Laughter

I laugh; not a smirk, nor is it a smile that is hidden behind my moustache , nor is it giggling. It is a hearty laugh where I could be on the floor trying to hold my sides and breathe. Not many folks do that or claim to experience an inhibited wholesome laugh. I don’t do it often- but when I do it is probably the most exhilarating experience that I have had in days. 

I have had the opportunity to see a play years ago (20+) written by Ms Kotwal staring Mr Rahul Bose, and Mr Bomman Irani and another excellent actor whose name escapes me. It was a tragedy- the play I mean. A ton of folks seriously listening and watching ; I in the back row couldn’t keep it together. I was in splits - laughing ten minutes in; got a lot of stares from the senior crowd in Pune. Well; 2 hours in the play ended and Ms Kotwal got a chance to speak to the audience. What she said struck me and has stayed with me till this day; long story short and with liberty; essentially she said “one mans tragedy is another mans funny situation, I am happy to have made one person laugh “. I was internally happy that I had not embarrassed my friends a whole lot and forgot about it a long time. I now look back and smile. Did not laugh but smiled. 

What then is the secret behind an honest inhibited laugh? There are comedians and then there are some. You might like the comedy presented by someone and might not like someone else. A smile can be faked, so can a smirk or a frown or any other facial expression. Almost all facial expressions can be faked to the extent that they do not match the emotional state of being. You could smile when you are depressed, you could smirk for multiple reasons etc. laughing on the other hand is directly connected to the emotional state of being in that moment.

There is an almost insatiable human desire to laugh  - we don’t really understand it. There is no “laughter center” in the brain; it has been proven however to be the result of something that happens in the prefrontal cortex that results in a production of endorphins. Doesn’t help. Freud and others tried to explain laughter as a mechanism to release tension. I don’t bite that explanation; I have my own and I could be wrong. 

The German word Schadenfreude explains what is probably one of the reasons from my laughter - it essentially means the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another. I laugh at the expense of others; It does make me a horrible person no ?  But then almost every stand up comedian is essentially  banking on this human trait - people laughing at someone else’s misfortune. 

The other reason for my laughter is absurdity. I laugh when, from my point of view a situation unfolds into seeming nothingness. It starts out with expectation of some end result and in the process of reaching that end result something changes and the result is incongruous with the original expectation. Well written humour is a good example of this.  The real good and great stand up comedians use this extremely well. It’s in the satire and the puns, the harmless insults they use. I wish I could use satire and puns - would go a long way to ease a volatile and difficult discussion that I might be in. There is of course a thin line where the seemingly absurd will become a negative bias. 

Nietzsche said it well - humans use laughter to escape the restrictions of logic, morality and reason. It is a harmless demotion from reason and hardship. 

What makes you laugh ? 

C