Humour (
Commonwealth English
The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited from British colonisation, with some exceptions. English serves as the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations.
Many ...
) or humor (
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
) is the tendency of experiences to provoke
laughter
Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter ...
and provide
amusement. The term derives from the
humoral medicine
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Humorism began to fall out of favor in the 1850s ...
of the
ancient Greeks
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
: ', "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.
People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny (such as a pun or joke)—and thus are considered to have a ''sense of humour''. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal
taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including
geographical location,
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...
,
maturity, level of
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...
,
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as the ...
and
context. For example, young children may favour
slapstick
Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such a ...
such as
Punch and Judy puppet shows or the ''
Tom and Jerry'' cartoons, whose physical nature makes it accessible to them. By contrast, more sophisticated forms of humour such as
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
require an understanding of its social meaning and context, and thus tend to appeal to a more mature audience.
Theories
Many theories exist about what humour is and what social function it serves. The prevailing types of theories attempting to account for the existence of humour include
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
theories, the vast majority of which consider humour-induced behaviour to be very healthy; spiritual theories, which may, for instance, consider humour to be a "gift from God"; and theories which consider humour to be an unexplainable mystery, very much like a
mystical experience.
The benign-violation theory, endorsed by
Peter McGraw, attempts to explain humour's existence. The theory says 'humour only occurs when something seems wrong, unsettling, or threatening, but simultaneously seems okay, acceptable or safe'. Humour can be used as a method to easily engage in social interaction by taking away that awkward, uncomfortable, or uneasy feeling of social interactions.
Others believe that 'the appropriate use of humour can facilitate social interactions'.
Views
Some claim that humour should not be explained. Author
E. B. White once said, "Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind." Counter to this argument, protests against "offensive" cartoons invite the dissection of humour or its lack by aggrieved individuals and communities. This process of dissecting humour does not necessarily banish a sense of humour but directs attention towards its politics and assumed universality (Khanduri 2014).
Arthur Schopenhauer lamented the misuse of ''humour'' (a
German loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...
from
English) to mean any type of
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...
. However, both ''humour'' and ''comic'' are often used when theorising about the subject. The connotations of ''humour'' as opposed to ''comic'' are said to be that of response versus stimulus. Additionally, ''humour'' was thought to include a combination of ridiculousness and wit in an individual; the paradigmatic case being Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff. The French were slow to adopt the term ''humour''; in French, ''humeur'' and ''humour'' are still two different words, the former referring to a person's
mood
Mood may refer to:
*Mood (psychology), a relatively long lasting emotional state
Music
*The Mood, a British pop band from 1981 to 1984
* Mood (band), hip hop artists
* ''Mood'' (Jacquees album), 2016
* ''Moods'' (Barbara Mandrell album), 1978
...
or to the archaic concept of the four
humours.
Non-satirical humour can be specifically termed ''droll humour'' or ''recreational drollery''.
Sociological factors
As with any art form, the acceptance of a particular style or incidence of humour depends on
sociological factors and varies from person to person. Throughout history, comedy has been used as a form of entertainment all over the world, whether in the courts of the Western kings or the villages of the Far East. Both a social etiquette and a certain intelligence can be displayed through forms of
wit
Wit is a form of intelligent humour, the ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. Someone witty is a person who is skilled at making clever and funny remarks. Forms of wit include the quip, repartee, and wisecrack.
Form ...
and
sarcasm. Eighteenth-century
German author
Georg Lichtenberg said that "the more you know humour, the more you become demanding in fineness."
Ancient Greece
Western humour theory begins with
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...
, who attributed to
Socrates (as a semi-historical dialogue character) in the ''
Philebus
The ''Philebus'' (; occasionally given as ''Philebos''; Greek: ) is a Socratic dialogue written in the 4th century BC by Plato. Besides Socrates (the main speaker) the other interlocutors are Philebus and Protarchus. Philebus, who advocates the ...
'' (p. 49b) the view that the essence of the
ridiculous is an ignorance in the weak, who are thus unable to retaliate when ridiculed. Later, in Greek philosophy,
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...
, in the ''
Poetics
Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry.
History
The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...
'' (1449a, pp. 34–35), suggested that an ugliness that does not disgust is fundamental to humour.
India
In ancient
Sanskrit drama,
Bharata Muni's ''
Natya Shastra
The ''Nāṭya Śāstra'' (, ''Nāṭyaśāstra'') is a Sanskrit treatise on the performing arts. The text is attributed to sage Bharata Muni, and its first complete compilation is dated to between 200 BCE and 200 CE, but estimates vary ...
'' defined humour (''
hāsyam'') as one of the nine ''
nava rasas
Indian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience, or with representing them symbolically.
Rasas in the performing arts
The theory of rasas still forms the aesthetic underpinning of al ...
'', or principle ''
rasas'' (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by ''
bhavas'', the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. Each ''rasa'' was associated with a specific ''
bhavas'' portrayed on stage.
In Arabic and Persian culture
The terms
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...
and
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...
became synonymous after Aristotle's ''Poetics'' was translated into
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
in the
medieval Islamic world
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...
, where it was elaborated upon by
Arabic writers and
Islamic philosophers such as
Abu Bischr, his pupil
Al-Farabi
Abu Nasr Muhammad Al-Farabi ( fa, ابونصر محمد فارابی), ( ar, أبو نصر محمد الفارابي), known in the West as Alpharabius; (c. 872 – between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951)PDF version was a renowned early Is ...
, Persian
Avicenna, and
Averroes
Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an
Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psych ...
. Due to cultural differences, they disassociated comedy from
Greek dramatic representation, and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as ''
hija'' (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply the "art of reprehension" and made no reference to light and cheerful events or troublesome beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the
Latin translations of the 12th century, the term ''comedy'' thus gained a new meaning in
Medieval literature.
Caribbean
Mento star
Lord Flea, stated in a 1957 interview that he thought that: "
West Indians have the best sense of humour in the world. Even in the most solemn song, like ''Las Kean Fine''
Lost and Can Not Be Found" which tells of a boiler explosion on a sugar plantation that killed several of the workers, their natural wit and humour shine though."
China
Confucianist Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, with its emphasis on ritual and propriety, has traditionally looked down upon humour as
subversive or unseemly. Humor was perceived as
irony
Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Irony can be categorized into ...
and sarcasm. The Confucian ''
Analects'' itself, however, depicts the Master as fond of humorous self-deprecation, once comparing his wanderings to the existence of a homeless dog. Early
Daoist philosophical texts such as ''
Zhuangzi'' pointedly make fun of Confucian seriousness and make Confucius himself a slow-witted figure of fun. Joke books containing a mix of wordplay, puns, situational humour, and play with taboo subjects like sex and scatology, remained popular over the centuries. Local performing arts, storytelling, vernacular fiction, and poetry offer a wide variety of humorous styles and sensibilities.
Famous Chinese humorists include the ancient jesters
Chunyu Kun
Chunyu Kun () (4th century BC) was a wit, Confucian philosopher, emissary, and official during the Chinese Warring States period. He was a contemporary and colleague of Mencius.
In the Records of the Grand Historian, Chunyu Kun appears in Linzi, ...
and
Dongfang Shuo; writers of the Ming and Qing dynasties such as
Feng Menglong, Li Yu, and
Wu Jingzi; and modern comic writers such as
Lu Xun,
Lin Yutang,
Lao She,
Qian Zhongshu,
Wang Xiaobo, and
Wang Shuo, and performers such as
Ge You,
Guo Degang, and
Zhou Libo.
Modern Chinese humor has been heavily influenced not only by indigenous traditions, but also by foreign humor, circulated via
print
Printing is the process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template
Print or printing may also refer to:
Publishing
* Canvas print, the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, o ...
culture, cinema,
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...
, and the
internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
. During the 1930s,
Lin Yutang's
phono-semantic transliteration ''yōumò'' (; humour) caught on as a new term for humour, sparking a fad for humour literature, as well as impassioned debate about what type of humorous sensibility best suited China, a poor, weak country under partial foreign occupation. While some types of comedy were officially sanctioned during the rule of Mao Zedong, the Party-state's approach towards humour was generally repressive. Social liberalisation in the 1980s, commercialisation of the cultural market in the 1990s, and the advent of the internet have each—despite an invasive state-sponsored censorship apparatus—enabled new forms of humour to flourish in China in recent decades.
Social transformation model
The social transformation model of humour predicts that specific characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, interact with humour.
This model involves linkages between the humorist, an audience, and the subject matter of the humour.
The two transformations associated with this particular model involves the subject matter of the humour, and the change in the audience's perception of the humorous person, therefore establishing a relationship between the humorous speaker and the audience.
The social transformation model views humour as adaptive because it communicates the present desire to be humorous as well as future intentions of being humorous.
This model is used with deliberate
self-deprecating humour where one is communicating with desires to be accepted into someone else's specific social group.
Although self-deprecating humour communicates weakness and fallibility in the bid to gain another's affection, it can be concluded from the model that this type of humour can increase romantic attraction towards the humorist when other variables are also favourable.
Physical attractiveness
90% of men and 81% of women, all college students, report having a sense of humour is a crucial characteristic looked for in a romantic partner. Humour and honesty were ranked as the two most important attributes in a significant other. It has since been recorded that humour becomes more evident and significantly more important as the level of commitment in a romantic relationship increases. Recent research suggests expressions of humour in relation to
physical attractiveness
Physical attractiveness is the degree to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. The term often implies sexual attractiveness or desirability, but can also be distinct from either. There are many ...
are two major factors in the desire for future interaction.
Women regard physical attractiveness less highly compared to men when it came to dating, a serious relationship, and sexual intercourse.
However, women rate humorous men more desirable than nonhumorous individuals for a serious relationship or marriage, but only when these men were physically attractive.
Furthermore, humorous people are perceived by others to be more cheerful but less intellectual than nonhumorous people.
Self-deprecating humour has been found to increase one's desirability and physical attractiveness to others for committed relationships.
The results of a study conducted by
McMaster University suggest humour can positively affect one's desirability for a specific relationship partner, but this effect is only most likely to occur when men use humour and are evaluated by women.
No evidence was found to suggest men prefer women with a sense of humour as partners, nor women preferring other women with a sense of humour as potential partners.
When women were given the forced-choice design in the study, they chose funny men as potential relationship partners even though they rated them as being less honest and intelligent.
Post-Hoc analysis showed no relationship between humour quality and favourable judgments.
Psychological well-being
It is generally known that humour contributes to higher subjective wellbeing (both physical and psychological).
Previous research on humour and
psychological well-being show that humour is in fact a major factor in achieving, and sustaining, higher psychological wellbeing.
This hypothesis is known as general facilitative hypothesis for humour.
That is, positive humour leads to positive health. Not all contemporary research, however, supports the previous assertion that humour is in fact a cause for healthier psychological wellbeing. Some of the previous researches’ limitations is that they tend to use a unidimensional approach to humour because it was always inferred that humour was deemed positive. They did not consider other types of humour, or
humour styles. For example, self-defeating or aggressive humour.
Research has proposed 2 types of humour that each consist of 2 styles, making 4 styles in total. The two types are adaptive versus maladaptive humour.
Adaptive humour consist of facilitative and self-enhancing humour, and maladaptive is self-defeating and aggressive humour. Each of these styles can have a different impact on psychological and individuals’ overall subjective wellbeing.
# Affiliative style humour. Individuals with this dimension of humour tend to use jokes as a means of affiliating relationships, amusing others, and reducing tensions.
# Self-enhancing style humour. People that fall under this dimension of humour tend to take a humorous perspective of life. Individuals with self-enhancing humour tend to use it as a mechanism to cope with
stress.
# Aggressive humour. Racist jokes, sarcasm and disparagement of individuals for the purpose of amusement. This type of humour is used by people who do not consider the consequences of their jokes, and mainly focus on the entertainment of the listeners.
# Self-defeating humour. People with this style of humour tend to amuse others by using self-disparaging jokes, and also tend to laugh along with others when being taunted. It is hypothesized that people attempt to use this style of humour as a means of social acceptance - which is often unsuccessful. It is also mentioned that these people may have an implicit feeling of negativity. So they use this humour as a means of hiding that inner negative feeling.
In the study on humour and psychological well-being, research has concluded that high levels of adaptive type humour (affiliative and self-enhancing) is associated with better self-esteem, positive affect, greater self-competency, as well as anxiety control and social interactions.
All of which are constituents of psychological wellbeing. Additionally, adaptive humour styles may enable people to preserve their sense of wellbeing despite psychological problems.
[ In contrast, maladaptive humour types (aggressive and self-defeating) are associated with poorer overall psychological wellbeing,] emphasis on higher levels of anxiety and depression. Therefore, humour may have detrimental effects on psychological wellbeing, only if that humour is of negative characteristics.
Physiological effects
Humour is often used to make light of difficult or stressful situations and to brighten up a social atmosphere in general. It is regarded by many as an enjoyable and positive experience, so it would be reasonable to assume that it might have some positive physiological effects on the body.
A study designed to test the positive physiological effects of humour, the relationship between being exposed to humour and pain tolerance in particular, was conducted in 1994 by Karen Zwyer, Barbara Velker, and Willibald Ruch. To test the effects of humour on pain tolerance the test subjects were first exposed to a short humorous video clip and then exposed to the cold pressor test. To identify the aspects of humour which might contribute to an increase in pain tolerance the study separated its fifty-six female participants into three groups, cheerfulness, exhilaration and humour production. The subjects were further separated into two groups, high Trait-Cheerfulness and high Trait-Seriousness according to the State-Trait-Cheerfulness-Inventory. The instructions for the three groups were as follows: the cheerfulness group were told to get excited about the movie without laughing or smiling, the exhilaration group was told to laugh and smile excessively, exaggerating their natural reactions, the humour production group was told to make humorous comments about the video clip as they watched. To ensure that the participants actually found the movie humorous and that it produced the desired effects the participants took a survey on the topic which resulted in a mean score of 3.64 out of 5. The results of the Cold Press Test showed that the participants in all three groups experienced a higher pain threshold and a higher pain tolerance than previous to the film. The results did not show a significant difference between the three groups.
There are also potential relationships between humour and having a healthy immune system. SIgA is a type of antibody that protects the body from infections. In a method similar to the previous experiment, the participants were shown a short humorous video clip and then tested for the effects. The participants showed a significant increase in SIgA levels.
There have been claims that laughter can be a supplement for cardiovascular exercise and might increase muscle tone. However an early study by Paskind J. showed that laughter can lead to a decrease in skeletal muscle tone because the short intense muscle contractions caused by laughter are followed by longer periods of muscle relaxation. The cardiovascular benefits of laughter also seem to be just a figment of imagination as a study that was designed to test oxygen saturation levels produced by laughter, showed that even though laughter creates sporadic episodes of deep breathing, oxygen saturation levels are not affected.
As humour is often used to ease tension, it might make sense that the same would be true for anxiety. A study by Yovetich N, Dale A, Hudak M. was designed to test the effects humour might have on relieving anxiety. The study subject were told that they would be given to an electric shock after a certain period of time. One group was exposed to humorous content, while the other was not. The anxiety levels were measured through self-report measures as well as the heart rate. Subjects which rated high on sense of humour reported less anxiety in both groups, while subjects which rated lower on sense of humour reported less anxiety in the group which was exposed to the humorous material. However, there was not a significant difference in the heart rate between the subjects.
In the workplace
Humour is a ubiquitous, highly ingrained, and largely meaningful
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and compu ...
aspect of human experience and is therefore decidedly relevant in organisational contexts, such as the workplace.
The significant role that laughter
Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter ...
and fun play in organisational life has been seen as a sociological phenomenon and has increasingly been recognised as also creating a sense of involvement among workers.
Sharing humour at work not only offers a relief from boredom, but can
also build relationships, improve camaraderie between colleagues and
create positive affect. Humour in the workplace may also relieve tension and can be used as a coping strategy.
In fact, one of the most agreed upon key impacts that workplace humour
has on people's well-being, is the use of humour as a coping strategy to
aid in dealing with daily stresses, adversity or other difficult
situations.
Sharing a laugh with a few colleagues may improve moods, which is
pleasurable, and people perceive this as positively affecting their
ability to cope.
Fun and enjoyment are critical in people's lives and the ability for
colleagues to be able to laugh during work, through banter or other,
promotes harmony and a sense of cohesiveness.
Humour may also be used to offset negative feelings about a
workplace task or to mitigate the use of profanity, or other coping
strategies, that may not be otherwise tolerated.
Not only can humour in the workplace assist with defusing negative
emotions, but it may also be used as an outlet to discuss personal
painful events, in a lighter context, thus ultimately reducing anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil
Turmoil may refer to:
* ''Turmoil'' (1984 video game), a 1984 video game released by Bug-Byte
* ''Turmoil'' (2016 video game), a 2016 indie oil tycoon video ...
and allowing more happy, positive emotions to surface.
Additionally, humour may be used as a tool to mitigate the
authoritative tone by managers when giving directives to subordinates.
Managers may use self-deprecating humour as a way to be perceived as
more human and "real" by their employees. Furthermore, ethnography studies, carried out in a variety of workplace settings, confirmed the importance of a fun space in the workplace.
The attachment to the notion of fun by contemporary companies has
resulted in workplace management coming to recognise the potentially
positive effects of "workplay" and realise that it does not necessarily
undermine workers’ performance.
Laughter and play can unleash creativity, thus raising morale,
so in the interest of encouraging employee consent to the rigours of
the labour process, management often ignore, tolerate and even actively
encourage playful practices, with the purpose of furthering
organisational goals. Essentially, fun in the workplace is no longer being seen as frivolous.
The most current approach of managed fun and laughter in the workplace
originated in North America, where it has taken off to such a degree,
that it has humour consultants flourishing, as some states have
introduced an official "fun at work" day. The results have carried claims of well-being
Well-being, or wellbeing, also known as wellness, prudential value or quality of life, refers to what is intrinsically valuable relative ''to'' someone. So the well-being of a person is what is ultimately good ''for'' this person, what is in t ...
benefits to workers, improved customer experiences and an increase in productivity that organisations can enjoy, as a result. Others examined results of this movement while focusing around the science of happiness—concerned with mental health, motivation
Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...
,
community building and national well-being—and drew attention to the
ability to achieve "flow" through playfulness and stimulate "outside the
box" thinking. Parallel to this movement is the " positive" scholarship that has emerged in psychology which seeks to empirically theorise the optimisation of human potential Human potential is the capacity for humans to improvement, improve themselves through studying, training, and Practice (learning method), practice, to reach the limit of their ability to develop aptitudes and skills. "Inherent within the notion of h ...
.
This happiness movement suggests that investing in fun at the
workplace, by allowing for laughter and play, will not only create enjoyment and a greater sense of well-being, but it will also enhance energy, performance and commitment in workers.
At school
The use of humour plays an important role in youth development. Studies have shown that humour is especially important in social interactions with peers. School entry is the time when the importance of parents fades into the background and social interaction with peers becomes increasingly important. Conflict is inherent in these interactions. The use of humour plays an important role in conflict resolution and ultimately in school success and psychological adjustment. The use of humour that is socially acceptable leads to a lower likelihood of being a victim of bullying, whereas the use of self-desparaging humour leads to a higher likelihood of being bullied. When students are bullied, the use of self-desparaging humour can lead to an exacerbation of the negative effects on the student's psychological adjustment to school.
Studies
Laughter
One of the main focuses of modern psychological humour theory and research is to establish and clarify the correlation between humour and laughter. The major empirical findings here are that laughter
Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter ...
and humour do not always have a one-to-one association. While most previous theories assumed the connection between the two almost to the point of them being synonymous, psychology has been able to scientifically and empirically investigate the supposed connection, its implications, and significance.
In 2009, Diana Szameitat conducted a study to examine the differentiation of emotions in laughter. They hired actors and told them to laugh with one of four different emotional associations by using auto-induction, where they would focus exclusively on the internal emotion and not on the expression of laughter itself. They found an overall recognition rate of 44%, with joy correctly classified at 44%, tickle 45%, schadenfreude
Schadenfreude (; ; 'harm-joy') is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. It is a borrowed word from German, with no direct translation ...
37%, and taunt 50%.[Szameitat, Diana P., et al. Differentiation of Emotions in Laughter at the Behavioural Level. 2009 Emotion 9 (3).] Their second experiment tested the behavioural recognition of laughter during an induced emotional state and they found that different laughter types did differ with respect to emotional dimensions. In addition, the four emotional states displayed a full range of high and low sender arousal and valence. This study showed that laughter can be correlated with both positive (joy and tickle) and negative (schadenfreude and taunt) emotions with varying degrees of arousal in the subject.
This brings into question the definition of humour, then. If it is to be defined by the cognitive processes which display laughter, then humour itself can encompass a variety of negative as well as positive emotions. However, if humour is limited to positive emotions and things which cause positive affect, it must be delimited from laughter and their relationship should be further defined.
Health
Adaptive Humour use has shown to be effective for increasing resilience in dealing with distress and also effective in buffering against or undoing negative affects. In contrast, maladaptive humour use can magnify potential negative effects.
Madeljin Strick, Rob Holland, Rick van Baaren, and Ad van Knippenberg (2009) of Radboud University conducted a study that showed the distracting nature of a joke on bereaved individuals. Subjects were presented with a wide range of negative pictures and sentences. Their findings showed that humorous therapy attenuated the negative emotions elicited after negative pictures and sentences were presented. In addition, the humour therapy was more effective in reducing negative affect as the degree of affect increased in intensity. Humour was immediately effective in helping to deal with distress. The escapist nature of humour as a coping mechanism suggests that it is most useful in dealing with momentary stresses. Stronger negative stimuli requires a different therapeutic approach.
Humour is an underlying character trait associated with the positive emotions used in the broaden-and-build The broaden-and-build theory in positive psychology suggests that positive emotions (such as happiness, and perhaps interest and anticipation) broaden one's awareness and encourage novel, exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this broade ...
theory of cognitive development.
Studies, such as those testing the undoing hypothesis, have shown several positive outcomes of humour as an underlying positive trait in amusement and playfulness. Several studies have shown that positive emotions can restore autonomic quiescence after negative affect. For example, Frederickson and Levinson showed that individuals who expressed Duchenne smiles during the negative arousal of a sad and troubling event recovered from the negative affect approximately 20% faster than individuals who didn't smile.
Using humour judiciously can have a positive influence on cancer treatment. The effectiveness for humour‐based interventions in patients with schizophrenia is uncertain in a Cochrane review.
Humour can serve as a strong distancing mechanism in coping with adversity. In 1997 Kelter and Bonanno found that Duchenne laughter correlated with reduced awareness of distress. Positive emotion is able to loosen the grip of negative emotions on peoples’ thinking. A distancing of thought leads to a distancing of the unilateral responses people often have to negative arousal. In parallel with the distancing role plays in coping with distress, it supports the broaden and build theory that positive emotions lead to increased multilateral cognitive pathway and social resource building.
Ageing
Humour has been shown to improve and help the ageing process in three areas. The areas are improving physical health, improving social communications, and helping to achieve a sense of satisfaction in life.
Studies have shown that constant humour in the ageing process gives health benefits to individuals. Such benefits as higher self-esteem
Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) d ...
, lower levels of depression, anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil
Turmoil may refer to:
* ''Turmoil'' (1984 video game), a 1984 video game released by Bug-Byte
* ''Turmoil'' (2016 video game), a 2016 indie oil tycoon video ...
, and perceived stress, and a more positive self-concept as well as other health benefits which have been recorded and acknowledged through various studies. Even patients with specific diseases have shown improvement with ageing using humour. Overall there is a strong correlation through constant humour in ageing and better health in the individuals.
Another way that research indicates that humour helps with the ageing process, is through helping the individual to create and maintain strong social relationship during transitory periods in their lives. One such example is when people are moved into nursing homes or other facilities of care. With this transition certain social interactions with friend and family may be limited forcing the individual to look else where for these social interactions. Humour has been shown to make transitions easier, as humour is shown reduce stress and facilitate socialisation and serves as a social bonding function. Humour may also help the transition in helping the individual to maintain positive feelings towards those who are enforcing the changes in their lives. These new social interactions can be critical for these transitions in their lives and humour will help these new social interactions to take place making these transitions easier.
Humour can also help ageing individuals maintain a sense of satisfaction in their lives. Through the ageing process many changes will occur, such as losing the right to drive a car. This can cause a decrease in satisfaction in the lives of the individual. Humour helps to alleviate this decrease of satisfaction by allowing the humour to release stress and anxiety caused by changes in the individuals life. Laughing and humour can be a substitute for the decrease in satisfaction by allowing individuals to feel better about their situations by alleviating the stress. This, in turn, can help them to maintain a sense of satisfaction towards their new and changing life style.
Physiology
In an article published in '' Nature Reviews Neuroscience'', it is reported that a study's results indicate that humour is rooted in the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex. The study states, in part:"Humour seems to engage a core network of cortical and subcortical structures, including temporo-occipito-parietal areas involved in detecting and resolving incongruity (mismatch between expected and presented stimuli); and the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system and the amygdala, key structures for reward and salience processing."
Formula
Humour can be verbal, visual, or physical. Non-verbal forms of communication–for example, music or visual art–can also be humorous.
Root components
* Being reflective of or imitative of reality
* Surprise/misdirection
Misdirection may refer to:
* Misdirection (magic), a technique used when performing magic tricks
* Misdirection, a technique used for the purpose of pickpocketing
* Misdirection (pickleball), a deceptive strategy when hitting the ball
* Counter t ...
, contradiction/ paradox, ambiguity.
Methods
* Farce
* Hyperbole
* Metaphor
* Pun
* Reframing
* Timing
Timing is the tracking or planning of the spacing of events in time. It may refer to:
* Timekeeping, the process of measuring the passage of time
* Synchronization, controlling the timing of a process relative to another process
* Time metrolog ...
Behaviour, place and size
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles on the sitcoms '' Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and ''Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and the film series ''Johnny English'' (2003–201 ...
explains in his lecture in the documentary '' Funny Business'' that an object or a person can become funny in three ways:
* by behaving in an unusual way,
* by being in an unusual place,
* by being the wrong size.
Most sight gags fit into one or more of these categories.
Exaggeration
Some theoreticians of the comic consider exaggeration to be a universal comic device. It may take different forms in different genres, but all rely on the fact that the easiest way to make things laughable is to exaggerate to the point of absurdity their salient traits.
Taxonomy
There are many taxonomies of humor; the following is used to classify humorous tweets in (Rayz 2012).
# Anecdotes
# Fantasy
# Insult
# Irony
Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Irony can be categorized into ...
# Joke
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...
s
# Observational
Observation is the active acquisition of information from a primary source. In living beings, observation employs the senses. In science, observation can also involve the perception and recording of data via the use of scientific instruments. The ...
# Quote
# Role play
# Self-deprecation
# Vulgarity
# Word play
# Other
Culture
Different cultures have different typical expectations of humour so comedy shows are not always successful when transplanted into another culture. For example, a 2004 BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
article discusses a stereotype among British comedians that Americans and Germans do not understand irony
Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Irony can be categorized into ...
, and therefore UK sitcom
A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...
s are not appreciated by them.
See also
* American humor
* Australian humour
* British humour
* Canadian humour
* Deadpan
* Form-versus-content humour
* Gelotology, the study of laughing and laughter
* German humour
* Humour in translation
Humour in translation can be caused by translation errors, because of irregularities and discrepancies between certain items that translators attempt to translate. This could be due to the ignorance of the translator, as well as the untranslatabili ...
* Humour styles
* Jewish humour
* List of humorists
A humorist (American English) or humourist (British English) is an intellectual who uses humor in writing or public speaking. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business entertainers whose business is to make an audience laugh, ...
* Surreal humour
* Theories of humour
There are many theories of humor which attempt to explain what humor is, what social functions it serves, and what would be considered humorous. Among the prevailing types of theories that attempt to account for the existence of humor, there are p ...
References
Further reading
* Alexander, Richard (1984), ''Verbal humor and variation in English: Sociolinguistic notes on a variety of jokes''
* Alexander, Richard (1997),
Aspects of verbal humour in English
'
* (Abstract)
* Billig, M. (2005). ''Laughter and ridicule: Towards a social critique of humour''. London: Sage.
* Bricker, Victoria Reifler (Winter, 1980)
The Function of Humor in Zinacantan
' Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 411–418
* (Abstract)
* Carrell, Amy (2000),
Historical views of humour
', University of Central Oklahoma. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
*
* Goldstein, Jeffrey H., et al. (1976) "Humour, Laughter, and Comedy: A Bibliography of Empirical and Nonempirical Analyses in the English Language." ''It's a Funny Thing, Humour''. Ed. Antony J. Chapman and Hugh C. Foot. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press, 1976. 469–504.
* Hurley, Matthew M., Dennett, Daniel C., and Adams, Reginald B. Jr. (2011), ''Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
* Holland, Norman. (1982) "Bibliography of Theories of Humor." ''Laughing; A Psychology of Humor''. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 209–223.
* Martin, Rod A. (2007). ''The Psychology Of Humour: An Integrative Approach.'' London, UK: Elsevier Academic Press.
* McGhee, Paul E. (1984) "Current American Psychological Research on Humor." Jahrbuche fur Internationale Germanistik 16.2: 37–57.
* Mintz, Lawrence E., ed. (1988) ''Humor in America: A Research Guide to Genres and Topics''. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1988. ; .
*
* Nilsen, Don L. F. (1992) "Satire in American Literature." ''Humor in American Literature: A Selected Annotated Bibliography.'' New York: Garland, 1992. 543–48.
* Pogel, Nancy; and Paul P. Somers Jr. (1988) "Literary Humor." ''Humor in America: A Research Guide to Genres and Topics''. Ed. Lawrence E. Mintz. London: Greenwood, 1988. 1–34.
*
* Smuts, Aaron. "Humor".
'
* (Abstract)
External links
*
*
*
International Society for Humor Studies
{{Authority control
Defence mechanisms
Genres