Is this a good speech topic?

Question

My topic is: Why do people laugh?

Is this a stupid/weird topic for a speech? are there any other better ideas out there?

Here is my speech so far: You may think this is a silly question to ask. We laugh because some things are funnier than others. Right? Scientists haven't studied this particular part of the human brain, simply because it is not a big clinical problem. People don't go to the doctor because they are laughing and having fun.

Answer 1

The topic is fine, but what you have written afterwards simply isn't true. There has been plenty of research on what makes people laugh in a number of disciplines (going to the doctor isn't how research is done!). With the topic of "Why do people laugh?", you either need to explain how laughte works, and why it is triggered by certain things which we find funny (or uncomfortable, in some cases), or you need to talk about research on what kinds of things make different groups of people laugh. For example, what do men find funny v. what do women find funny? Why is humor different in different countries?

Answer 2

Actually, this is an interesting question. You can delve into why people think different things are funny.

People also laugh at embarrassing times for them, such as being so overwhelmed by emotion at a funeral and laughing (really bad timing). Also, some people laugh when they're embarrassed.

And then there's the biological analysis of why we laugh. See the pull quote below. I got it from WebMD:

Whether you snort, cackle, chortle, or have a wild, weird little giggle, you have a "laugh print," a personal signature that's too, too you.

Laughter is so basic to humans, we barely notice it -- unless it totally pleases or absolutely annoys us.

But laughter has power -- the power to energize the hum-drum, add levity to the everyday blah-blah-blah. Laughter carries such a social connection that it's a mating ritual, a way to bond. Studies suggest that laughter may boost our health.

Our all-too-human laughter sets us -- and our close cousins, the primates -- apart from all other species that roam our planet, says Robert R. Provine, PhD, a behavioral neurobiologist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

"Think about it the next time you walk through woods listening to the odd cries and calls of the creatures that live there: When you laugh, those creatures are hearing sounds that are just as odd and just as characteristic of our own species," he writes in his book, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation.

Answer 3

This HAS been researched by scientists. If this is your topic, you'll need to do some research too.