What makes something humorous? A joke is as individual as the person telling it, and the response to said joke, again is as distinct as the person hearing it. Laughter is not always guaranteed, but the impact of humour, while varied, elicits a response, nonetheless.
Janet M Gibson, Professor Emerita of psychology at Grinnell College refers to humour as “a game with its own rules”.
Ultimately, humour is strategic, whether that is to highlight the absurdity of certain social issues, to influence or manipulate political viewpoints or simply to laugh, feel light, and brighten the mood. However, how individuals engage with humour depends on a variety of factors including social and cultural differences, social groups and lived experiences. Which is why what one person finds rib-cracking hilarious, others may be offended by.
“We laugh for many reasons,” says Gibson, “but in response to humour, laughter is an external social signal that you get it, you connect with the joker, and you share a mutual liking of the situation and each other. People are generally good at discriminating genuine laughter from fake laughter, and laughter among friends versus laughter among strangers. Hearing others laugh encourages you to laugh, almost like a contagious yawn.”
READ MORE
In all, humour is a social construct that influences our engagement with others and the world around us. It is a technique used to hold a mirror up to the world highlighting the oddities and obscurities, ugliness in the broad sense of the word, and perhaps bemused or thwarted take on life. A social scrutiny if you like, but humour can influence, intrigue, and question reality by opening discourse.
It comes with complex power relations, and the best comedians have the opportunity to push open the gate on boundaries, as reflected in love-him-or-hate-him Ricky Gervais’ Golden Globes opening monologue.
Gibson says that humour is a response to “delightful, unexpected events, where instead of puzzlement or confusion we feel mirth and enjoyment”. Delving a little deeper into humour, we know that there are a number of schools of thought in humour studies – superiority theory, relief theory, and incongruity theory to name but a few. These humour theories influence humorous engagement in everything from politics to water cooler chats, advertising campaigns, relationships, social cues and making sense of the world.
Engaging with humour is not necessarily as straightforward as we imagine. It’s not simply a case that something is either funny or not funny. There are layers to comedy which are broken down intuitively by a person. Gibson explores this on various levels when she says that humour “involves cognitive, emotive, and social factors all which come together and arouse the body”.
She explains that when we hear a joke or something humorous, we detect “new meaning or associations after the punchline” through cognitive awareness. We experience joy, happiness, and mirth on the emotional side of things, and a social connection as we get the joke. And of course the body reacts with movement, smiles, laughter, and increased heart rate.
“Humour can be described as a mood,” says Gibson, “freedom from reality, a personality characteristic, a way to regulate our emotions, and a way to gain intimacy with others when shared”.
[ ‘The Irish sense of humour makes communications a lot easier’Opens in new window ]
Humour can lead to overall positive health outcomes, lowering stress and anxiety, with the potential to have an effect on physical pain. When we laugh, tension lowers, but a strong component of humour is how it creates connection not only with family and friends but the wider world through shared experiences, reducing the vulnerability we may feel from exploring bigger issues.
“Positive forms of humour communicate goodwill and competence in our social interaction and ability to be friends, understand them, and want to help them,” says Gibson. “When you laugh, you tell others, no harm done, or no threat here, which can save face or reduce tension. It’s a great way to break the ice when you have something serious to talk about but don’t know how to start.”
While humour is a valuable tool in discussing social issues in a less threatening or disconnected manner, bringing communities and individuals together, it has the potential to be used negatively with the alienation and humiliation of a target.
[ Do humour and laughter benefit your health?Opens in new window ]
Humour can ridicule and destroy as much as it can connect. Gibson is cognisant that not all humour is well-meaning with negative forms of humour also communicating messages. For example, Gibson uses the idea that if someone does not have social skills, they might insult someone and pretend it’s a joke. Or a person might not want to debate with someone else prepared for a heated discussion based on a literal statement they made and ultimately the declare it as a joke.
“There’s a fine line between humour to tease, insult, rant, or hurt and to please, compliment, enjoy absurdities, or feel better,” says Gibson. “That line often requires the intention of the joker to be known. But the ambiguous nature of humour makes the joker’s intentions all the harder to discern. Misunderstanding is so easy with humour.
“Research shows many social problems, like bullying, could be reduced if people understand the function and styles of humour, and how to tell the difference between being mean and being funny. Psychology says it’s not good to always be serious or always playful.
“Psychologists recommend having a good sense of humour and good problem-solving strategies, so you don’t make light of problems that need your attention whether physical, social, or emotional.”
Considering laughter is often referred to as the best medicine, how can we bring a good balance of humour into our day-to-day life?
1. Try it out
“One is to practice it, because most of us aren’t good at producing humour or knowing how to respond to other people’s humour they don’t like,” says Gibson. “Each night you could try to put a funny spin on events of the day. This helps you to lighten up, too, so the monotony or stress of the day can be reframed as funnier than the downers they were.”
2. Keep humour around you
“Surround yourself with humorous stimuli such as comedies, books, people you know who are funny, and both enjoy them and learn from them,” says Gibson. As Gibson suggests, have a repertoire of jokes to ease yourself into social gatherings. I have a number of go-to jokes which I deliver routinely at family gatherings. Have you ever heard of the magic tractor? It turned into a field. This one’s usually met with a groaning titter, but a laugh nonetheless!
[ We all need to smile and laugh more – it makes everything betterOpens in new window ]
3. Be open to different humour
Gibson also suggests being open to alternative forms of humour, be flexible and try something different. “Lighten up when irksome events happen,” she says. “Make associations between things rather than always jumping to one interpretation. Get the creative juices bubbling in your mental blender.”
4. Don’t judge yourself harshly
We often hear the advice to laugh at ourselves more, but it isn’t easy. I credit my husband with guiding me on this path and he has struck gold in keeping our kids similarly grounded in humour. “We tend to take ourselves way too seriously,” says Gibson. “Replace harsh judgment with liking your funny self.”
5. Humour as a coping mechanism
“Choose to cope with humour instead of something maladaptive, like drugs, anger or nursing a grudge,” says Gibson. “Humour can be both emotional coping, ie it feels better when I find it funny rather than annoying, and problem-solving coping. The flexible thinking needed for humour encourages thinking of ideas for how to remove the stressor.”
