Laugh Out Loud

Whence comes laughter? At one end is the low-level patter of chuckles that serves as a conversation lubricant, more of a tic to maintain engagement than a response to something truly funny. Then there’s the de-escalation laughter, that nervous giggle used to relieve tension, reduce stress, or otherwise break awkwardness.

Next is the power laughter, a way to subtly demonstrate dominance or superiority at another’s expense. Such is the staple of late-night or staged comedy, applied to promote a cause or otherwise push an agenda, humor employed as a smart bomb to penetrate the psyche – delivered with the smile of a dog about ready to bite.

Beyond those somewhat cynical applications of humor is the type cited in the discussion piece (click, What's This, A Door?) where “the joy that life attacks me with is unbearable and leads to gasping hysterical laughter.” The humor is genuine and has no agenda beyond revealing otherwise-hidden truths.

Enter those trademark satirists, like Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken, who used laughter to expose human folly. The late great P.J. O’Rourke, a libertarian who found the perfect forum for his biting humor in that counter-culture magazine Rolling Stone, had the ability to make even the most serious subjects – like war, politics, and economics – genuinely funny and accessible (e.g. how better to succinctly address our abysmal debt spiral than his take in Parliament Of Whores wherein “every government is a parliament of whores and in a democracy the whores are us”).

Some of those early classical philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle, were critical of laughter, associating it with ridicule or moral failure. Things may have lightened up a bit with laughter seen as a prosocial force, fostering cohesion and inclusivity when used appropriately e.g. Freud, to release emotional tension; John Dewey, to signal group belonging.

What are your own laugh-at-loud triggers? Along with the above-mentioned affiliative, de-escalation, and power varieties are the self-deprecating, simulated, etiquette, contagious, silent, belly, fake (and, yes, cackling) categories. There is no right answer.

A recent substack quote, delivered without additional comment, maintained: “Laughter isn’t always the best medicine. In fact, sometimes it’s the worst.” Reaction?

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