Health and Humor
AATH: Association of Applied
and Therapeutic Humor
Their 2016 Annual Meeting will be in Mesa, Arizona
By Alleen Nilsen and
Don Nilsen
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The Nilsens at the 2014 AATH Conference
Red Skelton Museum in Vincennes, Indiana
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The Bible tells us “A merry heart doeth good like a
medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
Of course this picture of our
laughing grandson makes
us want to believe that
laughter is good for people.
Modern writers who have
explored the idea include:
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Patch Adams
Regina Barecca
Rod Martin
Mary Kay Morrison
Paul McGhee
Norman Cousins
William Fry
Vera Robinson
Patty Wooten
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Patty Wooten as Nancy Nurse
http://www.jesthealth.com
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Rod Martin, and his colleagues in Canada have
found that:
1. Affiliative and self-enhancing humor is
potentially beneficial.
2. Aggressive and self-defeating humor is
potentially detrimental.
3. Anyone doing research with humor and
health needs to be aware of these
differences.
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Martin also works with “A State-andTrait Cheerfulness Inventory.”
• It defines a sense of humor as an emotional
temperament (i.e., the tendency to be habitually
cheerful and playful), which is consistent with the
way humor is most often conceptualized in the
humor and health literature.
• However, Martin warns against “simplistic,
exaggerated, and unsubstantiated research.” He is
especially critical of methodological weaknesses in
the research on humor and the immune system.
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A Sense of Humor Questionnaire
was administered to all 65,000
adults in one county in Norway
• Researchers were searching for correlations were
between a person’s sense of humor and illness
symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, pounding
heart, muscular-skeletal pain, blood pressure,
overall health satisfaction, and obesity.
• After controlling for age, no meaningful relationships
were found between sense of humor and other
illness symptoms.
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• The researchers concluded that although
high-humor individuals do not seem to
have objectively better health, they are
somewhat more subjectively satisfied with
their health.
• Martin concluded that despite reports in
the popular media, the research findings
on health benefits of humor and laughter
were not as strong, consistent or
unambiguous as is commonly believed.
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Paul McGhee, in his The Laughter Remedy: Health, Healing, and
the Amuse System, takes these kinds of criticism into his book
but nevertheless advises:
“Become more
playful; surround
yourself with humor
you enjoy. Begin
telling jokes and
funny stories. And
laugh at yourself.”
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Definition of “calories”:
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Two “Answers” to the Calories Problem
They’re too beautiful to eat.
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John Morreall writes about the power of
hearty laughter in the way that it . . .
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increases blood circulation,
ventilates the lungs,
increases oxygen intake,
reduces water vapor and carbon
dioxide in the lungs,
• and decreases the risk of pulmonary
infection.
But Rod Martin cautions that hearty laughter may also
have deleterious effects because while extroverts tend to
laugh more, they also are likely to drink alcohol, to smoke
cigarettes, and to be obese.
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• John Morreall, in his writing explains that the
relief theory has two forms. Humor can be a relief from
pre-existing nervous energy as when rambunctious
kids are forced to sit quietly for a long time. Once the
pressure is off, they often resort to horseplay,
buffoonery, and laughter.
• The second kind is the “set-up” for a joke or
cartoon that may require concentration, attention to
detail, and emotional engagement. The punch line is a
release of either type of pent-up energy. For an example
he gives:
– I had written to Aunt Maud
– Who was on a trip abroad
– Then I heard she’d died of cramp,
– Just too late to save the stamp.
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Conundrums:
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Other Research Findings
• Humorous laughter lowers the level of stress
hormones (epinephrine, cortisol, dopac, and growth
hormone).
• In the brain, catecholamines are secreted, which
may increase alertness, reduce inflammation, and
trigger the release of endorphins, the brain’s natural
opiates.
• This may account for the reduction of pain as
reported by researchers including Norman Cousins
and Ofra Nevo, who does research in Israel.
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Ironic Truths:
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If Humor Is So Good For Us, Where
Can We Find It?
• One place is at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
where humor helps transcend the moment and attain
a broader perspective.
• One member told how even when she was drunk or
hung over, she tried to be what society expected her
to be. She volunteered to help with her son’s Cub
Scout troop on a day they were sewing moccasins.
• Of course she got a laugh when she reported, “I
remember sewing it, honest-to-God I can still feel it,
onto my finger.”
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Clowns have a long history dating from the 15th
and 16th centuries and the Italian commedia
dell’arte.
Shakespearean Harlequin
Modern Scary Clown
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All Cultures Have Clowns
It takes nothing more than
a prop of some kind to
turn ordinary people into
clowns.
More formal clowns
include circus performers
and character clowns.
• Charlie Chaplin was
world-famous because he
did not rely on language.
• Sports mascots are also
clowns as they mime in
huge arenas, wear oversized costumes, do
acrobatics, and use huge
props.
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Clowns Loved by Our Grandparents
• Emmett Kelly was so skilled at pantomiming the role of
Weary Willie that Ringling Brothers allowed him to remain
in the circus arena for the whole performance. He would
sweep a circle of light into smaller and smaller circles
and then chase it under a rug or into a trash can.
• Harpo Marx was mute and communicated by honks,
whistles, and pantomime. He wore a fright wig and an
overcoat with enormous inside pockets from which he
pulled out ice cream cones, cups of coffee, and once in a
while, a blowtorch.
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Canadian Association of Therapeutic Clowns:
http://www.therapeuticclowns.ca/index.html
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Patch Adams is the most famous American supporter
of humor and health.
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Clowns Have a Code of Conduct
• While in character, clowns should not be seen
doing “normal” things like shopping or eating.
• They should not appear in public wearing only
part of their costume.
• When at sports events or community
celebrations, they should be willing to fill in
dead time, provide photo opportunities, give
young children someone to relate to, and
remember that their job is bringing happiness.
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Clowns Protested When . . .
• Bob Dole referred to President Clinton as “Bozo.”
Larry Harmon, the creator of Bozo protested having
his character’s name used as an insult.
• One Halloween, a Paulsboro, New Jersey police
officer dressed as a clown managed to arrest 12
individuals wanted for routine traffic offenses.
• He bragged that the costume got him inside homes
where if he had come in his uniform and asked for
someone by name, he would have most likely been
told, “He isn’t here.”
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There is no end to the types of
clowns now being developed.
These “live” clowns at
Disney World are plants.
• The newest clowns are
connected to hospitals.
• In more than 100 U. S.
hospitals, clowns either
roam the halls pushing
humor carts, giving out
smiley faces, joke
books, and clown dolls,
or managing full scale
“humor rooms.”
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The Humor in Hospitals is usually
provided by nurses rather than doctors.
• This might be because nurses
work more closely with
patients than do doctors so
they get to know them better.
• Also nurses are often caught
in the middle of a hierarchy
and gain power by joking and
clowning around with patients,
often at the expense of the
doctors.
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2012-2013 Teddy Bear Toss
for 12,947 Kids at Penn State Hershey’s Children’s Hospital:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ENgOxVZm0
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Norman Cousins
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• In 1979, Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday
Review of Literature, published his best-selling
Anatomy of an Illness.
• He had a serious collagen disease that affected
the connective tissue of his spine and joints.
The disease was life-threatening, his pain was
intense, and the doctors gave him little hope for
a full recovery.
• He was frustrated by the hospital routines and
his slow progress, so he checked himself out of
the hospital and into a nearby hotel.
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• Because of his celebrity status, the doctors
visited him and delivered his medication, while
he used “humor-intervention therapy.” He read
humorous books, and watched funny movies,
and tapes of TV’s Candid Camera.
• He found that the more he laughed, the longer
his body was without pain.
• He persuasively made the case that if it is
possible to have a psychosomatic illness, then it
is also possible to have a psychosomatic
wellness.
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• In 1971, Dr. WILLIAM FRY at Stanford University’s Medical
School began empirical studies on the effects of humor and
laughter. He went beyond anecdotal stories by objectively
testing and measuring physical responses to humor.
• He found that the chemical compositions of tears are different
when a person is laughing as compared to crying.
• Dr. Fry showed that people’s bodies are tense when listening to
a joke, but relaxed at the end.
• He compared the body’s production of dopamine when laughing
to a runner’s high, which is why he calls laughter “Internal
Jogging.”
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• William Fry says
that hearty laughter
is a kind of internal
jogging
• Here is an exercise
that you might want
to consider 
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• VERA ROBINSON, a Nurse Educator,
published an influential book Humor and the Health
Professions in 1977.
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Alleen and Don Nilsen: American Association of Therapeutic Humor
Doug Fletcher Lifetime Achievement Award Winners:
http://www.aath.org/lifetime-awards
http://www.aath.org/past-award-winners
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We know that humor is good for people, but we also
want to offer some warnings
1. People have individualized senses of humor. What
makes one person laugh might
annoy or insult
someone else.
2. Even if it’s true that people with a good sense of
humor live longer it might be that people who are
healthy and successful have more reason to be
cheerful.
3. Also pleasant patients may receive better health
care than do grumpy and hostile patients.
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4. While hearty laughter pumps adrenalin and other
powerful chemicals into people’s blood streams,
other things have the same effect on health and
healing: e.g. visits from pets, family members, close
friends, and clergy, etc.
5. If laughter enhances the immune system, then what
what about implant patients. A stronger immune
system might cause them to reject their implants.
6. At the least, we will go along with the scholar who
compared using humor to changing a baby’s diaper.
It doesn’t permanently solve any problems, but it
makes things more acceptable for a while.
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In conclusion, here is a picture that made us
laugh, not because Bruce Jenner wanted to be
a woman but because he thinks this is how 65year-old women look.
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Thanksgiving Dinner Diets:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/TX9EAavxrus
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