The Power of Humor

The power of humor 

Keywords: Universal language, Skill, Transformation

Hereby I don’t assume that one would doubt the title of this article and I also don’t try to answer it, but I’d like to inspire through better understanding on why we say this, what is so powerful in it, or how it works, and I guess I like to encourage us, to be more attentive for the funny aspects of life, since well, let’s be honest, we need it.  Yeah, but still why do I want to explain humor? 

If something is so powerful that it can turn the worst, painful situations inside out and into laughter, we shall pay more attention to it - at least that’s  what my gut said to me. 

As I am coming from a social work background, I was always interested in ways to empower the individual, I was interested in human behavior. Meeting and working with people who suffer and having their victim conscious, I started to look for possible ways to soothe the pain. Then I accidentally found this quote from Mark Twain and it got me: “The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in heaven.” Note: this could be another topic about, how do we actually deal with the pain, suffer or loss? Like how do we deal with them really? Besides - crushing the plates in the kitchen, or turning to alcohol and drugs, hiding in depression, pushing away our loved ones, picking up a crazy hobby, the list goes on….we can’t really name one thing which works aren’t we? What I’d like to provoke here is my belief that humor is the best approach to the drama of life.

The power of humor right now for me is the fact that I am writing this article. More precisely I am re-writing it, because the one before got deleted, and I was silly enough, not having one saved in docs. Writing about humor, and having the article gone, well it is quite funny, and I imagine if I would not have realized this aspect, I would have spent much more time in the land of “freaked out-ness”. 

And this is something I can observe though, and interesting to see that people, in general, are quite good at laughing about themselves (or at others). So this tells me that somehow we all have antennas to it, we, people on Earth all have a sense of humor, thus we have a universal language. We like fun!

No wonder one would disagree with the statement above, by saying he/she had not had a real good laugh in years, or could even say he/she does not like fun. I know, it's shocking. 

But no judge, right? Perhaps, as adults, living in a society, having many roles, putting up our social mask in the morning, we might forget about the playful side. But it does not mean that we lost it all, and it does not mean that we really, for real do not like having fun (any parent knows this). “Fun is in the mind of the beholder” quoted my beloved trainer Carmine Rodi Falanga, and that’s quite another topic -playfulness and fun- but humor and these are twined so I just wanted to mention here the four types of fun, which was introduced to me by Carmine at an Erasmus+ training course, called Game of Wellness. This picture shows great how much FUN implies at all of us; see the 4 types Hard/Easy/People/Serious Fun – so the extended version of Fun shows on the picture I attached. I am planning to detail this more as well in the next article.

The other day I was having a conversation with a musician/actor friend about why existential drama, not raison d'etre - relevant in theatre nowadays, and as we agreed, it is because people want to laugh much rather than to face their wounded souls. Still, humor can turn every drama inside out, so what happens if you make drama through humor (or drama with humor)? 

Let’s maybe take now an example for that: 

Jane (mother) and her single friend: 

You need to have a baby, You are running out of time! 
We are all running out of time Jane, that’s how time works.

So here is the drama - obviously, drama on a subject level, is that she has no kids, but her response instead of taking Jane’s comment too seriously and going anxious about not having a kid, she had just the answer “we are all running out of time” and a little sarcasm, thus this answer had somehow a balancing effect.

So what is humor anyway?

It is more than just laughter for sure, and laughter is already a big gift. Might I just stop the writing here then?!

There are many theories on the existence of humor, well, pick a topic that does not have many theories… I’ll go with one then, the benign- violation theory by Peter McGraw, which says, “Humor only occurs when something seems wrong, unsettling, or threatening, but simultaneously seems okay, acceptable or safe.”  The word itself in Latin (humor) originally means the moisture in our body, and its balance is in charge of our physical and spiritual health (Hippocrates) thus the word humor got the meaning of good mood. In the 18th century, they used it for expressing hilarity, in the 19th century among german authors humor is somewhat the conception of sad and odd, majestic and menial. Then Sigmund Freud was the first who divided jokes from humor. He says that jokes are about other people, and humor is about ourselves. 

When we laugh, what happens in the brain is that it releases endorphins, and laughter leads to reduction of stress hormones, just as cortisol and epinephrine. Since endorphin is also called the hormone of happiness, can we say that all we need is laughter? 

As they say, being able to laugh about our own problems is a big advantage to our mental health and in general, so let’s dig a bit deeper, why humor is so precious. 

I always look up Ted Talks when I’m hooked up on a topic, and of course, there are many talks regarding humor. More specifically here is one, which reveals good news! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdZAMSyn_As&t=1033s It reveals that humor is a skill. Simple fact I know, but I guess I was not aware of it, so I was grateful to find this TedTalk.

When I see something stupid or silly, I am just a person who sees something stupid or silly. But when a comedian sees something stupid or silly, it becomes a story. Comedians are good at seeing reality “naked” they are good with the raw interface. Like for example, did you know that after Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF?! It is a swear word, in short, I’m sure I don’t have to explain this joke. A comedian came and shifted this by sharing a story about his grandmother who typed WTF to him, and as he was shocked, asked back and got to know that his mother thought WTF for sure means: Wow, That’s Fun!  Very nice shift from swearing till cheering isn’t it?

Here is another transformative gag: we all may know that we have parasites all over/in our body, so when I talk too much or I was rude and they say I got an attitude, I go like: Hey, it’s not me, it is my parasites! (Tiffany Haddish)  

So have a look at this joke - first look; silly? Maybe. Second look: it is not silly at all. There is a reason why we use -in many cultures- the expression: You are, what you eat. I can easily imagine from myself or any other person, that f.e. eating processed food all the time, would turn us frustrated. 

And another one, which is let’s say an educational joke, still from Tiffany: she says if you take a real close look to a penis, you see it is exactly a vagina but felt out. And then she explains which part is what. Nothing to disagree with actually, and she adds at the end of her gag, in case someone would doubt her, that it is scientifically proven, that in the first 3 months in the womb, everyone starts as a woman.  

Again, don’t forget: fun is in the mind of the beholder. If I am closed from it, I oftentimes not gonna get the joke. Did it happen with you that you watched a comedy, disliked, then some time or years later you watched again and found it super funny? For me, I remember it was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  but at first I did not like it, since then it is one of my favorites.

Carbon-based life forms, human beings, Earthlings: we all seek happiness (except the one who doesn’t) but mostly we do - we want to feel good, also good in our body. Laughter is the best medicine, and I say, You are the best medicine, to train yourself, even for the skill of humor, and have free access to endorphins anytime. 

It seems that the power of humor is in itself, and hard to get a glimpse of it, but I keep peeling the layers down. So far it feels like it is a great coping method and has great potential in shifting our minds, where we get caught up so often, we don’t even realize…Humor can push us out of that state (whether it is gentle or tough), once we open up for it a little. 

To close I just add this inspiring link, which describes it perfectly how people all over the world choose humor in order to deal with the challenging situation we are facing right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZuutbXC7Zk&t=3s   „China  is showing us the power of Comedy”

Next, I shall summarize my talking with comedians such as Peter Shub, on clowning, and clown philosophy. I can’t wait to share!

Resources:

https://www.gamified.uk/2013/06/05/gamification-user-types-and-the-4-keys-2-fun/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhokMZdQ7gs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdZAMSyn_As&t=1035s

https://thebestbrainpossible.com/why-your-brain-loves-to-laugh/

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/laughter4.htm