not only that you
talked about the epiglottis closing the larynx right so that
that you're trying to gasp for air, which is also
why sometimes you can go for a pretty long period
of time without making any sound whatsoever, because you're epiglottis
(06:04):
has um completely close to your life. You can't breathe
this right exactly. But when you're when you're drawing in
and gasping, it makes the laughter sound right or w
whit you snort? Right? Yeah, you don't snort normally when
you're walking around, No, it's absolutely true. Um snort. Ever
when you laugh sometimes once in a while, Yeah, me too.
It's funny. It's such an embarrassing thing too, certainly, like
(06:27):
kind of I'm proud of That means I'm really laughing,
right sure, um, And when I cry, it means I'm
really laughing. It's wonderful. But um so when when we
make this uh, when we're drawing air in right to
try to survive and live, um, where we make a
(06:48):
sound and we make a certain sound. And what I've
what I found is that it's universal. Ho ho ho.
I thought you meant when you're breathing or ha ha ha,
that's the laugh, right. What's crazy is is it happens
like almost universally people say ha ha ha or ho
ho ho, right, and they deliver that same laugh at
(07:10):
about the same rate about every two milliseconds. Structure. Yeah,
and the h is almost a delivery vehicle for the
vowel either the O or the A, the long or
the long A or the short am aha ha. I've
never paid that much attention to myself. But you don't
intermix them ever. No one has ever in the history
(07:32):
of humanity ever genuinely intermixed hot and ho into a
real laugh. And that interesting it is. And you also
have your own signature laugh, just like your voice is
your own, and your hiccupping pattern is your own. It's
your laugh generally is the same like it might might range,
but that is your laugh. You're never gonna laugh like, Wow,
(07:54):
that sounded like someone else all of a sudden, right, Yeah,
that'd be weird. My signature laugh is pink. It's really
I don't know what that means, but I'm laughing. So um, well,
there there you go. Then it was it was successful. Um.
And we also apparently humans have some sort of um
(08:14):
laughter detector that as far as I know, since we
call it a laughter detector, it means science hasn't figured
out what that is yet because that's to do with
the brain. But just based on observation, UM, we have
an ability to pick up on other people's laughter, and
for some reason that can make us laugh. It's contagious,
and as we laugh, it can make the other people
(08:35):
laugh and so on, and laughter just kind of keeps going.
That's right. Something else interesting about laughter is the more
you try to stifle it, say you're trying to really
keep your zygomatic major muscle in a relaxed position, the
more the funnier the situation becomes. The church, even heathens
(08:58):
know that it's called the church eagle. If you've never
setting footed side of church, you still call the church giggles.
And I have actually gotten the church giggles in church
big Oh yeah, sure, when I was a kid like it.
I remember being specifically being a teenager. This one time
I got the church kiggles really bad because something a
guest preacher said. He misspoke in a funny way and
(09:20):
it's something you shouldn't have laughed at, and I couldn't
help it, and I literally for like, I had to
excuse myself. I was the only person that had to
get up in leave. Did he shout center at you
on your way out? No? No. So one last little
universal aspect or pretty much universal aspect of laughter specifically, um,
and we should say, like this is based on the
(09:40):
article how laughter works, but it includes humor quite a
bit as well, but laughter specifically, Uh, there's this aspect
of it called the punctuation effect, where it doesn't it
doesn't normally I know what you're saying, I know your idea,
but it doesn't normally come in the middle of a sentence.
It normally comes at the end of a sentence or
the end of a phrase, or in a dead space
(10:02):
a period, which hence the name punctuation effect. That's one
of those things where I was like, do you really
need some researcher to tell you that, like that you
laugh after you speak, because you can't do both at
the same time. No, But I think the point is
that you're not like most people don't in the middle
of a joke laugh and then continue on with the joke,
(10:25):
and then laugh and then continue on and then deliver
the punch line. And if they do, everybody thinks they're
terrible joke teller. Well, if you're laughing at your own
joke anyway, probably doing it wrong. Or when um, when uh,
Henry Hill and good Fellas, right, he's just ticking off
Joe Pesci and he tells him he's a funny guy
and He's like, what am my clown do? I amuse you?
(10:47):
You think I'm you think I'm funny? Right, And then
like they they the tension is relieved and he jumps
on him or no, he doesn't jump on him yet,
and he goes, you really are a funny guy, and
then they starts laughing again. He didn't go you really
are and laugh a funny guy. The punctuation effect. Yeah,
I think that's lame. Well, okay, let's move on then
(11:08):
to why we laugh like this is a This is
one of the parts where we just don't fully understand. Well, uh,
some people have their ideas obviously. Uh. It all goes
back to Tuck Tuck, and people think that initially it
might have been as a ah, a release of tension
from the passing of danger. Took Tuk and his buddies
(11:29):
are sitting around in the saber Tooth Tigers nearby and
they are all quiet, and then they think maybe laughter
started as a relief that the danger is now gone,
or maybe it took Tok farted right afterwards, which is
always we had to get one of those in there.
Um that Another explanation is that it's a form of
(11:51):
social bonding. Sure that you don't really laugh around people
you don't trust. You at the very least, don't genuinely
laugh around people you don't trust, right, Yeah, you have
to be at ease to laugh. Yes, generally speaking, Um,
it's also a means of asserting dominance. As far as
I understand that, dominant individuals in societies, whether it be
(12:14):
human or maybe chimp, um, the jerks and other words,
tend to um create laughter more. But it's not necessarily
genuine laughter, not comfortable after it's a way of controlling
the social climate. But as far as genuine laughter goes,
there seems to be a necessity for trust and um,
(12:36):
there's some sort of positive feedback loop, right where when
you laugh with somebody you feel comfortable around them, and
they laugh and they feel comfortable around you, and that
lettle comfort can lead to more laughter and it's again
a positive feedback, and then you're all just having a
rip more good time. Right. And then afterward, after you've
shared this experience of these this person, you feel even
(12:58):
closer to than than before. That's right, When you share
a good laugh with someone, it bonds you. Yeah, I
feel that way for sure. So in that sense, it's
a social signal. And there's other studies that back up
the idea that this it's laughter is expressly designed for
the as a social bonding glue. Yeah, you're thirty times
(13:21):
more likely apparently to laugh in a social setting than
when you're alone with the TV off. Then again, I
wonder about that. It's like, don't you need some sort
of stimuli or they did they do? When they did,
they didn't have anything on the study, Like did they
put someone in a room alone and give them like
a funny book or something. I don't understand how that works.
Probably Okay, I think that maybe a book um would
(13:44):
do it. It says, no pseudo social device like a television,
So what are you laughing at? Then? If you're just
in a room. But that's what I'm saying, like, maybe
like you, you just are reading jokes on strips of paper, okay,
like a bazooka gum jokes nobody laughs at the Yeah,
that's that. That explains that. Well. In nitrous oxide, they
found German physiologists named Willobald Rook. They he found that
(14:10):
laughing gas was even less effective when you're alone. Yeah,
which which is true because you're just high. Is that
the deal. Oh yeah, I don't. I can't remember if
I ever had laughing gas, to be honest, Oh really no,
I've never liked had surgery. You don't necessarily I mean
you do kind of laughing. You're funny and everything seems funny.
(14:32):
And I have noticed, like when when you're at the dentist, uh,
and there, you know, the dentist and the hygienist during
there and they got you like nice and loaded. Everything's
kind of funnier and you're talking and all that, and
then when they leave and you're by yourself, you're just
like looking at the ceiling tile because it looks crazy.
But it's not necessarily funny. You should try it, man,
it's my whole life free. I hate the dentist too.
(14:54):
That would probably change that experience. You'll still hate the dentist,
but you'll be like, at least there's this okay, gotcha doctor,
feel good? Uh? It is uh. The study of laughter,
Josh has a name, is called gelatology, or it's g lotology.
That's the physiological study of laughter. That's what it said, right,
But I just want to make sure that that's clear,
(15:15):
because we're kind of vacillating between laughter and humor, and
this is the physiological study of humor of laughter. Thanks
for clearing that up. Uh. Emotional responses, um start in
the I'm sorry emotional responses or the function of the
frontal lobe. But when it comes to laughter, it's all
(15:36):
over the map. It's not just the frontal lobe. They
hooked people up to E E. G s and showed
them funny things and found that it's all All parts
of the brain are involved in the laughter response. So
it's not just emotional. But it's not necessarily all over
the map. I mean, it is all over the brain,
but it follows a prescribed neural circuit. That's right, Like
(15:57):
they can go, oh, it's going here next see, um,
what what parts of the brain does? It include the
cerebral cortex. Electrical wave moves through there and if now
I didn't really understand this, but if the wave takes
a negative charge, then you're gonna be laughing. If it's
a positive charge, then there's no response. So I guess
(16:17):
that just measures whether or not you think something's funny.
I guess I don't know, or else. Like it literally
like one type of electrical charge will trigger this response
and another type won't like it just passes over you.
But the human electric though, well either way. Um, an
electrical wave is generated when something that's potentially funny, potentially
(16:41):
funny stimuli is encountered. Within four tenths of a second. Yes,
this electrical signal is generated, and it's it. It's determined
I guess in four tents whether you thought it was
funny or not. Yeah. So, but that's a great question.
I mean, like that's a card or the horse kind
of question, like does it turn positive or negative because
we found it funny or do we find it funny
(17:03):
because it turned positive or negative. I think it's the humor.
You have to find it funny, and then the brain
reacts to that response. That's what I think. So let's
say that it does take a negative charge, this electrical
wave that just covers your brain, and um, it starts
spreading through this neural circuit, starting with the left side
(17:23):
of the cortex right, which analyzes the words and structure
of a joke. Yep, making sense of it all. Ye,
of the words themselves. The frontal lobe, which is in
charge of emotion. That's right, you got the right hemisphere,
the cortex, which basically it sorts out whether or not
the joke makes sense to you. Right, Well, that's where
you put it together, like the the right um, the
(17:45):
right hemisphere, the frontal lobe is the place where we
managed to construct emotion and intellect of the cortex, and
that's where we that's where you get the joke. Right.
They've also found that that's the hard since you need
all these different systems in the brain. But that's the
part when it's damage that produces the um most damage
(18:08):
to experiencing humor, getting humor, finding anything funny, Yeah, it's
real sad uh. Of course, you have the motor sections
that get all the physical responses going, like slapping your
knee or doubling over or whatever you do that's wacky
when you laugh. And there's there's also another big one
that um, I didn't think of, but it made perfect
(18:28):
sense when I when I thought about it, which was
the sensory processing area of the occipital lobe towards the
back of the head. But that's where you visualize things.
So it's like imagine what a snake wearing a vest
does look like, you know, and then that makes you
laugh as well. So it's almost like all of these
different like the structure of the joke, the words, and
all that um, pulling in past emotions, your emotional response
(18:53):
right then going um, visualizing the thing that's just been described.
All this stuff is brought together to produce the sensation
of finding something funny, and then that motor part is triggered,
and that's when you start crying and you can't breathe
and you say ha ha ha or ho ho ho
every milliseconds, or flail your arms about her whatever you're
(19:14):
into the Olympics system. I didn't get a lot out
of this part, especially the comparison to the alligator. It
was a I have a I have a big question
markt that didn't really there's a whole paragraph in this
um in this article everybody that it has no purpose
(19:36):
for being there. Chuck and I can't make heather tails
of it. If you can email us later. Um, but
I chucked. The Olympics system part didn't make much sense
to me until I found a theory um that that
we that we can talk about called incongruity theory. UM. Well,
it's one of the theories of why we have the
ability to find things funny or why things are funny
(20:00):
and others aren't. And incongruity theory says that, um remember
with curiosity. That was also a theory for why we're curious, like,
you know, this pencil just fell up and I want
to go find out why that. That's a theory to
explain why things make us curious. There's also a similar
theory for why things can be found funny, and it's
(20:21):
when you tell a joke. We were the joke tellers,
riling up the expectation and the listener and then delivering
something totally different. That that moment of incongruity that makes
the brain like, whoa, it just slipped on ice and
it's regaining its footing is thrilling. That's one explanation. The
other explanation for incongruity theory is that we find things
(20:41):
funny so that we can learn how not to think
or how not to act right like you don't you
don't you just don't walk around acting like the Three Stooges.
We find it funny because it's something we don't do.
We learned to not do it like that, or we
can we cannot follow logic just in a madcap screwy
logic is attendant to jokes by finding them funny as well. Yeah,
(21:06):
that's I think that's one part of some types of
comedy for sure, is when the punch line is unexpected
in some way in congruous, like for instance, Um, the
other day, I was hanging out at the house with
Emily and I was singing songs to my dog. Um,
(21:26):
there's a lot of things like that in our home,
and I was singing the song I was playing patty
Cake with my dog, Charlie, who was a girl. And
I said, well, you gotta know that for the song
to make sense. And so I was singing this song
and I said, patty cake, patty cake, Baker's chick, bake
(21:49):
me a cake that's shaped like a standard cake. It.
Emily just thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
But that's a good example, like that Limerick thing where you,
I mean, it's the same, what's the Limerick joke where
you think you're gonna say something dirty and it's actually
something great normal. I know what you're talking about. I
can't think of it right, But it's that unexpected, incongruous
(22:09):
thing that works so well in comedy. So many times
you have me that you thought I was gonna say
something else I did and I blushed, You did, your
face got a little red. So um. Incongruity theory is
old and very widely accepted, although it's also criticized for
being overly broad. Explain a lot of stuff totally. But
(22:29):
it's like, I don't understand why everybody has to have
a theory for everything. Why can't it be like, Yes,
incongruity explains some type of humor, superiority explains another. Well,
that's another. That's what I like to call the America's
Funniest Home Videos humor, which is we've talked about before,
And that's when you focus on stupidity or misfortune a
(22:50):
gufall and not a god fall. That's a laugh, a boner,
a mistake, and um, it makes you feel superior to
the guy that just got kicked in the groin, and
you think that's funny. It is because it's not you
getting kicked in the groin. I guess I've never analyzed
it like that, but yeah, I guess better him than
me what I'm thinking? And I kicked in the groin?
(23:12):
Would you think it was funny? No? I wouldn't, But
that doesn't explain why I find it funny when it
happens to somebody else. Well, in a way, it's just
the superiority theory. And I don't think that literally means
you feel superior. But it's just funny to see someone
fall down sometimes and they should call it something else. Um.
Let me say one more thing about in congruity. Okay,
(23:33):
there's a dude out there named Alistair Cook who came
up with a book and in it I know him,
you do, well, not personally really, I hadn't heard of
him until recently. Anyway, he came out with a book
and in it he had he came up with an
equation to basically figure out how humorous something is. So
(23:57):
humor equals Are you ready for this? The guy came
up with a formula to humor equals um the amount
of misinformation present in the joke, right, which is part
of incongruity times um the potential for the joke listener
to take it seriously. Right, So the bigger the whopper
(24:20):
is and the more finesse with which you tell it,
the more humorous this joke is going to be. That
makes sense. There's also the comedy is tragedy. Plus time.
We've all heard that things that aren't funny today might
be funny in ten years. That's why too soon you
can also get a laughing actually just by saying too
soon when you make a bad joke in poor taste
(24:42):
or Alan al said, did you ever see Crimes and Misdemeanors?
What do Allen? Movie? Alan Alda was this really pompous
director in that movie. And when he was he's trying
to explain comedy to what Allen And he said, if
it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it's not funny.
(25:02):
But that's kind of true though, It's that take it
to a certain point, but don't break it, because then
it's just not funny. I don't know, sometimes it's funny
to break it. I think there's always just because you
don't take something it's funny doesn't mean that someone else does. Yeah.
I don't think you should ever begrudge somebody for taking
(25:23):
something funny, even if it offends you. There's not a
lot that offends me, as you know. Um. The last
one is relief theory, which is, like you were saying, um,
some people populate was the first experience of laughter? Um
was some danger past and everybody was just relieved so
they were laughing. Right, Um, have you seen Emerson the
(25:45):
baby that's um scared of his mom no blowing her nose. Oh,
it's awesome. You gotta see it. This kid is terrified,
like you've never seen a human being terrified whenever his
mom blows his nose. And then he starts laughing and
she does it again. He's terrified again, and it's really
just I'll send you the link. It's awesome. But yeah,
he supports relief theory. Uh. The other thing too about
(26:07):
superiority theory before we move on, is that's that's the
basis of a lot of comedy period. Like Louis c
k is so funny because he's talking about how fat
he is and how he never has sex anymore and
like what a piece of crappy as a human and
a bad dad. And that's that's not just him, that's
a lot of comedians take that route that self and
(26:30):
see that goes beyond self deprecating even it's like make
fun of myself, like everyone laugh at me and how
miserable I am, and feel better about yourself because you're
not fat and bald. And then relief theory. Also, Um
explains how uh, laughter is a great way to diffuse
a Mexican standoff, right, because you're in there and you
(26:50):
got your gun on one guy, he's got his gun
on you. And then if you laugh and you can
convince him it's a genuine laugh, he becomes disarmed and
then blam right, you're you're the last man standing. I'm
gonna remember that. Haven't you ever seen any movies? Yeah,
that happens to the movies. You're right, that's why that's
scientific fact. Are there really Mexican standoffs? Has that ever happened?
(27:12):
Three people? It has? I think you can do it
with two. But yeah, and I thought the definition was
three people. No, I don't know. I know that if
you have your gun on somebody and they have their
gun on you, I think that's a a a Chilean standoff, right,
And I'm just taken. So we've just dragged humor through
(27:32):
the mud and just basically we've just eviscerated it. We've
vivisected it. Um, So let's find out what's not funny,
chuckers Um. Apparently it comes down to and again, there's
researchers out, there's a guy named Robert Provine, who's quite
a career for himself, like studying humor and laughter. Um.
But this laughter or humor research um has yielded that
(27:57):
there's basically two factor in somebody not finding something funny
that's age makes sense and attachment to the subject or
the victim that says it all. When you're a little baby,
you're discovering the world, you think your mom uh sneezing
is funny, no terrifying, No, no, no, I was just
(28:18):
using a different example. Or your dog, you know, lapping
water is funny because it's all brand new. You get
a little bit older, things are gonna change. When you're
a little toddler, you're gonna think poopoo is funny. Well,
when you're an adult, you might think poopoo is funny.
When you're an awkward teenager, you might be more into
(28:39):
h jokes that make fun of authority figures or that
focus on sex and like all these new things when
you're trying to figure yourself out. And then as you mature,
supposedly you're supposed to get a little more evolved with
your humor and barriers are broken down much more um
and uh, like you may joke about work, right sure,
(29:02):
the old the old boss, the old man, the old lady. Right, um.
And and with all of these, each of these stages,
even though like an adult thinks a teenager sense of
humor is just trap, right, um, if you if you
kind of take away that evaluation and look at all
of them equally, people laugh about or find things funny
(29:24):
based on what's a stresser in their life. So what
stress is a teenager oute is totally unrelatable for an adult,
so they're not gonna find it funny. There's it's not
a stressor. So mainly most of the stuff we laugh
about or we find funny are based on stressors in
our lives. Yeah, that makes sense, and your intelligence level
has a little something to do with it, um, as
(29:45):
far as what you find funny, I've known people, and
I'm sure you have that were dumb and that didn't
get jokes or humor. I used to have a rule
of a measuring stick for intelligence. You remember the show
Doctor Kats. Did you ever meet anybody who was like, oh,
I can't watch that show. That's those quickly lines is
driving me crazy? Yeah, yeah, you have it. That's pretty good.
(30:09):
They just use that it was infallible. Yeah, or I mean,
there's a lot of TV shows like that, but it's
all just I don't know, it's all subjective. It's I
guess it's not right to say someone's not smart. But
I've known some dummies that in a quick paste funny
conversation they just sit there like I don't get it.
They're lost. Yeah, it's sad and drags everybody else down,
and really they should just stay in their rooms, right,
(30:34):
um so chuck josh. Uh. Lastly, I guess where you
come from is another aspect of what you find funny
and what cultural for sure? May I may I play
an example of that. I brought another one today. Okay,
I have a joke. There is it cheer the cheer
(30:59):
walk Oh with a shot la la la, you walk
on the street that he's a walking from. Yes, well,
what's a funny image? Yes? Nice that one was using
(31:22):
her occipital lobe. Oh boy, that was from the genuinely
perfect movie Borat. Yeah, there's not not much as funnier
to meeting Borah. I love it, Yes, but it's a
great example of how, uh, something could be funny in
theory to a to a foreigner that the person in
(31:43):
the culture outside of that, and that's the whole basis
of pride. That's all he does talk about things that
are funny in Kazakhstan. So, um, British humor. You've always
heard about British humor very specific and like if you think,
like I didn't like Faulty Towers, well you just don't
get British humor. Like on, oh, I just not thought
it was funny. Yeah it was hit or miss. Fawlty Towers,
(32:03):
Monty Python was even hit or miss. I mean just
sometimes you're not in the move for absurdainity. Agreed, And
there is a British humor. But I found the Brits
are a little prone to get up on their high
horse about like, well, you just don't get it right. Well, no,
you know you have a British friend, don't you. Oh yeah,
Justin will tell me. I don't get it took Oh,
it's just it's pretty human. You don't understand, right, No,
(32:26):
leave me alone while my beans drenched and catch up.
Justin's been here since he was seventeen though he's so
he's American, He's American Georgia and even until the girls
come around um, so chuckers. Oh lastly, um, if you
have an attachment to the subject, say you know you're
(32:47):
you're your brother really did die in a motorcycle accident,
You're never gonna find it. Might not find that Anthony
doesn't nick joke funny, or if you literally couldn't care
less about people dying in motors cycle accidents, you're probably
not going to find that funny. And that researcher Provine
has basically divided that up into two ends of the spectrum,
(33:08):
which based on things people commonly say, which is is
it offensive or what's the point? Or it is I'm
sorry it is offensive or what's the point? Well, there
you have it. That means you Yeah, that probably means
you have a personal something at stake. Yes, and you
found even in time won't even cure that. Yeah, that's
(33:30):
like the Twin Towers falling. It was the first comedians
to start joking about that. It was remember that being
a very like tense thing when people started making jokes
about that. But I think one of the ways to
digest raw and negative emotions is to eventually laugh about it, right, Yeah,
because it's the best medicine. So, speaking of medicine, Chuck,
(33:52):
that's a nice set up. Um. There is no less
than two UM groups dedicated to studying humor, and these
are international associations, well ones American UM what is it?
The American Association for Therapeutic Humor and the International Society
for Humor Studies, and they are bona fide. They have
(34:13):
conferences all over the place. Because it's real, dude, it
is UM. And there's like a definite hint of Patch
Adams in there. So I'd like to just skim right
over this. But there is a physiological effect to laughter,
UM that is totally beneficial of the body. That's right, right,
And it kind of goes back to fight or flight
in a way very much, because we've talked about this
(34:36):
gazillion times. When the fight or flight response kicks in,
that kind of a lot of your other bodily functions
cease to happen and everything freezes up. And when we laugh, though,
is that uh, laughter shuts off the stress hormones, certain
stress hormones that the fight or flight response would normally
be shutting down your like immune system. It shuts that
(34:58):
down and actually boost to your immune system right temporarily, UM,
not only that it boosts the production of gamma interfere
on um B cells and T cells, which are all
UM engaged in warding off disease or boosting the immune system. Right,
UM the production of blood platelets increases UM UH, SAL,
(35:20):
salivary immunoglobulin A, which UM protects against respiratory diseases. All
of these cells and antibodies their production is boosted. So basically,
we're just inherently healthier when we laugh, which is pretty
awesome if you ask me so. Not only is the
is the fight or flight the sympathetic uh, the sympathetic
(35:42):
nervous system like deadened, but we're actually getting healthier, right,
That's just that's awesome. It's pretty amazing. It also gives
you a pretty good workout. They found that laughing one
hundred times is about the same as fifteen minutes on
an exercise bike works out your diaphragm. You know you've
had your stomach kurt from laughing so hard, Yes, crunches,
(36:05):
I know, it feels so good. It feels so good
your stomach kurts, and you realize you just peed yourself
a little. I've never pead myself laughing. Really, it's a gas. Uh.
There's a guy named Norman Cousins. Have you ever heard
of this dude? He is uh or was an author, humorist,
political activists, and he studied the biochemistry of emotions for
(36:29):
many years. And U c l A. And he struggled
with heart disease and then eventually a severe form of arthritis.
And he watched Marx Brothers films, and uh basically found
that belly laughing for ten minutes. Watching one of these
Marx Brothers films allowed him to sleep pain free for
(36:50):
two hours. And then it literally he could feel it
wearing off as if it were a medicine. And then
he would watch funny stuff again. If only I could
laugh at March but There's films, I'd be a happier person.
You don't laugh at March Brothers. No, I'm more like
in awe, like wow, these guys were comic geniuses. But
to find something that comic genius doesn't necessarily mean to
find it funny interesting. I don't. I don't, although I
(37:14):
do have to say and maybe like I'm like a
fan of The poor Man's Marks Brothers, but I do
laugh out loud. You me and I both laugh out loud.
At Three Stooges. Now, I would think you would laugh
at March Brothers because they have watched it. Man that
that's not even like higher class of comedy than three students.
I'll have to check it out again. No, Gratcha was
he was a sharp tack. Yeah, sure, And I think
(37:36):
that that kind of translates so a different part of
my brain is activated where I'm like watching him on
an intellectual level. With with the Three Stooges, I can
just turn off and it's just funny. I got you
all right, Um, do you got anything else? Yeah? U
c l A has a study they're doing now too,
Um where they they inflict pain on children there. It
(37:58):
is the funniest thing of this wolds. Uh. They take
healthy kids and they wire them up and then ask
them to put their hands in ten degrease celsius water
and hold it there for as long as they can.
It's painful. It's not like inflicting damage though, you know
what I'm saying. And Uh, on average kids can hold
their arms in the freezing water for eighty seven seconds.
(38:19):
But if they're shown funny videos while they're doing that,
their heart rate, blood pressure and breathing and all their
vital signs get better and stronger, and they can last
up to longer. And then afterward they sample the we've
talked about cortisol, the stress hormone before. Then there's saliva
and they laughing helps their bodies recover much faster. So
(38:41):
it's physical, baby, it's very neat. It's all in the spit.
I guess that's the that's the point of this whole
How Laughter Works podcast. It's all about your spit. It's
that the deal. Hey, you should check out. I think
it's a national geographic maybe Natio Nova. It's one of those.
It's one of those two um documentary on stress, like
(39:03):
the Physiological effects of stress. Who read about that too?
Really awesome, it's very good. It's that article actually, physical
effects of stress. It's good. It's streaming on Netflix. Check
it out. All right, you got anything else? I got
nothing else? All right? Well, if you want to learn
more about laughter, type in laughter in the search bar
how Stuff Works dot Com, which brings up Chuck. It's
been a little while. Listener mail Josh. We asked for
(39:28):
bear stories and we got him. And this is what
I thought was the best one. This is from Chris
ef in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It's British Columbia. Two years ago.
The bear population came out of the mountains early because
of poor barry supplies. Basically, this guy's neighborhood was rampant
with bears for for a summer. Um I'm sorry. In
(39:49):
the spring, I'm sorry. In the autumn, he returned from
walking his dog, walked into his cardboard and there was
a large bear cub chowing down on my garbage. My
dog was an energetic labradoodle, how old and happy excitement
of what he thought was the biggest squirrel he had
ever seen, and chased after the cub, who we named
boot Dog, ran around uh Chase's cub in the backyard,
(40:13):
and all of a sudden, booze mother came around the corner,
and they later named this one Marie Hardy. She weighed
about two and fifty pounds and walked up to this
guy and the dog, who was barking four ft away.
When I hit her on the head with my golf umbrella.
The south stopped deadner Track sat back on her haunches,
(40:34):
shaking her head in disbelief, and was very surprised to
be smacked with the umbrella. For about five seconds, and
then she came straight at me in the garage and
I smacked her again with significantly less profound effect. Gave
me time to back out of the cardboard and do
the only thing I could think of, which was to
open the umbrella in her face and yell and scream
and close my eyes. Yeah that sounds like a reasonable
(40:56):
thing to do. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I mean,
I am so tense right now. What happened? I opened
my eyes again and Moriarty was gone into the brush
along with Boo. But they became regular visitors throughout the
rest of the fall, ranging through the neighborhood for scraps,
and then they returned the next summer with a new
small cub that we named Boo Too Happy ending for
(41:17):
Chris and ps, we're proud Civa contributors, which is really
a lord that our Kiva team is killing it. We're
about to hit sik in loan. Yeah, so go guys.
If you want to join our Kiva team, you can
go to www. Dot Kiva k i v a dot
org slash team singular slash stuff you should know. Join up,
(41:40):
start donating and uh help contribute to the cause. And
if you want to send us an email about laughing
something you thought was very funny or even better than that,
because we probably wouldn't find it that funny. Send us
a link to something that's actually funny, all right, and
we will judge you, well, we'll judge your laughing skills. Um.
(42:00):
Send it to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought
(42:20):
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Ay,
(00:22):
you have tape on your You have tape on your
new cover. Well that's because it's mine and mine alone.
So I'm gonna write Chuck on it at some point.
That's gonna affect something. It will. How does he sound, Jerry,
I'll screwed up. For those of you that don't know,
I got my own microphone cover because all the other
ones your smell bad. So I got one to keep
(00:45):
in my drawer, and uh, it's Chuck's. And I'm paranoid
that I'm making the microphone cover smell bad. Well there's
three of them now, yeah, Well you keep switching them
out and I can't smell it. So I'm like, all right,
I got something for you. Speaking speaking of you, just
laughing right there? You ready for this? Right? What do
you think I have integrity? I'm buying a cinnamon right now.
(01:09):
I'm buying a cinnamon at the airport that I arrived
at you understand why that's extra disgusting. Right when you're leaving,
if you're at your destined you know, when you're at
(01:30):
the airport, you're leaving. But you can go like, oh,
I gotta eat. I need to do food because I
might be trapped in the sky forever, and I obviously
to eat right now. But this is I've landed, the
trip is over. Not too shabby. Check. That's the great
Louis c. K. If I'm not mistaken, Yes, who I
(01:52):
think is one of the funnier people on the planet today.
I agree with you. You know, I started as a
Saturday Night Live writer. Doesn't surprise me. Um. And that
was from his h his special, right, like his like
what's it called chewed up? Yes, chewed up? His stand
up special? One one of his stands. Very good. Okay,
so I've got one for you. Okay, all right, I
(02:14):
mean you couldn't get you to laugh here, listen up, chucker.
All right. When I finished, I want to take all
my graduation money and buy myself a motorcycle, but my
mom said no, she who died in a horrible motorcycle
accident when he was eighteen, And I could just have
his motorcycle. He's that guy. That's Anthony Jeselnick. He's hilarious.
(02:42):
Oh you saw him live, yeah, south By Southwest. Okay,
that was that guy. So okay, all right, we're laughing.
This is a pretty good it's a pretty auspicious start
to the podcast on how laughter works. Yeah, now we
just have to be as funny as Louisa. Kay. Yeah,
I don't think we should even try no pressure, Yeah, no, no,
I think we should just be ourselves here and explain
how after it works. Like this is a robust how
(03:05):
stuff works articles. Actually it was written by Marshall Brain himself. Yeah. Um,
and he went to town, uh, figuring out exactly how
um laughter works why we laugh? And you can't up
with a bunch of really good data on it. We're
gonna share here. He gets right into it too. Did
you notice that with the joke with nothing man, it
(03:27):
was like, oh no, I cut all that out. I think,
oh you did. You didn't see the joke about Bill
Gates and the president of General Martin. I cut all
that out. No, wonder it seemed like he got right
into it. Yeah, I cut that part out. Well. Yeah, well,
after after that, after the intro. He does start out
with you know, first of all, laughter is not the
same as humor and quote uh and that's a pretty
good point. Laughter is the physiological response to humor. Right,
(03:51):
So humor is a joke or um, Mo Howard slapping
Larry Fine, Um, whatever is your bad Tom, you know,
chasing Jerry, Jerry makes it into his mousehole and then
Tom smacks's face or modaba tenda. That's where I thought
you were going when you said Mo, No, Mo Howard
(04:12):
another funny moment, that's mo. What's most last name? Moda tenda?
No he has the last name? Does he? Is it? Like?
I don't know what it is. His first name is momar,
but I can't remember what his last name is. Well anyway,
So any of that is humor, and then we respond
to in a certain way. And what's awesome is although
we can't really say like why things are funny or
(04:35):
why we even have a capacity to find things humorous. Um,
we have a pretty good understanding of what happens in
the brain, right we do. UM. And we also know
that what happens physically, like there's a there's a cascade
of events that takes place in a very unfunny way.
Um that that starts with your face, right, that's right. Uh.
(04:59):
Right off the bat, fifteen facial muscles will contract. It's
going to stimulate the zygomatic major muscle, which is the
apparently the lifting mechanism of your upper lip. Yeah, and
think about it. When you're trying to stifle laughter, what
you're doing is focusing on keeping that muscle from lifting,
because once it hits that one point of no return,
(05:20):
you're you just crack up. That's right, and that crazy Uh.
Your respiratory system is upset, and your epiglottis apparently half
closes your larynx, so that's why you sometimes can't catch
your breath, and if you really get going, it's gonna
activate your tear ducks. That's why you cry with laughter sometimes. Yes,
(05:40):
And I guess those happen in a sequence depending on
how hard you're laughing. Right. Um. Not only that you
talked about the epiglottis closing the larynx right so that
that you're trying to gasp for air, which is also
why sometimes you can go for a pretty long period
of time without making any sound whatsoever, because you're epiglottis
(06:04):
has um completely close to your life. You can't breathe
this right exactly. But when you're when you're drawing in
and gasping, it makes the laughter sound right or w
whit you snort? Right? Yeah, you don't snort normally when
you're walking around, No, it's absolutely true. Um snort. Ever
when you laugh sometimes once in a while, Yeah, me too.
It's funny. It's such an embarrassing thing too, certainly, like
(06:27):
kind of I'm proud of That means I'm really laughing,
right sure, um, And when I cry, it means I'm
really laughing. It's wonderful. But um so when when we
make this uh, when we're drawing air in right to
try to survive and live, um, where we make a
(06:48):
sound and we make a certain sound. And what I've
what I found is that it's universal. Ho ho ho.
I thought you meant when you're breathing or ha ha ha,
that's the laugh, right. What's crazy is is it happens
like almost universally people say ha ha ha or ho
ho ho, right, and they deliver that same laugh at
(07:10):
about the same rate about every two milliseconds. Structure. Yeah,
and the h is almost a delivery vehicle for the
vowel either the O or the A, the long or
the long A or the short am aha ha. I've
never paid that much attention to myself. But you don't
intermix them ever. No one has ever in the history
(07:32):
of humanity ever genuinely intermixed hot and ho into a
real laugh. And that interesting it is. And you also
have your own signature laugh, just like your voice is
your own, and your hiccupping pattern is your own. It's
your laugh generally is the same like it might might range,
but that is your laugh. You're never gonna laugh like, Wow,
(07:54):
that sounded like someone else all of a sudden, right, Yeah,
that'd be weird. My signature laugh is pink. It's really
I don't know what that means, but I'm laughing. So um, well,
there there you go. Then it was it was successful. Um.
And we also apparently humans have some sort of um
(08:14):
laughter detector that as far as I know, since we
call it a laughter detector, it means science hasn't figured
out what that is yet because that's to do with
the brain. But just based on observation, UM, we have
an ability to pick up on other people's laughter, and
for some reason that can make us laugh. It's contagious,
and as we laugh, it can make the other people
(08:35):
laugh and so on, and laughter just kind of keeps going.
That's right. Something else interesting about laughter is the more
you try to stifle it, say you're trying to really
keep your zygomatic major muscle in a relaxed position, the
more the funnier the situation becomes. The church, even heathens
(08:58):
know that it's called the church eagle. If you've never
setting footed side of church, you still call the church giggles.
And I have actually gotten the church giggles in church
big Oh yeah, sure, when I was a kid like it.
I remember being specifically being a teenager. This one time
I got the church kiggles really bad because something a
guest preacher said. He misspoke in a funny way and
(09:20):
it's something you shouldn't have laughed at, and I couldn't
help it, and I literally for like, I had to
excuse myself. I was the only person that had to
get up in leave. Did he shout center at you
on your way out? No? No. So one last little
universal aspect or pretty much universal aspect of laughter specifically, um,
and we should say, like this is based on the
(09:40):
article how laughter works, but it includes humor quite a
bit as well, but laughter specifically, Uh, there's this aspect
of it called the punctuation effect, where it doesn't it
doesn't normally I know what you're saying, I know your idea,
but it doesn't normally come in the middle of a sentence.
It normally comes at the end of a sentence or
the end of a phrase, or in a dead space
(10:02):
a period, which hence the name punctuation effect. That's one
of those things where I was like, do you really
need some researcher to tell you that, like that you
laugh after you speak, because you can't do both at
the same time. No, But I think the point is
that you're not like most people don't in the middle
of a joke laugh and then continue on with the joke,
(10:25):
and then laugh and then continue on and then deliver
the punch line. And if they do, everybody thinks they're
terrible joke teller. Well, if you're laughing at your own
joke anyway, probably doing it wrong. Or when um, when uh,
Henry Hill and good Fellas, right, he's just ticking off
Joe Pesci and he tells him he's a funny guy
and He's like, what am my clown do? I amuse you?
(10:47):
You think I'm you think I'm funny? Right, And then
like they they the tension is relieved and he jumps
on him or no, he doesn't jump on him yet,
and he goes, you really are a funny guy, and
then they starts laughing again. He didn't go you really
are and laugh a funny guy. The punctuation effect. Yeah,
I think that's lame. Well, okay, let's move on then
(11:08):
to why we laugh like this is a This is
one of the parts where we just don't fully understand. Well, uh,
some people have their ideas obviously. Uh. It all goes
back to Tuck Tuck, and people think that initially it
might have been as a ah, a release of tension
from the passing of danger. Took Tuk and his buddies
(11:29):
are sitting around in the saber Tooth Tigers nearby and
they are all quiet, and then they think maybe laughter
started as a relief that the danger is now gone,
or maybe it took Tok farted right afterwards, which is
always we had to get one of those in there.
Um that Another explanation is that it's a form of
(11:51):
social bonding. Sure that you don't really laugh around people
you don't trust. You at the very least, don't genuinely
laugh around people you don't trust, right, Yeah, you have
to be at ease to laugh. Yes, generally speaking, Um,
it's also a means of asserting dominance. As far as
I understand that, dominant individuals in societies, whether it be
(12:14):
human or maybe chimp, um, the jerks and other words,
tend to um create laughter more. But it's not necessarily
genuine laughter, not comfortable after it's a way of controlling
the social climate. But as far as genuine laughter goes,
there seems to be a necessity for trust and um,
(12:36):
there's some sort of positive feedback loop, right where when
you laugh with somebody you feel comfortable around them, and
they laugh and they feel comfortable around you, and that
lettle comfort can lead to more laughter and it's again
a positive feedback, and then you're all just having a
rip more good time. Right. And then afterward, after you've
shared this experience of these this person, you feel even
(12:58):
closer to than than before. That's right, When you share
a good laugh with someone, it bonds you. Yeah, I
feel that way for sure. So in that sense, it's
a social signal. And there's other studies that back up
the idea that this it's laughter is expressly designed for
the as a social bonding glue. Yeah, you're thirty times
(13:21):
more likely apparently to laugh in a social setting than
when you're alone with the TV off. Then again, I
wonder about that. It's like, don't you need some sort
of stimuli or they did they do? When they did,
they didn't have anything on the study, Like did they
put someone in a room alone and give them like
a funny book or something. I don't understand how that works.
Probably Okay, I think that maybe a book um would
(13:44):
do it. It says, no pseudo social device like a television,
So what are you laughing at? Then? If you're just
in a room. But that's what I'm saying, like, maybe
like you, you just are reading jokes on strips of paper, okay,
like a bazooka gum jokes nobody laughs at the Yeah,
that's that. That explains that. Well. In nitrous oxide, they
found German physiologists named Willobald Rook. They he found that
(14:10):
laughing gas was even less effective when you're alone. Yeah,
which which is true because you're just high. Is that
the deal. Oh yeah, I don't. I can't remember if
I ever had laughing gas, to be honest, Oh really no,
I've never liked had surgery. You don't necessarily I mean
you do kind of laughing. You're funny and everything seems funny.
(14:32):
And I have noticed, like when when you're at the dentist, uh,
and there, you know, the dentist and the hygienist during
there and they got you like nice and loaded. Everything's
kind of funnier and you're talking and all that, and
then when they leave and you're by yourself, you're just
like looking at the ceiling tile because it looks crazy.
But it's not necessarily funny. You should try it, man,
it's my whole life free. I hate the dentist too.
(14:54):
That would probably change that experience. You'll still hate the dentist,
but you'll be like, at least there's this okay, gotcha doctor,
feel good? Uh? It is uh. The study of laughter,
Josh has a name, is called gelatology, or it's g lotology.
That's the physiological study of laughter. That's what it said, right,
But I just want to make sure that that's clear,
(15:15):
because we're kind of vacillating between laughter and humor, and
this is the physiological study of humor of laughter. Thanks
for clearing that up. Uh. Emotional responses, um start in
the I'm sorry emotional responses or the function of the
frontal lobe. But when it comes to laughter, it's all
(15:36):
over the map. It's not just the frontal lobe. They
hooked people up to E E. G s and showed
them funny things and found that it's all All parts
of the brain are involved in the laughter response. So
it's not just emotional. But it's not necessarily all over
the map. I mean, it is all over the brain,
but it follows a prescribed neural circuit. That's right, Like
(15:57):
they can go, oh, it's going here next see, um,
what what parts of the brain does? It include the
cerebral cortex. Electrical wave moves through there and if now
I didn't really understand this, but if the wave takes
a negative charge, then you're gonna be laughing. If it's
a positive charge, then there's no response. So I guess
(16:17):
that just measures whether or not you think something's funny.
I guess I don't know, or else. Like it literally
like one type of electrical charge will trigger this response
and another type won't like it just passes over you.
But the human electric though, well either way. Um, an
electrical wave is generated when something that's potentially funny, potentially
(16:41):
funny stimuli is encountered. Within four tenths of a second. Yes,
this electrical signal is generated, and it's it. It's determined
I guess in four tents whether you thought it was
funny or not. Yeah. So, but that's a great question.
I mean, like that's a card or the horse kind
of question, like does it turn positive or negative because
we found it funny or do we find it funny
(17:03):
because it turned positive or negative. I think it's the humor.
You have to find it funny, and then the brain
reacts to that response. That's what I think. So let's
say that it does take a negative charge, this electrical
wave that just covers your brain, and um, it starts
spreading through this neural circuit, starting with the left side
(17:23):
of the cortex right, which analyzes the words and structure
of a joke. Yep, making sense of it all. Ye,
of the words themselves. The frontal lobe, which is in
charge of emotion. That's right, you got the right hemisphere,
the cortex, which basically it sorts out whether or not
the joke makes sense to you. Right, Well, that's where
you put it together, like the the right um, the
(17:45):
right hemisphere, the frontal lobe is the place where we
managed to construct emotion and intellect of the cortex, and
that's where we that's where you get the joke. Right.
They've also found that that's the hard since you need
all these different systems in the brain. But that's the
part when it's damage that produces the um most damage
(18:08):
to experiencing humor, getting humor, finding anything funny, Yeah, it's
real sad uh. Of course, you have the motor sections
that get all the physical responses going, like slapping your
knee or doubling over or whatever you do that's wacky
when you laugh. And there's there's also another big one
that um, I didn't think of, but it made perfect
(18:28):
sense when I when I thought about it, which was
the sensory processing area of the occipital lobe towards the
back of the head. But that's where you visualize things.
So it's like imagine what a snake wearing a vest
does look like, you know, and then that makes you
laugh as well. So it's almost like all of these
different like the structure of the joke, the words, and
all that um, pulling in past emotions, your emotional response
(18:53):
right then going um, visualizing the thing that's just been described.
All this stuff is brought together to produce the sensation
of finding something funny, and then that motor part is triggered,
and that's when you start crying and you can't breathe
and you say ha ha ha or ho ho ho
every milliseconds, or flail your arms about her whatever you're
(19:14):
into the Olympics system. I didn't get a lot out
of this part, especially the comparison to the alligator. It
was a I have a I have a big question
markt that didn't really there's a whole paragraph in this
um in this article everybody that it has no purpose
(19:36):
for being there. Chuck and I can't make heather tails
of it. If you can email us later. Um, but
I chucked. The Olympics system part didn't make much sense
to me until I found a theory um that that
we that we can talk about called incongruity theory. UM. Well,
it's one of the theories of why we have the
ability to find things funny or why things are funny
(20:00):
and others aren't. And incongruity theory says that, um remember
with curiosity. That was also a theory for why we're curious, like,
you know, this pencil just fell up and I want
to go find out why that. That's a theory to
explain why things make us curious. There's also a similar
theory for why things can be found funny, and it's
(20:21):
when you tell a joke. We were the joke tellers,
riling up the expectation and the listener and then delivering
something totally different. That that moment of incongruity that makes
the brain like, whoa, it just slipped on ice and
it's regaining its footing is thrilling. That's one explanation. The
other explanation for incongruity theory is that we find things
(20:41):
funny so that we can learn how not to think
or how not to act right like you don't you
don't you just don't walk around acting like the Three Stooges.
We find it funny because it's something we don't do.
We learned to not do it like that, or we
can we cannot follow logic just in a madcap screwy
logic is attendant to jokes by finding them funny as well. Yeah,
(21:06):
that's I think that's one part of some types of
comedy for sure, is when the punch line is unexpected
in some way in congruous, like for instance, Um, the
other day, I was hanging out at the house with
Emily and I was singing songs to my dog. Um,
(21:26):
there's a lot of things like that in our home,
and I was singing the song I was playing patty
Cake with my dog, Charlie, who was a girl. And
I said, well, you gotta know that for the song
to make sense. And so I was singing this song
and I said, patty cake, patty cake, Baker's chick, bake
(21:49):
me a cake that's shaped like a standard cake. It.
Emily just thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.
But that's a good example, like that Limerick thing where you,
I mean, it's the same, what's the Limerick joke where
you think you're gonna say something dirty and it's actually
something great normal. I know what you're talking about. I
can't think of it right, But it's that unexpected, incongruous
(22:09):
thing that works so well in comedy. So many times
you have me that you thought I was gonna say
something else I did and I blushed, You did, your
face got a little red. So um. Incongruity theory is
old and very widely accepted, although it's also criticized for
being overly broad. Explain a lot of stuff totally. But
(22:29):
it's like, I don't understand why everybody has to have
a theory for everything. Why can't it be like, Yes,
incongruity explains some type of humor, superiority explains another. Well,
that's another. That's what I like to call the America's
Funniest Home Videos humor, which is we've talked about before,
And that's when you focus on stupidity or misfortune a
(22:50):
gufall and not a god fall. That's a laugh, a boner,
a mistake, and um, it makes you feel superior to
the guy that just got kicked in the groin, and
you think that's funny. It is because it's not you
getting kicked in the groin. I guess I've never analyzed
it like that, but yeah, I guess better him than
me what I'm thinking? And I kicked in the groin?
(23:12):
Would you think it was funny? No? I wouldn't, But
that doesn't explain why I find it funny when it
happens to somebody else. Well, in a way, it's just
the superiority theory. And I don't think that literally means
you feel superior. But it's just funny to see someone
fall down sometimes and they should call it something else. Um.
Let me say one more thing about in congruity. Okay,
(23:33):
there's a dude out there named Alistair Cook who came
up with a book and in it I know him,
you do, well, not personally really, I hadn't heard of
him until recently. Anyway, he came out with a book
and in it he had he came up with an
equation to basically figure out how humorous something is. So
(23:57):
humor equals Are you ready for this? The guy came
up with a formula to humor equals um the amount
of misinformation present in the joke, right, which is part
of incongruity times um the potential for the joke listener
to take it seriously. Right, So the bigger the whopper
(24:20):
is and the more finesse with which you tell it,
the more humorous this joke is going to be. That
makes sense. There's also the comedy is tragedy. Plus time.
We've all heard that things that aren't funny today might
be funny in ten years. That's why too soon you
can also get a laughing actually just by saying too
soon when you make a bad joke in poor taste
(24:42):
or Alan al said, did you ever see Crimes and Misdemeanors?
What do Allen? Movie? Alan Alda was this really pompous
director in that movie. And when he was he's trying
to explain comedy to what Allen And he said, if
it bends, it's funny. If it breaks, it's not funny.
(25:02):
But that's kind of true though, It's that take it
to a certain point, but don't break it, because then
it's just not funny. I don't know, sometimes it's funny
to break it. I think there's always just because you
don't take something it's funny doesn't mean that someone else does. Yeah.
I don't think you should ever begrudge somebody for taking
(25:23):
something funny, even if it offends you. There's not a
lot that offends me, as you know. Um. The last
one is relief theory, which is, like you were saying, um,
some people populate was the first experience of laughter? Um
was some danger past and everybody was just relieved so
they were laughing. Right, Um, have you seen Emerson the
(25:45):
baby that's um scared of his mom no blowing her nose. Oh,
it's awesome. You gotta see it. This kid is terrified,
like you've never seen a human being terrified whenever his
mom blows his nose. And then he starts laughing and
she does it again. He's terrified again, and it's really
just I'll send you the link. It's awesome. But yeah,
he supports relief theory. Uh. The other thing too about
(26:07):
superiority theory before we move on, is that's that's the
basis of a lot of comedy period. Like Louis c
k is so funny because he's talking about how fat
he is and how he never has sex anymore and
like what a piece of crappy as a human and
a bad dad. And that's that's not just him, that's
a lot of comedians take that route that self and
(26:30):
see that goes beyond self deprecating even it's like make
fun of myself, like everyone laugh at me and how
miserable I am, and feel better about yourself because you're
not fat and bald. And then relief theory. Also, Um
explains how uh, laughter is a great way to diffuse
a Mexican standoff, right, because you're in there and you
(26:50):
got your gun on one guy, he's got his gun
on you. And then if you laugh and you can
convince him it's a genuine laugh, he becomes disarmed and
then blam right, you're you're the last man standing. I'm
gonna remember that. Haven't you ever seen any movies? Yeah,
that happens to the movies. You're right, that's why that's
scientific fact. Are there really Mexican standoffs? Has that ever happened?
(27:12):
Three people? It has? I think you can do it
with two. But yeah, and I thought the definition was
three people. No, I don't know. I know that if
you have your gun on somebody and they have their
gun on you, I think that's a a a Chilean standoff, right,
And I'm just taken. So we've just dragged humor through
(27:32):
the mud and just basically we've just eviscerated it. We've
vivisected it. Um, So let's find out what's not funny,
chuckers Um. Apparently it comes down to and again, there's
researchers out, there's a guy named Robert Provine, who's quite
a career for himself, like studying humor and laughter. Um.
But this laughter or humor research um has yielded that
(27:57):
there's basically two factor in somebody not finding something funny
that's age makes sense and attachment to the subject or
the victim that says it all. When you're a little baby,
you're discovering the world, you think your mom uh sneezing
is funny, no terrifying, No, no, no, I was just
(28:18):
using a different example. Or your dog, you know, lapping
water is funny because it's all brand new. You get
a little bit older, things are gonna change. When you're
a little toddler, you're gonna think poopoo is funny. Well,
when you're an adult, you might think poopoo is funny.
When you're an awkward teenager, you might be more into
(28:39):
h jokes that make fun of authority figures or that
focus on sex and like all these new things when
you're trying to figure yourself out. And then as you mature,
supposedly you're supposed to get a little more evolved with
your humor and barriers are broken down much more um
and uh, like you may joke about work, right sure,
(29:02):
the old the old boss, the old man, the old lady. Right, um.
And and with all of these, each of these stages,
even though like an adult thinks a teenager sense of
humor is just trap, right, um, if you if you
kind of take away that evaluation and look at all
of them equally, people laugh about or find things funny
(29:24):
based on what's a stresser in their life. So what
stress is a teenager oute is totally unrelatable for an adult,
so they're not gonna find it funny. There's it's not
a stressor. So mainly most of the stuff we laugh
about or we find funny are based on stressors in
our lives. Yeah, that makes sense, and your intelligence level
has a little something to do with it, um, as
(29:45):
far as what you find funny, I've known people, and
I'm sure you have that were dumb and that didn't
get jokes or humor. I used to have a rule
of a measuring stick for intelligence. You remember the show
Doctor Kats. Did you ever meet anybody who was like, oh,
I can't watch that show. That's those quickly lines is
driving me crazy? Yeah, yeah, you have it. That's pretty good.
(30:09):
They just use that it was infallible. Yeah, or I mean,
there's a lot of TV shows like that, but it's
all just I don't know, it's all subjective. It's I
guess it's not right to say someone's not smart. But
I've known some dummies that in a quick paste funny
conversation they just sit there like I don't get it.
They're lost. Yeah, it's sad and drags everybody else down,
and really they should just stay in their rooms, right,
(30:34):
um so chuck josh. Uh. Lastly, I guess where you
come from is another aspect of what you find funny
and what cultural for sure? May I may I play
an example of that. I brought another one today. Okay,
I have a joke. There is it cheer the cheer
(30:59):
walk Oh with a shot la la la, you walk
on the street that he's a walking from. Yes, well,
what's a funny image? Yes? Nice that one was using
(31:22):
her occipital lobe. Oh boy, that was from the genuinely
perfect movie Borat. Yeah, there's not not much as funnier
to meeting Borah. I love it, Yes, but it's a
great example of how, uh, something could be funny in
theory to a to a foreigner that the person in
(31:43):
the culture outside of that, and that's the whole basis
of pride. That's all he does talk about things that
are funny in Kazakhstan. So, um, British humor. You've always
heard about British humor very specific and like if you think,
like I didn't like Faulty Towers, well you just don't
get British humor. Like on, oh, I just not thought
it was funny. Yeah it was hit or miss. Fawlty Towers,
(32:03):
Monty Python was even hit or miss. I mean just
sometimes you're not in the move for absurdainity. Agreed, And
there is a British humor. But I found the Brits
are a little prone to get up on their high
horse about like, well, you just don't get it right. Well, no,
you know you have a British friend, don't you. Oh yeah,
Justin will tell me. I don't get it took Oh,
it's just it's pretty human. You don't understand, right, No,
(32:26):
leave me alone while my beans drenched and catch up.
Justin's been here since he was seventeen though he's so
he's American, He's American Georgia and even until the girls
come around um, so chuckers. Oh lastly, um, if you
have an attachment to the subject, say you know you're
(32:47):
you're your brother really did die in a motorcycle accident,
You're never gonna find it. Might not find that Anthony
doesn't nick joke funny, or if you literally couldn't care
less about people dying in motors cycle accidents, you're probably
not going to find that funny. And that researcher Provine
has basically divided that up into two ends of the spectrum,
(33:08):
which based on things people commonly say, which is is
it offensive or what's the point? Or it is I'm
sorry it is offensive or what's the point? Well, there
you have it. That means you Yeah, that probably means
you have a personal something at stake. Yes, and you
found even in time won't even cure that. Yeah, that's
(33:30):
like the Twin Towers falling. It was the first comedians
to start joking about that. It was remember that being
a very like tense thing when people started making jokes
about that. But I think one of the ways to
digest raw and negative emotions is to eventually laugh about it, right, Yeah,
because it's the best medicine. So, speaking of medicine, Chuck,
(33:52):
that's a nice set up. Um. There is no less
than two UM groups dedicated to studying humor, and these
are international associations, well ones American UM what is it?
The American Association for Therapeutic Humor and the International Society
for Humor Studies, and they are bona fide. They have
(34:13):
conferences all over the place. Because it's real, dude, it
is UM. And there's like a definite hint of Patch
Adams in there. So I'd like to just skim right
over this. But there is a physiological effect to laughter,
UM that is totally beneficial of the body. That's right, right,
And it kind of goes back to fight or flight
in a way very much, because we've talked about this
(34:36):
gazillion times. When the fight or flight response kicks in,
that kind of a lot of your other bodily functions
cease to happen and everything freezes up. And when we laugh, though,
is that uh, laughter shuts off the stress hormones, certain
stress hormones that the fight or flight response would normally
be shutting down your like immune system. It shuts that
(34:58):
down and actually boost to your immune system right temporarily, UM,
not only that it boosts the production of gamma interfere
on um B cells and T cells, which are all
UM engaged in warding off disease or boosting the immune system. Right,
UM the production of blood platelets increases UM UH, SAL,
(35:20):
salivary immunoglobulin A, which UM protects against respiratory diseases. All
of these cells and antibodies their production is boosted. So basically,
we're just inherently healthier when we laugh, which is pretty
awesome if you ask me so. Not only is the
is the fight or flight the sympathetic uh, the sympathetic
(35:42):
nervous system like deadened, but we're actually getting healthier, right,
That's just that's awesome. It's pretty amazing. It also gives
you a pretty good workout. They found that laughing one
hundred times is about the same as fifteen minutes on
an exercise bike works out your diaphragm. You know you've
had your stomach kurt from laughing so hard, Yes, crunches,
(36:05):
I know, it feels so good. It feels so good
your stomach kurts, and you realize you just peed yourself
a little. I've never pead myself laughing. Really, it's a gas. Uh.
There's a guy named Norman Cousins. Have you ever heard
of this dude? He is uh or was an author, humorist,
political activists, and he studied the biochemistry of emotions for
(36:29):
many years. And U c l A. And he struggled
with heart disease and then eventually a severe form of arthritis.
And he watched Marx Brothers films, and uh basically found
that belly laughing for ten minutes. Watching one of these
Marx Brothers films allowed him to sleep pain free for
(36:50):
two hours. And then it literally he could feel it
wearing off as if it were a medicine. And then
he would watch funny stuff again. If only I could
laugh at March but There's films, I'd be a happier person.
You don't laugh at March Brothers. No, I'm more like
in awe, like wow, these guys were comic geniuses. But
to find something that comic genius doesn't necessarily mean to
find it funny interesting. I don't. I don't, although I
(37:14):
do have to say and maybe like I'm like a
fan of The poor Man's Marks Brothers, but I do
laugh out loud. You me and I both laugh out loud.
At Three Stooges. Now, I would think you would laugh
at March Brothers because they have watched it. Man that
that's not even like higher class of comedy than three students.
I'll have to check it out again. No, Gratcha was
he was a sharp tack. Yeah, sure, And I think
(37:36):
that that kind of translates so a different part of
my brain is activated where I'm like watching him on
an intellectual level. With with the Three Stooges, I can
just turn off and it's just funny. I got you
all right, Um, do you got anything else? Yeah? U
c l A has a study they're doing now too,
Um where they they inflict pain on children there. It
(37:58):
is the funniest thing of this wolds. Uh. They take
healthy kids and they wire them up and then ask
them to put their hands in ten degrease celsius water
and hold it there for as long as they can.
It's painful. It's not like inflicting damage though, you know
what I'm saying. And Uh, on average kids can hold
their arms in the freezing water for eighty seven seconds.
(38:19):
But if they're shown funny videos while they're doing that,
their heart rate, blood pressure and breathing and all their
vital signs get better and stronger, and they can last
up to longer. And then afterward they sample the we've
talked about cortisol, the stress hormone before. Then there's saliva
and they laughing helps their bodies recover much faster. So
(38:41):
it's physical, baby, it's very neat. It's all in the spit.
I guess that's the that's the point of this whole
How Laughter Works podcast. It's all about your spit. It's
that the deal. Hey, you should check out. I think
it's a national geographic maybe Natio Nova. It's one of those.
It's one of those two um documentary on stress, like
(39:03):
the Physiological effects of stress. Who read about that too?
Really awesome, it's very good. It's that article actually, physical
effects of stress. It's good. It's streaming on Netflix. Check
it out. All right, you got anything else? I got
nothing else? All right? Well, if you want to learn
more about laughter, type in laughter in the search bar
how Stuff Works dot Com, which brings up Chuck. It's
been a little while. Listener mail Josh. We asked for
(39:28):
bear stories and we got him. And this is what
I thought was the best one. This is from Chris
ef in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It's British Columbia. Two years ago.
The bear population came out of the mountains early because
of poor barry supplies. Basically, this guy's neighborhood was rampant
with bears for for a summer. Um I'm sorry. In
(39:49):
the spring, I'm sorry. In the autumn, he returned from
walking his dog, walked into his cardboard and there was
a large bear cub chowing down on my garbage. My
dog was an energetic labradoodle, how old and happy excitement
of what he thought was the biggest squirrel he had
ever seen, and chased after the cub, who we named
boot Dog, ran around uh Chase's cub in the backyard,
(40:13):
and all of a sudden, booze mother came around the corner,
and they later named this one Marie Hardy. She weighed
about two and fifty pounds and walked up to this
guy and the dog, who was barking four ft away.
When I hit her on the head with my golf umbrella.
The south stopped deadner Track sat back on her haunches,
(40:34):
shaking her head in disbelief, and was very surprised to
be smacked with the umbrella. For about five seconds, and
then she came straight at me in the garage and
I smacked her again with significantly less profound effect. Gave
me time to back out of the cardboard and do
the only thing I could think of, which was to
open the umbrella in her face and yell and scream
and close my eyes. Yeah that sounds like a reasonable
(40:56):
thing to do. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I mean,
I am so tense right now. What happened? I opened
my eyes again and Moriarty was gone into the brush
along with Boo. But they became regular visitors throughout the
rest of the fall, ranging through the neighborhood for scraps,
and then they returned the next summer with a new
small cub that we named Boo Too Happy ending for
(41:17):
Chris and ps, we're proud Civa contributors, which is really
a lord that our Kiva team is killing it. We're
about to hit sik in loan. Yeah, so go guys.
If you want to join our Kiva team, you can
go to www. Dot Kiva k i v a dot
org slash team singular slash stuff you should know. Join up,
(41:40):
start donating and uh help contribute to the cause. And
if you want to send us an email about laughing
something you thought was very funny or even better than that,
because we probably wouldn't find it that funny. Send us
a link to something that's actually funny, all right, and
we will judge you, well, we'll judge your laughing skills. Um.
(42:00):
Send it to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought
(42:20):
to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
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