What is your sense of humor like?

The sense of humor is one of the most valued qualities, precisely because of its scarcity. People who are able to joke and make people laugh are like a balm for themselves and for others. Capable of refreshing even the most bitter moments of life. Without a doubt, it is a great virtue and an automatic and not always conscious mechanism, really useful for releasing accumulated tensions.

Laughter frees us, because it allows us to be spontaneous and has a playful component at its core. A single session of laughter is much more relaxing than many of the tasks we plan for the same purpose.. Thus, laughter has that magical property of renewing us and improving our disposition towards the world.

Sigmund Freud gave jokes and laughter a definitive role within psychoanalytic theory. He discovered that through these daily entertainments the unconscious world is clearly expressed. So, in what pleases us, our deepest desires and feelings are also revealed.

What are you laughing at?

People laugh at surprising situations, in which, based on something more or less absurd, a new message is constructed that does make sense. Or on the contrary: when an absurd meaning emerges from something perfectly coherent.

In what causes laughter, misunderstanding plays a fundamental role. This misunderstanding originates in double meanings, generally. This, in turn, gives rise to three types of jokes or reasons for laughter: the funny or witty comment; the tendentious or excessively innocent joke; and the “green” joke or joke with sexual or obscene content.

Freud also discovered that through jokes one breaks censorship.. The funny allows us to bring up topics or situations that are more or less taboo in the world of “the serious.” Many of the jokes express aggressive or sexual content, which would be intolerable in other types of contexts.

Like this joke:

An intermediary introduces his client to the girl he has chosen as his bride. Unpleasantly impressed, the young man says to his agent: “What brought me here? She is ugly, old, cross-eyed, toothless and. . .” “You can speak loudly,” the other interrupts; she is also deaf.”

When you laugh at the ridiculous or at your own or other people’s defects

The ridiculous is configured when there is a disproportion among the elements that make up a situation. This is the case of clowns, who wear huge shoes that are funny. Also the case of a show on one of the great fashion catwalks (Parías, Milan, Madrid, etc.), in which someone stumbles.

Comedians ridicule figures of power through caricatures of well-known characters and situations that they have starred in. Generally, these caricatures seek to exaggerate an aspect of what has happened or the personality of the protagonist, expressing scathing criticism and, at times, being extremely aggressive. However, they are tolerated because they contribute to catharsis: it is one of the tools that citizens have in the face of power.

An example of this type of jokes or caricatures is:

Mother and son:
-Son, never lie, lying people will never be something in life.
-Then why do we vote for those who never fulfill what they promise?

Mockery and ridicule, through caricature, are instruments that allow us to question behaviors, sharpening them and exposing them without fear. However, when they are directed at a vulnerable person, the effect is the opposite: it establishes a vertical power relationship, which victimizes those who are vulnerable. It is the classic “laugh at people and not with them”.

The spicy jokes and the innocent ones

The sexual theme is a constant in many jokes, especially using the “double meaning.”: on the one hand, they are a statement that has nothing to do with sex; On the other hand, it has everything to do with it. Like this:

Two friends meet and one says to the other:
– Yesterday I came home and found my girlfriend in bed with a very strong guy. The fact is that, to my surprise, when she sees me she goes after me, she grabs me by the neck, pushes me into a corner. Then she draws a line on the ground and tells me:
– If you step on this line, I will kill you. Immediately afterwards he goes back to bed with my wife, to continue the work.
– What a situation! And what did you do?
– Me?… What would that guy think! When he wasn’t looking, he stepped on the line!

Double meaning jokes with sexual content make you laugh because bring to the foreground a topic that is still taboo. In the previous example, more than the topic itself, what makes people laugh is the trick of making the other person think about sex, without that being the topic, using an ingenious formula.

But naïve or innocent jokes also make people laugh, precisely because of the naivety or obviousness they contain. Like this:

A baby bat says to his friend:

-What is your name?

– “Vam” -answers the second.

-“Vam”, what? – the first asks again.

-“Come on, I ask.” And you?

– My name is “Oto”

– “Oto” what?

– “Oto Vampido”.

These candid jokes have a “white” form of humor, because their meaning does not rest on an aggression that is camouflaged or on a double meaning that breaks the taboo, but on pure wit, on pure absurdity. Strictly speaking, they are mental and language games.

Health benefits of laughter and humor

A good sense of humor can help us deal with difficult times and act as a pain reliever or light fun that relaxes us from stress. Next, we will review some benefits of laughter and humor.

Improves heart health

While we laugh, the muscles relax and their vascular functioning improves. As we laugh at fun events, heart health improves. Research has found that laughter increases heart rate and reduces heart rate variability, which is similar to the effects of exercise.

Reduce stress

Evidence indicates that humor reduces stress hormones. Cortisol circulates throughout the body when we are stressed. Decreasing cortisol levels is important because high levels challenge our immune system.

Improve memory

Another benefit of using humor and laughter is it improves the retention of information in memory. In a study, focused on the relationship of humor with politics and news, it was found that information was more likely to be remembered and shared if the content made the participant laugh.

Unite the people

A shared laugh creates strong bonds between people. Most of us remember a time when laughter became contagious and spread quickly. People also generally feel closer after laughing together (Scott et al.2014).

Add positivity to conversations

Humor has another worthwhile social benefit: it creates more positive communications between people. In addition, it has a favorable impact on the quality of relationships. One investigation found that the proportion of conversation in which a person was laughing simultaneously with their romantic partner was positively associated with global evaluations of relationship quality, closeness, and social support.

To end, Humor is a valid formula to express ideas. However, controversy still persists about where its limits lie. Is it valid on all occasions? Is it legitimate even when it represents a way of stigmatizing a social group, as is the case with sexist jokes? Can humor generate visceral hatred as happened in the unfortunate events of Charlie Hebdo magazine? The debate is open.

You might be interested…