Laughing...a short history

Playing and laughing are the oldest emotional signals we give to each other. They tell the other person that we are not being aggressive that this is just for fun and not meant to be harmful. Laughter as we know it today is a social experience.

But back in the day laughter and humor were considered morally and physically dangerous. There were long treatises on the history of those opposed to laughter and its inherent dangers. There is even a word known as misegolast that means laughter hater.

During Plato, Aristotle and the Bibles time the philosophical examination of laughter and humor gave rise to the idea that laughter was an expression of superiority over other people. The idea was that it could be malicious, that laughing was somehow an expression of mockery, hostility or scorn. That laughter left the person overpowered by a lack of self control. Plato said that when we laughed we were taking delight in something evil.

Not until the 20^th century did philosopher's question the Superiority Theory. Up until then Christian leader's had encouraged their flocks to maintain a certain decorum of self control to endeavor to replace bouts of laughter with moderate behavior. Parishioners were to do nothing that would result in boisterous laughter or foolish chatter. The Puritans were the worst when it came to laughter for you could never loose control. In the 17^th century when they came to England they outlawed comedies.

But laughter is primitive, babies do it sometimes more than 300 times a day compared to an average adult at 20 times. One article i read said that if you laughed 100 times it was equal to rowing for 10 minutes or biking for 15 minutes. All human beings, no matter what language you speak or where you live laugh, even those born deaf and blind.

Laughter is used to defuse tense situations and can signal that you are part of a group. It makes you feel good even when you loose control. Today laughter is considered a healthy alternative to medicine, it diminishes pain, adds joy to your life and can protect you from stress. These are at complete odds with the idea that laughter should be tempered.

Having studied Anthropology and reading more about humor and laughter i tend to speculate that it might have been beneficial to mankind to use laughter in play to teach aggression without physically harming the student. It was probably used to teach hunting and fighting skills in a safe environment.  i think laughter evolved as a play signal between humans and is a highly social experience.

Look at how it reduces stress and boosts the activity of the immune system. Humor lightens your load, it relaxes your body and some say may even protect your heart by increasing the function of blood vessels.

So have a good laugh today...find something funny and make yourself feel good. Thank goodness we no longer have to feel bad about a hearty laugh.

See ya next week.