What Makes You Laugh?
Scientists tell us that we are laughing less these days. Statistics just in from the Peabody Laugh Institute (PLI) show a 30% decline in overall laughter in the United States over the past decade with a continued trending decline. The 2017 thru 2021 prediction shows an elevated 5% per year downtrend, correlating with the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.
“He always looks like he’s posing for a proctology advertisement”, says Dr. David Wisemann of PLI, “this has a subliminal effect on national humor, we are simply laughing less as a nation since the reality of the election.”
“Worldwide?...fuhgeddaboudit, that figure rises to over 50%! “
Well, if there was a Peabody Laugh Institute and a Dr. Wisemann, I bet that what they’d say.
I mean, think about it ...when’s the last time you laughed? Like really, genuinely, laughed out loud? And can you remember what it was about?
I substitute teach sometimes at the Logan High School, and I can assure you that laughter there is alive and well. Those young, active minds are just the right age to see things as they are and to express their emotions freely and unabashedly. They are also smart enough to know when something is funny, and when it’s not, bodily function sounds and Donald Trump notwithstanding.
The classic “funny situation” is historically referenced by, “man slips on a banana peel.” Basic visual slapstick humor. It was made popular in Vaudeville acts in the early 1900’s when stand-up comics did just about anything ..silly, stupid or clever, for a laugh.
And comics over he decades like Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis and Chevy Chase used that technique to make us roll in our seats. They were falling, we were rolling ..with laughter.
Today, however, in our politically correct society, this slapstick premise of someone falling down, say slipping on a banana peel, and potentially getting hurt is not so collectively funny to us anymore. Maybe it’s because we’re thinking too hard. We don’t take the time to separate out the immediate and basic natural instinct to laugh at what appears to be funny, even in a comedy setting, from the potential serious implications of falling down. What helps to makes it funny is the word “banana” ..it’s a funny word.
Conversely, we wouldn’t laugh at the same slapstick joke if was, “man gets hit by a car.”
And don’t think those slapstick comics didn’t get hurt falling down making us laugh. They paid the price for that laughter. Jerry Lewis openly admits that he destroyed his body over the years doing those pratfalls and now lives with chronic pain. I don’t know if it’s the pain or the pain pills, but if you’ve seen his last interview, you know what I mean. Sad. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jerry-lewis-interview-painful-awkward-awful-7-minutes-watch-957115
So, maybe in the long run it wasn’t funny after all. It just looked funny, and that was enough to make us laugh with no further thought about it. Throw in the word “banana” and that seals the joke.
I remember telling my daughter the politically incorrect joke when she was in high school, “A baby seal walks into a club...” She was horrified. She looked at me like I was crazy. Then she got it and laughed her head off. Is it funny? You decide. What makes it funny? Timing. It’s the “banana” affect.
Are ethnic jokes funny? Again, in our politically correct society today, the answer is ...absolutely not! But there was a time, before seat belts, when ethnic jokes were popular, and yes, funny. What made them funny was that they were about all ethnic peoples, often made up by their own. Then things got out of hand and they became a cruel way to segregate, appealing to our worst instincts in a society where people wouldn’t laugh at themselves but at the expense of others. We missed the whole concept at laughing at ourselves as individuals and as minorities ...because, basically, we are all minorities.
And this is the job of the comedian, to foster this. We are all laughable. Comedian Don Rickles did this best.
There is a fine line between cruelty and humor. And it usually depends on who the joke is on. But it’s not whether you are laughing or being laughed at. It’s about laughing together ...with.
The stand-up comic may perform the most important function in our society. He uncovers the raw truth. He throws it all out there for us to see and hear, and it gives us the opportunity to think, learn and laugh at the same time. Whether you like Andrew Dice Clay or Bill Maher, Carrot Top or Gallagher, Seinfeld, SNL or Family Guy, it’s up to you to decide what you think is funny, and what’s not funny to you.
Like anything else, you can pick your own brand, and this is where our American First Amendment freedoms come into play. We can say anything we want, and we can listen and watch anything we want. There is so much out there to wade through and, yes, censor, age and venue appropriately. And it often leads to discourse.
The one secure truth, however, is that humor is important, laughter is therapeutic, and it can bond us together like no other force.
Heres one I heard the other day ...
What’s the definition of mixed emotions? When you see your mother-in-law backing off a cliff in your new Mercedes.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah.
