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by Steven M. Sultanoff, PhD
The answer to that question is not a simple one.
First, humor is the experience of incongruity. In one's environment the incongruity may be
experienced when someone falls down in a situation when they are not expected to fall down, or
the incongruity can be between concepts, thoughts, or ideas often illustrated by the punch line of
a joke or the caption of a cartoon.
Second, as James Thurber has stated, "Humor is emotional chaos remembered in
tranquillity." We commonly say, "It wasn't funny at the time." Later with distance we can
appreciate the humor. This occurs frequently when people are experiencing a crisis, and at some
later time the crisis situation is perceived as humorous.
Third, humor can be experienced in the joy of "getting" it. Humor can be the understanding of
something that we at first did not comprehend. This occurs everyday in misunderstandings at
which we laugh.
Fourth, the experience of the "forbidden" (laughing in church), or "getting away with"
something (often seen with children) is often experienced as humorous..
Finally, for me, humor is comprised of three components:
wit, mirth, and laughter.
We often equate laughter with humor, but you do not need to laugh to experience humor.
The more important question instead of "What IS humorous?" is the question "What do You
EXPERIENCE as humorous?"
As individuals we tend to experience humor by either "getting it" (which tends to be cognitive or
intellectual response), by feeling it (which tends to be an emotional response), or by laughing at
it (which is more of a physiological response). There is a wide range of life's experiences that are
experienced as humorous. Like beauty being in the eyes of the beholder, humor is in the funny
bone of the receiver of the experience.
Laughter reduces serum cortical (a hormone released during the stress response).
Laughter increases imunoglobin A (an antibody that helps fight upper respiratory
disease).
Laughter increases heart rate, pulse rate, and "juggles" the internal organs.
healing, but there is no direct evidence to support this belief. An inference that humor is healing
can be drawn, for example, in the following way: A wealth of research has indicated that
distressing emotions (depression, anger, anxiety, and stress) are all related to heart disease.
Humor directly changes distressing emotions. Therefore Humor may reduce the risk of heart
disease. (See Dr. Sultanoff's article on humor and heart disease published in the American
Association for Therapeutic Humor Newsletter, November, 1998).
How can a lack or a loss of sense of humor affect a patient's mental health?
Without humor one's thought processes are likely to become stuck and narrowly focused
leading to increased distress.
Since humor helps pull one out of emotional distress, the lack of humor would eliminate a
healthy way for one to feel better. A lack of sense of humor is directly related to a lower self
esteem. A healthy sense of humor is related to being able to laugh at oneself and one's life.
Laughing at oneself can be a way of accepting and respecting oneself. (Note that laughing at
oneself can also be unhealthy if one laughs as a way of self degradation.)