BS: Why do we need humour?

Subject: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 01:04 PM

Humour. It's a strange thing. It's usually at someone else's expense. Do we need it in this day and age? Discuss...

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Jim Tailor
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 01:06 PM

...especially when humor would suffice.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 01:07 PM

"Humour" is the British/Canadian spelling of the word.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 01:09 PM

This thread has already veered towards humo(u)rlessness...

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 01:50 PM

We need humour because, the way this world is heading, if we don't laugh we'll all end up screaming.


AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Q.E.D.

DT

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Jim Tailor
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:07 PM

"Humour" is the British/Canadian spelling of the word.

You can't be serious! You mean there is an alternative way to spell it?!

Next thing you're going to tell me is that you have a different way to pronounce the last letter of the alphabet. ...and LETTERS in your zip codes.

Ha ha ha. ...you almost had me there. You kidder, you!

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:09 PM

Well - Lets start with the Maggie Thatcher and Tony Blair. Then there are the Bushes HW and W, if we thought about them too long without the lubrication of jocularity where would we be?

In the dustbin or the loony bin.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:18 PM

(the Americans love savings, and leaving out all those extra letters {humour, colour. etc) must save LOTS of time & ink in a year.)

we need humor, no matter how you spell it, because it is actually healthier to laugh than not.....and considering how silly and strange we are as a species, humor is as natural as breathing in and out. Humor is one way we cope with the aspects of life that are not naturally funny.

Did you hear the joke about the company that decided not to upgrade their air-filtering equipment, and told the employees to just breathe OUT 2-3 times for each time they breathed IN?

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:21 PM

To get to the other side.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: radriano
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:22 PM

Why do we need humour?

Hah, that's a laugh!

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: alanabit
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:29 PM

Mark Twain once remarked, "There is no laughter in Heaven". If that's the case, I'll see you all in the other place when it's time for me to go downstairs!

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Shields Folk
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:35 PM

Mark Twain wasn't much of a comedian

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:38 PM

We need humor because we are much too serious.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:41 PM

To stop us worrying about money

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 02:46 PM

...and because there is no other way to fully comprehend Shatner.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:03 PM

Life is short. Laugh at it. -from a bumper sticker seen somewhere

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: EagleWing
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:16 PM

"Next thing you're going to tell me is that you have a different way to pronounce the last letter of the alphabet. ...and LETTERS in your zip codes."

Zip codes? What are zip codes. A zip is the thing I use to stop my willie escaping out the front of my trousers!

If you mean post codes, yeah we letters in them (and spaces too).

We have so many posts, lamp posts, fence posts, last post, winning posts etc that we have to code them or we'd never know where they are.

Frank L.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: dianavan
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:18 PM

We need humour to help us get through the tough stuff.

Last Sunday I was six hours away from death. My friend (who made me go to the hospital) and I joked and laughed our way through emergency care. I had a blood clot.

I am now being treated and the treatment is working. I am out of danger. But it was today that I cried. I finally realized how scared I really was.

I thought back to the last few days and how I just made light of the whole situation. How we joked about everything in the first few hours and how we (may family and friends) just let the doctors 'do their thing'. What else can you do?

Humour isn't always at the expense of another. Sometimes it is to relieve a very serious situation. I am so thankful that I got through it and that I have friends and family that know how to make me laugh.

I have always said that if a man wants to get next me, the first thing he has to do is make me smile. The more often he makes me smile and laugh, the better I like him.

Without humour, it would be a very sad world.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:26 PM

To cope. To cope, sometimes, with awful things.

Like the photo of the WW1 trench with the skeleton holding a cigarette and sign to the dugout. Like the humor of Emergency Rooms and cops and firefighters and combat and poverty and powerlessness.

Humor has helped to bring down governments and raise them up. It might be the single most powerful thing, after Love, there is. Tyranny cannot stand the light or being laughed at.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: jeffp
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:26 PM

I have spent a few days recently at the local oncology center accompanying my wife as she receives here chemotherapy IVs. You might think it would be a very humorless place, containing as it does many people who are fighting for their very lives and the people helping them in that fight. You would be so-o-o-ooo-oo-oo-o-o-oo-o wrong! There is so much love there that it comes out as laughter.

For me, if I couldn't attack it with humor, I would be curled up in the corner in a fetal (or foetal) position.

jeffp

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:33 PM

Dianavan,

I consider you as a person who I would love as a friend even though I have never met you. Therefore I am so GLAD that a non-cyberspace friend made you go to the hospital.

And I'm SO GLAD that they caught the blood clot in time.

On a serious note: My twin sister died of a blood clot 10 years ago.

On a lighter note, I seriously agree with your comments that
"I have always said that if a man wants to get next me, the first thing he has to do is make me smile. The more often he makes me smile and laugh, the better I like him."

I also agree with you comment that
"Without humour, it would be a very sad world."

Continue to get better, ya hear?!

from one sistah to another,
Azizi

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Once Famous
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 03:47 PM

dianavan

I am glad that you are OK. No matter any philosophical differences. I hope your experience gives you a great outlook on life.

Even though I am not a big fan of country superstar Tim McGraw, his big hit and grammy winning song "Live Like You were Dying" says a lot about the human experience and life.

Humor is something that the Jewish people have clung to for centuries.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: alanabit
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 04:04 PM

Yes Dinavan. Good luck to you and I hope the recovery continues to go well.
There is a lovely line from Steve Stills "Suite Judy Blue Eyes":
"Fear is the lock
And laughter is the key to your heart".
Mark Twain was not much of a comedian according to Shields Folk. You are certainly one of a kind if you believe that. To be fair to the great man, I did quote that line from him out of context. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to look it up... I certainly could not live (or die) without humour. W.C.Fields was caught thumbing through a bible in the months before his death. When challenged with, "What are you doing?" He replied, "Loking for loopholes!"

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 04:17 PM

W.C.Fields hated Philadelphia, and had the last laugh of his life at its expense. He ordered that the Epitaph on his tombstone should read "On the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia".

Humourous beyond the last>

DT

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 04:22 PM

I know a woman who works in neo-natal intensive care..(very premature babies) They survive partially by way of grim humor and little songs that might shock you.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 04:36 PM

why do you need to post why do we need

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 05:05 PM

Hey dianavan, glad to hear you're Ok and responding well to treatment.

My wife had a DVT in her shoulder six years ago, at the age of 24 (that's twenty-four!). She faced her fear (and mine) by not allowing it to take charge or to daunt her incredible sense of humour, and she joked her way through the hospital stay, the heparin, the warfarin, the painful operation to remove the rib that had pinched the vein and caused the clot, and the six-inch scar above the left breast that's there for ever. She laughed through it all. She's my heroine.

Best wishes gal, for a full recovery.
S:0)

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Azizi
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 05:11 PM

I would like to take this opportunity to give a public thank you to anothr cyberspace friend, Hollowfox, for sending some WONDERFUL vintage Black books from her collection.

One of those books is the classic "The Book of Negro Humor" by Langston Hughes. All the chapters of that book are pertinent to this discussion. One of the chapters is entitled "Laugh and Live". Another chapter "Nothing but the Blues" has this quote describing its content

         When you see me laughin'
         I'm laughin' to keep from cryin"

Langston Hughes writes, "The blues are usually about very sad subjects-like being broke, hungry, or brokenhearted, left lonesome in love but almost always there is something in the blues that makes people laugh, or at least smile. And is their music is always a will to live."

end of quote

So another reason for humor is to help us strengthen our will to live-IN SPITE OF the difficult times.

Azizi

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 06:15 PM

Hey, this has turned into a pretty cool thread. Some good thoughts from people. Yeah, humor gets us through a lot and helps ease life's load. Dianavan, I'm very glad to hear you made it through.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: heric
Date: 15 Feb 05 - 07:10 PM

I think it allows us freedom from the stereotypical associations of our mundane existence; from the rigid relationships and thought patterns we are supposed to use, by training and then habit, to eat work clean, etc. Very much like musical creativity. It's a kind of mental freedom (that we need). Instead of "this is what you are supposed to accomplish with this thought pattern," You have "This is what I CAN do with that thought pattern." It's manipulation. Control. Freedom.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Bert
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 01:42 AM

...It's usually at someone else's expense... - but it's much funnier if we can laugh at ourselves.

Azizi, THEY are much too serious, not you and me.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: alanabit
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 03:34 AM

I like Azizi's comment about blues humour there. The lines she quotes are very similar to those at the end of "Bullfrog Blues". That is how I see the blues too - a sort of deadpan humour in the face of everything. It is not a miserable music at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Bert
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 03:37 AM

Oh, and Little Hawk, we need humor like we need feet. To stop our legs from fraying at the ends.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 04:50 AM

To stay sane (more or less) and functional (mostly) in the face of Life flinging shit in your face. If you want some good examples of 'dark humour' ask any survivor of a lengthy traumatic experience, such as a war. If you can find any and get them to talk about it, you will be shocked at what a surviving worker in a Nazi Death Camp found funny 'at the time'.

"we need humour like we need feet. To stop our legs from fraying at the ends."

No - 'To stop our mind from fraying at its end.'

As quoted above

"When you see me laughin'
I'm laughin' to keep from cryin'"

That's called hysteria.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt...

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST,Mingulay at work
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 05:18 AM

As the funniest blues song ever says "Didn't wake up this morning, think I must be dead". We NEED humour just as we need food and drink. Miserable, long faced bastards should be force fed humour, if necessary by IV drip straight into the chuckle muscle or giggleus maximus. As you get older the humour content of your life should increase as a square of your age. Thus, a fifty year old should be receiving 100 jocules of humour per day (a jocule being the standard unit of humour - 10 titters = 1 jocule). It is impossible to overdose on jocules although it may impair sane and responsible behaviour which is a good thing and is to be encouraged.

For those who are unsure of the whole humour 'thing', it is now possible to obtain a starter kit containing red noses, squirting flowers, basic jokes, banana skins and tickling sticks. Junior, intermediate and senior kits are being planned covering jokes, japes and irony.

Laugh and the world laughs with you. Laugh insanely and world says "who's that idiot laughing"?

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST,davetnova
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 06:16 AM

So Americans spell homour humor. No wonder they don't get it all:)

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 08:00 AM

from wikipedia
Humour (humor in American English) is a form of entertainment and a form of human communication, intended to make people laugh and feel happy. The origins of the word "humour" lie in the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which stated that a mix of fluids, or humours, controlled human health and emotion.

Different types of humour which appeal to different sectors of humanity exist – for instance, young children particularly favour slapstick, while satire tends to appeal more to the older and better-educated. Humour often varies by locality and does not easily transfer from one culture to another. This happens because humour often relies on a context, and someone not understanding the context will usually not understand the humour.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST,sigmund freud
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 08:04 AM

jokes and their relation to the unconscious

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 08:18 AM

A big mystery: Why do we laugh?
Contrary to folk wisdom, most laughter is not about humorBy Robert Provine, Ph.D.

May 27, 1999 - Laughter is part of the universal human vocabulary. All members of the human species understand it. Unlike English or French or Swahili, we don't have to learn to speak it. We're born with the capacity to laugh.

One of the remarkable things about laughter is that it occurs unconsciously. You don't decide to do it. While we can consciously inhibit it, we don't consciously produce laughter. That's why it's very hard to laugh on command or to fake laughter. (Don't take my word for it: Ask a friend to laugh on the spot.)

Laughter provides powerful, uncensored insights into our unconscious. It simply bubbles up from within us in certain situations. Very little is known about the specific brain mechanisms responsible for laughter. But we do know that laughter is triggered by many sensations and thoughts, and that it activates many parts of the body. When we laugh, we alter our facial expressions and make sounds. During exuberant laughter, the muscles of the arms, legs and trunk are involved. Laughter also requires modification in our pattern of breathing.

We also know that laughter is a message that we send to other people. We know this because we rarely laugh when we are alone (we laugh to ourselves even less than we talk to ourselves). Laughter is social and contagious. We laugh at the sound of laughter itself. That's why the Tickle Me Elmo doll is such a success — it makes us laugh and smile.

The first laughter appears at about 3.5 to 4 months of age, long before we're able to speak. Laughter, like crying, is a way for a preverbal infant to interact with the mother and other caregivers.
Contrary to folk wisdom, most laughter is not about humor; it is about relationships between people. To find out when and why people laugh, I and several undergraduate research assistants went to local malls and city sidewalks and recorded what happened just before people laughed. Over a 10-year period, we studied over 2,000 cases of naturally occurring laughter.

We found that most laughter does not follow jokes. People laugh after a variety of statements such as "Hey John, where ya been?" "Here comes Mary," "How did you do on the test?" and "Do you have a rubber band?". These certainly aren't jokes. We don't decide to laugh at these moments. Our brain makes the decision for us. These curious "ha ha ha's" are bits of social glue that bond relationships.Curiously, laughter seldom interrupts the sentence structure of speech. It punctuates speech. We only laugh during pauses when we would cough or breathe.

We believe laughter evolved from the panting behavior of our ancient primate ancestors. Today, if we tickle chimps or gorillas, they don't laugh "ha ha ha" but exhibit a panting sound. That's the sound of ape laughter. And it's the root of human laughter. Apes laugh in conditions in which human laughter is produced, like tickle, rough and tumble play, and chasing games. Other animals produce vocalizations during play, but they are so different that it's difficult to equate them with laughter. Rats, for example, produce high-pitch vocalizations during play and when tickled. But it's very different in sound from human laughter.

When we laugh, we're often communicating playful intent. So laughter has a bonding function within individuals in a group. It's often positive, but it can be negative too. There's a difference between "laughing with" and "laughing at." People who laugh at others may be trying to force them to conform or casting them out of the group.

No one has actually counted how much people of different ages laugh, but young children probably laugh the most. At ages 5 and 6, we tend to see the most exuberant laughs. Adults laugh less than children, probably because they play less. And laughter is associated with play. We have learned a lot about when and why we laugh, much of it counter-intuitive. Work now underway will tell us more about the brain mechanisms of laughter, how laughter has evolved and why we're so susceptible to tickling — one of the most enigmatic of human behaviors.

Robert Provine, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST,jim tailor
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 08:20 AM

"So Americans spell homour humor."

No. Actually, we spell "Homour", "Homer", and Mr Simpson and family are the funniest family to ever be on television (speaking of humor).

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 08:20 AM

Laughter, a physiological response to humor, can be broken down into two parts.

The first is a set of gestures, and the second is the production of sound. The brain forces to conduct both responses simultaneously. From a physiological standpoint, a "sensor" in the brain responds to laughter by triggering other neural circuits in the brain, which, in turn, generate more laughter.

Oddly enough, laughter is an orderly response, and almost occurs "spontaneously" during pauses at the end of phrases, earning it the name the punctuation effect. Human beings are the only species capable of laughter, and the average adult does so approximately 17 times per day.

Good health is one of the many benefits of laughter. Laughter reduces our stress levels by reducing the level of stress hormones, and also helps us cope with serious illnesses.

Physiologically, laughter promotes healing, by lowering the blood pressure, and by increasing the vascular blood flow and the oxygenation of the blood.

Physical fitness stemming from laughter is a benefit known to few. Scientists estimate that laughing 100 times is equivalent to a 10-minute workout on a rowing machine, or to 15 minutes on a stationary exercise bike. The mere act of laughing exercises the diaphragm, as well as the abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles.

Another benefit of laughter is that it improves our over-all mental health. Pent up negative emotions, such as anger, fear, and sadness, can cause biochemical changes in our bodies that can produce a harmful effect.

Laughter provides a harmless outlet for these negative emotions, and provides a coping mechanism for dealing with difficult or stressful situations.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 11:33 AM

Excellent. Thanks for that.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 01:52 PM

One of the funniest episodes I have seen of laughter was on a recent 'America's Funniest Home Videos' or something of that sort.

A pair of twins, not four months old, are propped in the corner of a sofa leaning against each other.

One has the hiccups. And every time that baby hics, the other one breaks into giggles. They are not looking at each other so the funny bone being tickled has to be a visceral one.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: EagleWing
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 02:34 PM

Mr Simpson and family are the funniest family to ever be on television (speaking of humor).

Ah, then that's why I can't stand the Simpsons. They are humor, whereas I prefer humour.

Frank L.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Jim Tailor
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 02:38 PM

Not being able to stand TV is understandable. Not liking the Simpsons is blasphemy. :^)

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: dianavan
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 05:11 PM

Thank-you Azizi for your kind words. I am sorry to hear about your sister. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have discovered that something was really wrong. The treatment is working but I still feel pretty wiped out.

Odd that you mentioned the vintage Black books. I have held on to mine for a very long time in hope of finding someone who would appreciate them. I found a young, black, single-mom who cried when I said she could have them. She is a writer so I know they went to the right person. My favorite authors are Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison. My favorite play is by Maya Angelou.

Thanks to all of you who have wished me well. It was especially meaningful to hear such kind words from Martin. I really appreciated your thoughts, Martin. Yes, I often remember that when all is said and done, there is not much left but to sing and dance and give praise.

Thanks to all of you and remember to keep smiling and laughing and looking for the humour in life.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Hollowfox
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 05:34 PM

1) In my general anthropology class, the teacher said that people laugh at/joke about things that they're afraid of or make them nervous, or in tense social situations.

2) Marshall Dodge positted that the strong exhalation of breath in laughter ("ha!") is the emotional counterweight to the strong inhalation of breath in grief ("Ahh!").

3) Mel Brooks' 2000 Year Old Man said that the oldest joke in the world was that somebody else got eaten by the saber-tooth tiger.

Granted, these don't cover it all, like the abovementioned hiccupping baby, and any number of things that make me laugh where none are harmed or made uncomfortable, but they do map a bit of the territory.

Subject: RE: BS: Why do we need humour?
From: Azizi
Date: 16 Feb 05 - 05:39 PM

I'm trying to figure out Bert's comment "Azizi, THEY are much too serious, not you and me." Does he mean that thought my comments were too ssrious for this thread?

Well, Bert and others, I didn't intend nor do I believe that I brought this 'up' thread down by mentioning the blues..

Foolestroupe
You said:

"When you see me laughin'
I'm laughin' to keep from cryin'"

That's called hysteria.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt..."

I respectfully disagree.

alanabit, thanks for your comment.
I found this quote from in an archived thread
"John Hammond (Jr.) used to do a tune that went:
I got the bullfrog blues, and I can't be satis-, I can't be satis-, I mean -fied,

I got the bullfrog blues and I can't be satisfied... "

end of quote..

[I think it was 'Guest' who wrote this; I apologize if it was a person who used a name..If I go back to find it-I may lose this post and that will be no JOKE...]

Is this the song you were referring to? When I looked at the words at first I thought the words were "can't be sastis-fried" [for some reason, that was funny to me-but wouldn't have been funny to the frog...]....

and Dianavan,

You've got good taste, girlfriend! Keep on keepin on!

Azizi