The scientific study of laughter suffers from a lack of reproducibility. Emotions, though electro-chemical, don’t always perform on cue like electricity or chemicals because there are so many other cues involved. “The funniest thing about comedy is that you never know why people laugh. I know what makes them laugh but trying to get your hands on the why of it is like trying to pick up an eel out of a tub of water.” ~ W.C. Fields Laughter is a necessarily brief interregnum (an interval of disorder between ordered states). Such time-outs are located interstitially between theories of the physiological, psychological and sociological states of the subject. It’s also an autonomous neurophysiological response which may or may not be terminated voluntarily, this rendering it a deterministic ambiguity. Stearns (1972) makes the point that “Voluntary” is a psychological concept and “has no certain analogy in the function of the central nervous system.” (F.R. Stearns, Laughing: Physiology, Pathophysiology, Psychology, Pathopsychology and Development,1972, p.9). The upshot of all this is that a purely scientific analysis can only explain how we laugh but not why. At this point we enter an epistemological cul-de-sac: are all theories of laughter inherently flawed by their specific cultural context and choice of metaphor? This is where some mono-disciplinary scientists start to become a little irritated as sociologists and philosophers self-reflect on the whys of it. That’s what consciousness does. Laughter is an inescapably inter-disciplinary subject :D The main problem in analysing laughter is that of volition: to what extent do we have any control over when we laugh and what we laugh at? If we are, in some way, biologically programmed to laugh at particular types of stimulus then, even if our laughter is hurtful to others, should we be held morally accountable? The problem here is one of determinism versus free will (which is where the scientists should be able to help)… Here’s my old drama school dissertation on the subject if anyone’s interested: Humour in the Holocaust: Does Laughter Relieve Our Suffering or Diminish Our Objections to the Suffering of Others? martygull.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/chris-port-blog-146-humour-in-holocaust.html
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 13:14:14 +0000
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