Humor Studies

By

Sophy Laughing

Table of Contents
Preface ......................................................................................................................... 5
The Promise ................................................................................................................................................................. 6 Manifesto ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9 A Brief History of Humor ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Laughter ...................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Funny Is ....................................................................................................................................................................... 28 Laughter ...................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Spy Skills for Humorists ....................................................................................................................................... 30 Humor vs. Comedy ................................................................................................................................................. 32

Finding The Funny ...................................................................................................... 10

Turn toward Humor ................................................................................................... 21

Pipes and Humor ........................................................................................................ 29

Humor Studies

PREFACE

Hi! My name is Sophy Laughing. I changed my last name to Laughing because thats how I wanted to spend the rest of my life, and how I wanted to be remembered. No matter what I do from this day forward, Im assured that one thing will happen in my life: I will die laughing.

My son took this photo of me with his new their photography talents and studio. I encourage my kids to explore interests, and remind them that their happiness should be their top priority; the things they learn in life are simply the skills they apply toward making their dreams a reality. I hope that by giving myself the freedom to create, I inspire them to do the same.

Without plagiarism, wed never hear the words I love you twice. Sophy Laughing

It all started with a promise.

One day, I sat down and quietly made myself a promise - to look deep
inside and ask myself what makes me happy. Then, to the best of my ability, not allowing anything or anyone, including me, to convince me otherwise, I would commit myself to doing whatever it was that made me happy.

To my surprise and delight I discovered it was humor. Admittedly, I questioned my sanity.

I am of the mindset that if I can be successful helping others achieve their dreams, I can apply the same skills to my own life and be successful following mine. Perhaps without this belief, I would not be able to reach inside and find the internal fortitude to move forward in search of happily ever after.

Once I knew what made me happy, I decided to give it to myself. I posted my promise in a blog named Sophly Laughing (Sophy softly Laughing) and began making my dreams a reality by sharing them because sharing our goals and dreams makes us accountable to the world.

From the moment you visit my blog, you are greeted by this message. A compilation of what the greatest minds throughout history have believed about humor; that it is infectious; that by laughing you can give others permission to laugh. This, in a nutshell, is exactly what Im doing.

MANIFESTO

Lighten burdens. Inspire hope. Connect to others. Increase my insight. Keep myself grounded. Stay focused. Keep alert. Be happy. Laugh. Stimulate both sides of my brain. Understand quicker. Remember longer. Learn more. Have fun. Advance our understanding of humor. (And if Im lucky) Develop a really good sense of humor.

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FINDING THE FUNNY

There is great wisdom in humor. I believe humor has the power to heal. I think that no matter what life experiences come our way, we can grab onto a funny bone as our first action and redirect our lives toward happiness.

Searching for the humor in a situation as an instinctive first response brings with it the gift of silence. This silence gives you just enough time to take a breath. Its this little breath that is so important. Not just because we need oxygen in our lungs but because you have a split-second longer to think, to choose. This is, in all reality, an act of self-love. Nobody wants to feel bad. If have a moment to redirect your energie and choose a nicer response, you end up responding to life rather than reacting to it. Since we have pre-programed fight or flight responses, we cant always control how we feel or how were going to react to a perceived threat. Even if that threat is running out of sugar in the middle of baking cookies. Rather than get upset, a slight pause can often times illuminate the humor in pretty much any situation. This seemingly simple act is something I hadnt yet mastered until I dedicated myself to looking for the lighter side of life. Its easier for me to find the lighter side of life when I remember to look for the funny, pause, and redirect negative energie towards a positive solution. The only thing left is to celebrate these moments with a smile.

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 Once I promised myself that Id follow my dreams, I set myself up for success by implementing these steps into my life. I redirect everything and everyone I can toward a positive direction, even myself. On the days that I suffer from a case of the blahs; I pause and remind myself that anything outside the realm of positivity is outdated. Just as todays humor movement is different than that of 16th century France, so is our collective response to the world. We have moved from anarchism to advocacy, we find refuge in good humor, solidarity, health and happiness.

My library is filled with joke books, alien invasion survival handbooks, books on laughter, physics for dogs, Darwin awards, and a flock of seemingly incomprehensible musings on life, death, and everything that happens between the years spent in the high chair and the rocking chair.

My quest, as I describe it, is to understand how humor and laughter can increase our enjoyment of living. It is not just about telling jokes. Its about taking a bite out of humor. Savoring it. Tasting it. And, ultimately, Getting it!

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMOR

Humor is an innovative solution to life, once we can find a problem to go with it. Embracing humor is about choosing to see the lighter side of life rather than responding to negativity. When negativity comes my way, I just block it out. Sure, it affects me, but not like before. I dont brood over things. I quit stressing over things I couldnt change. I quit caring about opinions with which I disagreed, and simply let go of that almighty ego.

Theres a lot to be explored in the field of humor, from the healing power of humor to scholarly research. Interestingly enough, appreciation of humor dates back to ancient Egyptian times.

Hieroglyphic symbols for laughing and jokes

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 Ancient Egyptians werent the only ones with an appreciation of humor. There are 42 references to laughter in the Bible; the Greek city-states inherited a tradition of humor from the Hitties; even toga-wearing Romans got in on the act when they shared some 260 jokes on stereotypes like the egghead and the absent-minded professor in The Laughter Lover, a joke book dating back to the 3rd or 4th century AD.

From ancient times to today, the one thing that unites most of us is belief that we have a good sense of humor. Jean-Paul Sartre said that making people laugh saved his life. I know how he feels. A number of scholars, however, have written on the subject of humor, but Ive got to tell you, their work isnt that funny. Its not even humorous. Its like they put humor on trial. I can hear them now

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 How do you know whats funny? To what degree have you evaluated the concept of funny? Please look at this photo and tells us, on a scale of 1 to 10, how funny it is. 1 for not funny at all, 10 for rolling-on-the-ground with laughter.

Mockery of human infirmity should not be confused with mockery of humans. Humor reflects the higher power and richness held in human imagination.

Humor, religion, spirituality, intelligence, and genius, are all labels that reflect our inherent ability to see beyond our problems. I can hear Homers gods laughing now.

Laughter naturally goes along with having fun. When you feel comfortable with someone, nothing brings us closer to each other than a good laugh. The more humor we see in life, the closer we are to tolerance, understanding, and finally, acceptance of our selves and others.

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Scientists say that laughter has many psychological benefits. Laughter lets people harmlessly release negative emotions such as anger, sadness, and fear. In a world riddled with economic downturns, social unrest, and political strife, it can feel like we dont have control over our own lives, but when we laugh, we turn that around.

In a connected world many of us spend hours alone in front of our computers. No matter what language we speak, no matter where we live, theres a simpler method of communication that transcends our differences laughter.

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 We all have access to humor in our lives if we know how to find it. While each of us have our own unique sense of humor, what we collectively find funny always seems funnier when someone laughs with us.

Youve probably heard the saying, Laughter is the best medicine. I believe theres an element of genius in that statement. No matter how knowledgeable, cultivated, or enlightened we become, we all do stupid things. If you can laugh at yourself, youll inspire someone else to do the same.

Financial support and research grants for laughter are a joke. Still, investigating humor offers a fascinating portrait into the minds of people who amaze and delight us with their impressive intellect and piercing insight into human nature. Humor studies introduces us to a diverse cast of legendary humorists who not only got it but showed the rest of us why it was so darn funny.

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 A rule of grammar to remember in humor studies is that double negatives are a no-no - but double positives, like Yeah, Yeah can result in a hearty ha-ha.

Many contributors have explored theories on humor and laughter. Aristotle, Plato, Hobbes, and other philosophers presented the first-known theories on the philosophy of humor and the phenomena of laughter. Henri Bergson, Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierkegaard, and even Freud recognized the power held in making others laugh.

Humor may come and go with the rise and fall of civilizations, but it is a cultural constant. The greatest pleasure I derive from exploring humor studies is the opportunity to smile, giggle, chuckle, cackle, snicker, crack-up, or roll on the floor with sidesplitting laughter.

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LAUGHTER

The following declaration is from my post on Sunday, April 17th, 2011.

Part IX: Laughter

We are questers whose goals are uncertain, refusing to extend beyond that by which we limit ourselves. Without knowing the ultimate goal, we find ourselves tormented by our refusal to avenge our desires.

Like a sly, subtle presence in our own lives, we ignore the superb conversations between our hearts desire and our minds unyielding dominion over that which we allow ourselves to experience. Rather than remain a spectator in our own minds, we must delve deeper to achieve perspectivism, which is in direct contrast to viewing the external world. Internal perspective requires introspection and receptivity of what we find. Instead, we spend our times being rivals, an ironic unfriending of ourselves at best. 19

I believe we can exist in harmony, loyal to others, while enjoying that which we need for ourselves. If I ask myself what I enjoy the most, the answer is laughter. Perhaps it is this deep enjoyment where I feel harmony exists, between my desires and those of others for there is very little humor in solidarity pursuits.

Comedy thrives in the collective appreciation of our own humanity. We laugh at the limitations we cannot escape; from the accidental slip on a banana peel to the more subtle ironies we recognize in our own complexities, to the profound magnitude of the unknown. Not out of cruelty do we laugh, not from the perspective of emotions, but from a Birdseye vantage point.

Laughter releases us from the bondage of helplessness. We cannot, as of yet, without the aid of some biotechnological mechanism, extend our consciousness beyond that of the body. Therefore, we must face our mortality. Death is hilarious, only because we cannot escape it. In a world of changing, evolving forms, we laugh the hardest at that which we cannot change by our own enterprise.

I solemnly and with a heavy heart have no choice but to accept my own death. Irrespective of the dreams I have or do not have, seek or do not seek, death hovers anxiously in the background. Any dream, any aspect of it, is temporary at best.

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So, I shall choose to live the dreams and experiences I feel will allow me to laugh, to find enjoyment, and to more easily accept my fate. I will ponder the more subtle meanings of laughter, the philosophy therein, and do the only thing I can to ward off the inevitable laugh.

Those reading my promise may laugh at my dreams, but I will dream of our collective laughter.

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TURN TOWARD HUMOR

Maybe someone who smiles but cannot laugh is the same as someone who arrives thirsty to a river but cannot drink they havent given themselves permission to do so. Like a person who opts for hypnosis as a cure for their fear of losing control, we hold on to seriousness for dear life, pointing, but failing to click.

For those of you who have seen Lemony Snickets, A Series of Unfortunate Events, you may recall the opening whereby the narrator interrupts a showing of The Littlest Elf with the following announcement:

Im sorry to inform you that this is not the movie you will be watching. The movie you are about to see is extremely unpleasant. If you wish to see a film about a happy little elf, then Im sure there is still plenty of seating in theater number two.

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I like how the narrator gave his audience a choice. Sure, it was there for dramatic flair, but if you step back a moment and think about this, youll see that this is that pause I was mentioning earlier. You can decide for yourself if you want to think about unpleasant or pleasant thoughts. For example, when it comes time to pay your bills, irrespective of the challenges inherent in that task, you can always look at it like, Hey, cool. Im a grown-up. While the idea of being a grown-up is not always met with sunshine and smiles, I still remember when the words grown-up felt magical to me, filled with visions of being famous and making more money than I could spend in 10 lifetimes.

The point is, if you dont like the channel youre watching, switch it. If you dont like what youre hearing, tune it out, change the station, and play a new song. If you dont like your life, write a new story for yourself. If you dont youre your past, edit it out of your thoughts.

Turn your mind toward humor, toward rental cars, zombie survival guides, and duck soup. Ponder why chickens cross the road. Consider The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm to be, official. Look up your friends from elementary school; theyre probably on Facebook. Draw funny pictures, try to invent a time machine, work on your world domination strategy, and think about how fun it was for the Baudelaires to get even with Count Olaf. With each milestone, they remembered to celebrate. I think thats an important step. If you dont take the

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 time to smile and laugh when something good happens, you wont be able to draw on that strength in times of need.

Have you ever just stepped back and laughed at lifes absurdities? Im actually hoping that you laughed while reading the last paragraph, I personally find the words zombie survival guide and rental cars absolutely hilarious.

There are a number of studies documenting cases whereby people got healthier when they started laughing or looking at life with a pair of rose-colored glasses. Research has also shown that those who score high on the multidimensional sense of humor scale have lower levels of depression and higher levels of purpose than those who score low.

You dont have to be the author of a joke to appreciate it. You dont even have to laugh out loud to feel good. How much you laugh isnt a measure of your sense of humor. Its a measurement of your willingness to express it.

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 People laugh differently. Some laugh inwardly, some through wry smiles brought about by the appreciation of a witty comment, and others have sidesplitting, gut-busting, roll-on-the-ground laughter fits. However humor affects you, research indicates that those who laugh frequently might actually live longer than those who dont.

Studies have said that kids laugh about 400 times a day, whereas adults only laugh about 15 times if theyre lucky. Kids who grow up in a negative atmosphere are less likely to appreciate a healthy sense of humor and lighthearted living.

On the other hand, kids raised in happy, well-adjusted homes with an abundance of humor and laughter tend to react more positively to harmless practical jokes, story telling, and mirth. This is the type of environment that allows kids (and parents) a chance to lighten-up, to participate readily in laughter, to understand humor, and to not take life too seriously when they grow up. 25

My kids love practical jokes. Like most boys, my son enjoys video games and saving the world from run-amuck zombies. In the spirit being funny, I hide his Halo Reach action figures and leave ransom notes instead. He retaliates by hiding my cell phone. This is one of the reasons I rarely answer my phone. I simply cannot find it. Im thinking its time to come up with a new game.

My daughter, on the other hand, likes quirky one-liners for her messenger window and for texting. So, I send her the most ironic ones I can find. This is not an easy task. Teenagers do not think adults are all that funny. This is where my book of classic insults comes in handy. The more insulting you can be without being mean, the funnier you are for a teenager. If I agreed with you, wed both be wrong.

You dont need to hide your kids toys (except for the ones that make those annoying sounds) or wear a pair of silly eyeglasses, but you could. I mean, why not? The next time you arrive to the movie theater early and end up 26

 standing against the wall waiting for the ushers to clean up the theater; try pulling out a mini-balloon pump and make some balloon animals. Its amazing how quickly you can draw a crowd of happy children and their parents. Then, take a moment to look at your kids. I bet you theyre smiling.

You can still be a first-class jokester without making balloon animals. Just start by losing your sense of seriousness. Do something out of the norm. While we may burn plenty of calories carrying around the weight of the world on our shoulders, we burn more with gut-busting belly laughs.

If all else fails, subscribe to Living in the Moment Book Club. Just make certain theyve havent been bought out by Living in the Past, LLC.

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FUNNY IS

If adroitness is evading taxes, funny is getting married and finding out your father-in-laws the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. If dexterity is cooking with chopsticks, funny is putting them up your nose. If your expertise is designing complex software programs, funny is thinking your secret admirer is HOT when instead its your computer playing a practical joke on you. If genius is designing a time travel machine to pass straight through time loops, funny is getting stuck in one. If intelligence is figuring out the rotation of the celestial bodies, funny is the Catholic Church locking you up so you cant go outside and look at the stars. If nimbleness is being able to jump over a candlestick, funny is dying and finding out that heaven is filled with them. If talent is playing a Brandenburg Concerto, funny is dropping a piano on the conductors head. If cleverness is writing a bunch of comparisons, funny is thinking theyre actually good. After reading these jokes, my son told me, If lame is the new funny, then youre pretty funny, mom.

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PIPES AND HUMOR

In addition to a red nose, a pipe can also serve as inspiration for funniness. Santa Claus reportedly began his pipe-smoking days back in 1823. I presume he smokes his pipe to keep warm in his workshop at the North Pole. Bob Hope, a comedic legend and pipe smoker, laughed his way to 100 years old. Evelyn Waugh, another pipe smoker, said, Punctuality is the virtue of the bored. Im starting to think showing up on time isnt always what its cracked up to be. Mark Twain said that ceasing smoking was the easiest thing he ever did. I ought to know because Ive done it a thousand times. He also said, The human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

Einstein said, A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.

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SPY SKILLS FOR HUMORISTS

The next time you find yourself alone in a coffee shop or at the store, sit back and watch what people around you are doing. Simple observation makes you privy to some pretty funny moments.

Eavesdropping is easier and far more enjoyable than one might think. Im not suggesting you scoot up next to someone having a whispered conversation on a park bench with your notebook, but people do actually speak unnecessarily loud, which means youll overhear things whether you want to or not. Hearing one end of a conversation is funny. The healthier your imagination, the funnier filling in the other side of the conversation can be.

Humor lets us fill in the gaps brought about by lifes incongruities. No matter how funny something is, it isnt funny for everyone, but thats okay. Humors subjective. Theres room for everyone to laugh. And yes, if you tell a joke in the forest and nobody hears it, it is still a joke. Just like, if I eat this cupcake and nobody sees me do it, it will not go straight to my hips.

If you want to discover how funny you are, write a silly story. Heres one off the top of my head Imagine climbing Mount Everest with onlookers throwing banana peels and tomatoes at you. To your left is your team of highly trained ninja lamas with marshmallow guns firing back. To your right, an self-absorbed

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 expresso machine complaining that the lamas are wasting all the good marshmallows. Fortunately, theres a cooking show at the bottom of the mountain where the banana peels and tomatoes are landing. Theyre using these ingredients in their Iron Chef cook-off between Bobby Flay and some really cool Japanese kid with spiky red hair that grew up in Louisiana where making salsa is a recognized art form. Not too difficult to figure out who is winning this cook-off!

Silly stories and thoughts can really enhance your imaginary skills. These are the skills that help us see the funny in life. Allowing for nonsense minimizes your inhibitions, and allows you to see freely with less judgment. Writing silly stories is a fun exercise. Its like mad libs and youre dressed up as an archaeologist uncovering your own unique, potentially, bizarre sense of humor. The closer you are to being your true self, the funnier life becomes. As with anything in life, the road to success is always under construction.

Humor has conferred a sense of freedom within me, a kind of intellectual exuberance that evokes unhindered emotional responses. Composing a daily dithyramb allows me to share, among other things, the pleasures found in lightening up.

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HUMOR vs. COMEDY

Humor is actually a broader term that includes all types of humor material, satire, sarcasm, irony, puns, and parody. Comedy is the performance of humor. My blog, my comics, and my jokes are all comedic presentations of my more serious research into humor studies. The preconceived notions I carried into this exploration are the things that I consider funny, which range from the black and white slapstick comedy of yesteryears to Conan OBriens late night talk show.

A number of comedians claim that you cant teach people how to be funny. Perhaps its not that people cant be funny or dont enjoy comedy, but rather just dont want to

Millions of people around the world arent laughing. Many of them have been touched by serious tragedy or disaster. Comedy, understandably so, is not their top priority. It could be though because this is when you need comedy the most, to help you blow off steam in a healthy way. Believe me, we all blow off steam. The body doesnt want to hold in negative energie. If it did, we wouldnt have telenovelas and reality television. In the past, people laughed harder at others mishaps. Jerry Springer comes to mind. Freud would have referred to our laughing at Jerry Springers unusual guests as the relief theory of humor - relief that were not in their shoes.

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 However we define humor, whatever comedic packaging appeals to each person, Im committed to understanding more about it and the healing potential it might offer.

With all this talk of laughter, youre probably asking yourself what you consider to be funny. While humor is certainly subjective, most people laugh the hardest of jokes about life. These are the people who dont take themselves too seriously. When bad things happen, this kind of person most likely takes a deep breath and looks for the irony, absurdity, or humor in a situation and then laughs about it.

Comedy from the late 1920s and early 1930s changed with the coming of the motion picture industry. In those days, the world was riddled with dictators, fascism and authoritarian governments were seriously committed to world domination, and people had more time to think about their problems. They didnt spend countless hours around the television set, glued to the computer, or playing video games. Naturally, the comedy of this time focused on unscrupulous world leaders and freedom fighting superheroes swooping in to save the day.

Thats the thing about comedy; its a reflection of social opinion. While comedy can certainly influence public opinion, it really is dependent on laughs, which means youve got to find a strand of commonality to be funny.

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 Weve gone from anarchist comedy to complaining about anarchist issues. While it is instinctive for us to continue to poke fun at leaders whom we choose to manage our social ills, until they become one, theres room for a higher-level of comedy. That kind of comedy is advocacy. The thing is, weve moved on from anarchy to advocacy as a society. We live in a global community, we share common struggles, we have common dreams, and we are probably one or two Facebook friends away from having a friend in every country on the planet.

The more I learn about the world, the more I learn about comedy, the more convinced I am that the future of humor lies in our laughing together, rather at each other.

With a special thanks to my friends at

Pigeons of The World Unite

Well make you laugh in the end 34