GOOD HUMOR: LIFE'S REFRESHMENT...IN 28 FLAVORS
Randy W. Green, Ph.D.
Someone once said, the way a comedian and a comic are different is that a
comedian says funny things, and a comic says things funny. However, the way
they are the same is that what's "funny", and whether or not you laugh, depends
not upon what they say; but on what you do. Humor is a trick done with meanings- a sleight of mind! Something isn't funny. We make it so through the internal
process of "distortion", in which we make conscious shifts in our experience of
sensory inputs. This is the same process that allows us to daydream or create
artistic expressions. We distort to make sense of something presented as a
paradox: An incongruity or striking contrast between two thoughts.
There are many types of paradoxes that lead to humorous experiences. For
example, you laugh when something affirms and then denies the same idea,
simultaneously. You laugh when something creates disorder and then quickly
resolves that disorder. Timing is of great importance. Consider the Steven Wright
quip: "I stopped at a diner for breakfast. The sign outside read, 'Breakfast Served
Anytime.' I ordered scrambled eggs during the Renaissance."
For many years, psychologists have attempted to explain the function of humor in
human behavior. Although the tenets of their positions vary widely in attempting
to explain why we laugh, most have assumed that the individual must interact in
some way with the anecdote being described. We, in effect, translate the substance
of that anecdote using our own sensory experience in order to assign it some
meaning. This process, sometimes referred to as a " trans-derivational search",
leads to a sense of knowing; an identity with the speaker, story or both. Laughter
then becomes a reaction to this identity process, and the paradox is resolved.
Have you ever seen a Gary Larson cartoon? Imagine two bears standing with arms
around each other as if posing for a picture. One bear's face appears through the
cross-hairs of a hunter's rifle. That bear, as if aware of his dilemma, is grinning
and pointing to the other standing next to him. Consistent with investigations of
other human phenomena, those who have studied humor have primarily been
concerned with why we laugh and why something is humorous.
Searching for causes is useful in medicine and law, where their identification can
lead directly to a useful outcome, such as a cure or a motive. However, much of
the time a "why" question will buy very inefficient information. The "because"
will at best be ambiguous and fail apply to any particular purpose, such as helping
someone produce a desired change. To wit, despite centuries of investigations and
treatises on the psychology of humor, there is little agreement about what will
cause people to laugh, and why people vary in what is considered, "funny." Yet,
there has been comparatively little concern about the value of humor; its
application as a resource in our daily lives!
The value of humor-- both for the initiator of the anecdote and receiver-- rests with
the utility of the state of consciousness it produces. The process of interacting with
the message and resolving the incongruity with laughter; or actually creating and
telling the tale, produces a "mind- set" which is quite different from that which
existed moments earlier. Assigning meaning to the tale requires examining several
choices stored from past learning, and results in a more creative, flexible, state of
consciousness. This can be used resourcefully to alter meanings of less pleasant
concerns, when the state of consciousness is quite different.
Care to try something? It's Showtime! Pause, take a deep breath and think of a
humorous situation in which you laughed uncontrollably. Perhaps you attended a
show, or heard a comedian, or goofed in some harmless way. Be sure to step into
that situation so you can see, hear and feel what you experienced then... Take a
commercial break. Allow a less-pleasant thought to emerge in consciousness. Now
run it again, while simultaneously accessing an outstanding element of the
humorous state of mind such as the associated feeling. Repeat this several times
and pay attention to how specifically the less-pleasant thought changes. ...Just
think of it as stand-up psychology.
-30-