Trying to make sense of laughter

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Kneedragger

Kneedragger

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RaySirX
I just read a long thread on how watching human/animal cruelty and gore videos on the internet has or hasnt changed people. Some of the posts included links and descriptions. Just reading the descriptions made my face start leaking (theres noooo way I'd actually watch such a video.) Anyway, it made me wonder at laughter..

Why do we find certain kinds of violence or the misfortune of others funny? That connection of misfortune and laughter, is, in my opinion, part of the reason humans are able to commit the kinds of atrocities that they do. The instinct to laugh at such things is THERE.. its natural, isnt it? Slapstick humor is one of the surest kinds of humor there is! Yes there a difference between slipping on a banana peel and using a hand saw to decapitate someone tied to a chair, but its the merriment in the perception of others misfortune I wonder about. Take my wife. Please.
 
Well, it's the assumed relief of pain avoided that makes us laugh. The victim is not us so we are happy. However, the violence done to the victim is not bad enough to evoke our revulsion yet, so we laugh. As you say, it's slapstick - not life-threatening danger.

Though I admit my laughter threshold goes way up when it is something stupid the victim does to himself, like trying to rollerblade off a roof or kick a melon full of flaming gasoline.
 
Duke
Well, it's the assumed relief of pain avoided that makes us laugh. The victim is not us so we are happy. However, the violence done to the victim is not bad enough to evoke our revulsion yet, so we laugh. As you say, it's slapstick - not life-threatening danger.

Though I admit my laughter threshold goes way up when it is something stupid the victim does to himself, like trying to rollerblade off a roof or kick a melon full of flaming gasoline.
Click to expand...

The first half of your answer makes it sound like theres a strict subconscious mechanism that makes us laugh. The second half of your answer clearly shows this mechanism isnt subconscious at all; its VERY conscious. Its a small step from laughing at a rollerblader falling from a roof and hurting himself ("how could he be SO stupid! He deserved it!" i.e. reverse darwinism) to: turning off all empathy for someone so stupid they would believe in a foreign religion, etc. etc.

And obviously I'm not pinpointing you. I wasnt using your example in a personal way against you. It was just handy, thats all.
 
I have always wondered what the point of laughter is, its obviously very important to human nature. It is said to be contagious highlighting its importance in social interaction. Laughter is quite an odd concept when you think about it.

Perhaps a better question would be, why do we find things funny?
 
I don't see why it can't be a combination of subconscious and conscious effects. And I never said that the revulsion point went up, too. Some things are still going to be distasteful and scary and revolting. If a guy jumps his bicycle into a woodchipper, I still don't want to see it, even if he was being voluntarily stupid.

If a person trips and falls down the stairs and gets racked on the handrail, it's not necessarily funny, but not yet revolting either. But when a skateboarder blows his jump down the stairs and gets racked on the handrail, it's funny, because he did it to himself but the injury still isn't bad enough to be revolting.

If religious fanatics walk around chanting and whacking themselves in the head with boards, it's funny, because they are doing it to themselves. But that's still not the same as burning each other (or themselves) at the stake, which is over that threshold of revolting. I don't see a problem with a combination of subconscious and conscious criteria.
 
Duke
I don't see a problem with a combination of subconscious and conscious criteria.
Click to expand...

The point at where a human laughs at perceived misfortune, or feels repulsion-revulsion instead, is a conscious thing. Its totally under conscious control (or the possibility of conscious control.)

As far as the combination of criteria, well yes, this is true of everything (what did you have for breakfast yesterday? So its easy to summon back into consciousness something that had been relegated to memory, history, and unconsciousness. Everything exists in that same way.)

A stand up comedian has a good night at the club: 'I killed last night!!'

p.s. if the comedian was also a Islamic extremist, we might not grin and nod approvingly.
 
I'm only 14 and don't know a lot about psychology but I think its just the look of the action that is happening, like when we see someone slip on a banana, its funny because the person wouldn't have seen it coming and would have fallen quick and unstructured, we don't really realise the pain behind it, and when we do realise that its hurting someone, we naturally feel sorry for them and stop laughing, I don't laugh at films like saw.


Although we do laugh at people misfortune in other cases, for instance losing a an endurance race on gran turismo on the last corner from the finish line would make me scream, but seriously, its the most funniest thing to hear.
 
My grandma doesn't laugh at any of that stuff though. Whenever she watches football or some other contact sport with us, she sounds like she's on a rollercoaster with all the "woah!" "oh!" "csss!" exclamations and cringing and wincing that she does.
 
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