Everlasting Laughter

Laughter
Show #401
Friday, February 22, 2008
We all laugh. But why? If you look closely, you'll find that humor has very little to do with it. In this episode, we explore the power of laughter to calm us, bond us to one another, or to spread... like a virus. Along the way, we tickle some rats, listen in on a baby's first laugh, talk to a group of professional laughers, and travel to Tanzania to investigate an outbreak of contagious laughter.

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/02/22

Radiolab, WNYC's eclectic philo-science program, is fabulous. It is one of those shows that springs off the diving platform, splashes into deep water and swims around inside your head. Like sensual thinking for an hour. (Remember, I'm a self-identified "dork.")

I listened to an older show from this season on Sunday evening about laughter (description above). Tuning in to a rat snickering was enough to make me smile.

I laugh a lot. Not in the head-throwing type of way, but more of the subtle, curled lipped chuckle sort. Friends have mine have been stumped by this. They know I'm lighthearted, but always ask, "why are you so stoic?" or "don't you ever laugh?" It's gotten better the last few years. After all, sarcasm or darker humor (unless it's Little Miss Sunshine or Drop Dead Gorgeous) usually doesn't yield bowel-shaking laughter.

But it's all good. I learned from the episode that humor is usually absent when we laugh. Pay attention to the next time you laugh out loud--you'll probably be around other people. Laughter seems to be a neurologically programmed response to a social situation. Whether you're interacting with people, media, or your little inner-voice, we always laugh with an audience. (Hm, kinda funny.)

Also in the episode is a story about professional laughers (actor/actresses as extras). Extraverted types who tailor their laugh for a living. Neat.

And I wasn't able to hear this segment through, yet I was intrigued by a piece about a laughter-sickness in Tanzania. Get this: laughter-affliction. Mysterious.

So I feel a little more normal today. Laughter, like humor, is complex stuff. How I laugh and why I laugh tells me (and others) about myself. I most often laugh by myself as I am speaking to myself most of the time. Too, it kinda explains why I am deeply drawn to unique laughs. Wow.

It's all a good time.

See ya :)
R.