Why Did The Humor Break The Brain

Norman Cousins said, “Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions" (Moss 1). Humor is studied by many researchers in sociology, psychology, art, literature, and medicine. When people wonder whether humor aids in areas other than health, a treasure trove of possible benefits to the learning or educational community is opened up. Humor can be used as a tool to promote learning.Research speaks to the many benefits of humor in healing, to its benefits in the classroom or boardroom, from reducing stress of students or employees, to boosting self-esteem and feelings of camaraderie. Additionally, studies show that those who use humor to convey a message are often more favorably perceived. Humor helps deliver the presenter's message to

Laughter relates to positive thinking. The positive thinking helps us to improve our immune system and become healthier. It helps in removing the negative thoughts from our mind and not letting our immune system become worse further.

Humor is viewed by some people as an important part of life. Most people enjoy amusement, and some turn to humorists as a source for that amusement. Some further view humorists as holding an important position in society because society allows humorists to say things that others can and will not say. Due to their unique position in society, humorists serve a role that is certainly unique and can be important, but not vital. Furthermore, humor can very well have a dangerous side, whether intentional or unintentional, so humorists should try to be careful with their powerful position.

Humor, for many, is a cheap laugh and a way to brighten someone's day. But for others, humor goes beyond that. Often times in today's world, humor is used to convey messages about dangerous or impossible to state topics. Society allows humorists to speak about unpalatable topics since the delivery of the message is masked. Humorists take difficult messages and use creative humor to make them more accepted into society.

In this article by Brooks and Bitterly “Why it Pays off to Be Funny at Work -- Usually”, is about how people act toward jokes at work and if it even allowed. This article talks about researcher on how some employees up make jokes at work. In "Why it Pays off to Be Funny at Work -- Usually” article is written that the people who take the chance to humor up their workplace show perceive as they are being sure of themselves; seem very confident.

For this experiment, I went to McDonalds, because that restaurant is known for promoting laughter and happiness. They even have an item that is called a happy meal, and their slogan is "Para Pa Pa I'm Loving it!". Therefore, I was expecting that I would get plenty of laughs across the board. My hypothesis was disproven as there were more females than males laughing. The theme of laughter that I found to be most prevalent was humor that comes from cute child behavior. There were plenty of families with plenty of children, but one couple in particular caught my eye because the mom was not laughing like the father was, because she was the one dealing with adult issues. Customers were not the only ones laughing, the employees in the kitchen, behind the cash register and on break laugh almost as much. Therefore, I concluded from the employee's laughs that they really enjoy their job, as I counted 7 laughs from the employees and 11 laughs from the customers.

The study of laughter and the affects it has on the body is called gelotology. Although laughter may come easy and natural to us, our body has to go through a rather complex process. We don’t know much, but researchers have done studies that have shown that laughter is caused by many parts of the brain. These researchers have done many tests by hooking subjects up to an electroencephalograph (EEG). An EEG is a record of the our brain’s electrical activity. (2013, Babylon) When doing these tests, researchers realized that the brain made the same continuous electrical pattern. The subjects were then shown something that was funny. Not even five-tenths of a second after the subject saw the joke, an electrical waved moved through the cerebral cortex. This part of the brain, the cerebral cortex, determines intelligence, determines personality, motor functions, planning and organization, and touch sensation. Laughter would result after the wave would take a negative charge. However, if the wave took a positive charge, the subject wouldn’t give a response. During the experiments, they found out many wonderful things. Such as, the left side of the cortex studied the words and the context of the joke. While doing so, the part of the brain that takes part in social emotion responses known as the brain’s frontal lobe, became very active. However, to get or understand the joke, the right hemisphere of the cortex had to carry out an intellectual

Recently, much of the literature on humour has viewed humour as beneficial to health. Martin, Kuiper, Olinger and Dance (1993) conducted a meta-analysis of several studies on the relationship between humour and well-being, humour and

Laughter is a part of the envious human experience we as beings have. It is undoubtedly one of the things that make living worthwhile. In fact, according to Matthew Hurley and his fellow associates, “a large portion, in any case, of people’s time is spent attempting to get each other to laugh” (Hurley, Dennett, and Adams Jr.). Laughing has a way of offering relaxation like nothing else does. It has the power to unconsciously change any situation into a good one just as soon as it starts. It definitely has the potential to take over you and there are millions of reasons to laugh. Every laugh is as unique as the individual displaying it, yet the possible benefits remain the same. The effects of laughter has been studied time and time again

The writer of the article Benefits of Humor (n.d), states that studies by Fabio Sala at the Hay Group have shown that humor, when used skillfully, reduces hostility, improves morale, and helps to communicate difficult messages. Other research done by three experts showed that humor makes the target person want to listen more, makes the information more memorable, distracts the person from thinking about counter-arguments and it builds rapport and liking of the humorist. Most importantly, humor makes people healthier, on both physical and psychological level. Health wise, it lowers the blood pressure, improves breathing and strengthens the immune system and exercises the muscles. On the psychological base, humor distracts one from negative emotions, increases and boosts the energy, and it just makes us feel better and more connected to others. As cited in this article, “humor also breaks through barriers-laughter, can transcend age, race, gender and belief. Therefore, humor is a great tool employed to get closer to others, and communicate in a more friendly

A researcher who is interested in humor should be ready to face the challenge of identifying it and being subjective. One of the traps of humor, mentioned

Humour is seen as a means to relieve stress, reduce negative emotions (Alston, 2007) such as anxiety, tension, depression

Humor can be defined as ubiquitous activity by the human that show in all social interactions. It is a common phenomenon that human laugh at anything funny, however, humor serves several serious cognitive and emotional events. Humour is brought about by actions that defy expectation majorly jokes. Humor differs from laughter in that it

The dynamics of fun and humour bring stakeholders together to promote a welcoming environment. Fun and humour creates an open culture and provides a perspective for employees. With the right balance of these elements, stakeholders are productive, content and are much more open to creativity. Similarly, employers that give acknowledgement to employees make better decisions at work. Nonetheless the consequences of fun and humour have serious detriments to the extent of how much fun and humour can be tolerated today. Issues occur when perceptions of appropriateness and personal barriers affect humour and fun in the workplace between stakeholders. Furthermore, with modern day workplaces, contemporary issues arise when level of access to social

Laughter is a powerful tool for combating stress and conflict.  It can dissipate anger, sadness and other negative emotions.  In addition to making you feel good, laughter can improve your health and make your relationships with others closer and stronger.  There are a wide variety of benefits to be gained by making daily laughter a priority.