Laughing to forget…Forgetting to laugh..

Human beings love to laugh. The average adult laughs 17 times a day. Humans love to laugh so much that there are actually industries built around laughter. Jokes, sitcoms and comedians are all designed to make us laugh. For us it seems so natural. But it is quite interesting that humans are one of the only species that laughs.
Three major things seems to trigger laughter. We seem to laugh when we find something unexpected, illogical and incongruous. Laughter might also be aroused due to one’s feeling of superiority over another. But most of the laughter also come out of relief from tension.
Under these conditions, our bodies perform what the Encyclopedia Britannica describes as “rhythmic, vocalized, expiratory and involuntary actions” -- better known as laughter.
We change physiologically when we laugh. The noises that usually accompany this bizarre behaviour range from sedate giggles to boisterous guffaws. We stretch muscles throughout our face and body, our pulse and blood pressure go up, and we breathe faster, sending more oxygen to our tissues.
“Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter,” said Friedrich Nietzsche. Most convincing health benefit we can see from laughter is its ability to dull pain. Numerous studies of people in pain or discomfort have found that when they laugh they report that their pain doesn’t bother them as much.
In his own research, Provine has found that we are 30 times more likely to laugh when we’re with other people than when we are alone. People who laugh a lot may just have a strong connection to the people around them. That in itself might have health benefits.
Many today agree that regardless of whether laughter actually improves your health or boosts your energy, it undeniably improves your quality of life. At the same time as Goethe said, “Nothing shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.”
Perhaps laughter must indicate trust in one’s companions. Many researchers believe that the purpose of laughter is related to making and strengthening human connections. “Laughter occurs when people are comfortable with one another, when they feel open and free. And the more laughter there is, the more bonding within the group,” says cultural anthropologist Mahadev Apte. This feedback loop of bonding-laughter-more bonding, combined with the common desire not to be singled out from the group, may be another reason why laughter is often contagious.
Studies have also found that dominant individuals -- the boss, the tribal chief or the family patriarch -- use humor more than their subordinates. If you’ve often thought that everyone in the office laughs when the boss laughs, you’re very perceptive. In such cases, Morreall says, controlling the laughter of a group becomes a way of exercising power by controlling the emotional climate of the group. So laughter, like much human behavior, must have evolved to change the behavior of others, Provine says. For example, in an embarrassing or threatening situation, laughter may serve as a conciliatory gesture or as a way to deflect anger. If the threatening person joins the laughter, the risk of confrontation may lessen.
Provine believes that laughter, like the bird’s song, functions as a kind of social signal. Other studies have confirmed that theory by proving that people are 30 times more likely to laugh in social settings than when they are alone (and without pseudo-social stimuli like television). Even nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, loses much of its oomph when taken in solitude, according to German psychologist Willibald Ruch.
New Year has begun. Everyone is serious about drawing some plans for the whole year. It might sound odd to read about laughter in the beginning of the year.
Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. But in the name of decorum and decency even the basic need to laugh is being minimised in the present social setting. Many even control people by controlling their laughter.
Laughter is the shock absorber that eases the blows of life. It is a weapon to fight against our weakness and moments of dullness. It is a weapon to fight drudgery and boredom. Laughter challenges the one who laughs and those around him to by its dynamics. People look at laughter differently. A pessimist looks at laughing even in the right place and right time, as something sinful and indecent. An optimist looks at laughter as medicinal. Looking at the pessimists Voltaire wrote, “God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.”
Indeed, an optimist laughs to forget, a pessimist forgets to laugh.