What is laughter and how does it start???

Answer 1

Laughter is what makes us differWe laugh at things that are laughable, but also laugh exultantly at a success, or bitterly at a failure, or at the unexpected or even the typical. We may even laugh but not at anything—with pure joy, or nervousness, or embarrassment, or merely because we have been physically tickled. The variety of causes or objects of laughter, and the absence of any obvious explanation of its function, have not deterred theorists. Hobbes thought that the passion of laughter is a ‘sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves’ (Human Nature, ix. 12). Hutcheson wrote against the egoism of this account (‘Reflections on Laughter’, Dublin Journal, 1725), locating humour instead in a perception of incongruity, although he offered no real evidence that incongruity is either a necessary or a sufficient condition of something appearing comical. Bain (The Emotions and the Will, 1859) identifies the ludicrous with ‘the degradation of some person or interest possessing dignity, in circumstances that excite no other strong emotion’. Kant (Critique of Judgement, 1790) emphasizes the element of the unexpected, identifying laughter as ‘an affection arising from a strained expectation being suddenly reduced to nothing’. His view is expanded by Schopenhauer, who again finds incongruity at the basis of laughter. But as the Hobbes-Bain approach reminds us, it is not only the insult to reason that is funny but often the insult to other people. In his book Le Rire: essai sur la signification du comique (1900), perhaps anticipating the comedians Jacques Tati or Charlie Chaplin, Bergson locates comedy as a defence against automatic, disjointed qualities that trespass against the essential spontaneity of life.
ent from other species.

Answer 2

Laughter is defined as 'A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the face, especially of the lips, usually with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision and attended by an interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs …' Laughter expresses not only complicated conscious and unconscious psychological meanings, but the concomitant motor discharge adds a psychosomatic significance to this provocative subject. The voluminous literature on the subject attests less to our knowledge than to the elusiveness of the meaning of laughter. The aim of this paper is to add what little knowledge we have gleaned about laughter from the psychoanalyses of patients. There was no instance in our series of pathological laughing, such as is found in some forms of central nervous system disease.

Laughter is not common during the analytic hour except as a reaction to occasional wit. The subject matter of analysis is usually serious; further

Answer 3

Why Do We laugh?

The answer may seem obvious: We laugh when we perceive something funny. But the obvious answer is not correct, at least most of the time.

“Most laughter is not in response to jokes or humor,” says Robert R. Provine, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Provine should know. He has conducted a number of studies of laughter and authored the book "Laughter: a Scientific Investigation." One of his central arguments is that humor and laughter are not inseparable.

Provine did a survey of laughter in the wild -- he and some graduate students listened in on average conversations in public places and made notes. And in a survey of 1,200 “laugh episodes,” he found that only 10-20 percent of laughs were generated by anything resembling a joke.

Answer 4

Laughter is an audible expression or appearance of merriment or amusement or an inward feeling of joy and pleasure (laughing on the inside). It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling and other stimuli. Inhaling nitrous oxide can also induce laughter; other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter. Strong laughter can sometimes bring an onset of tears or even moderate muscular pain as a physical response to the act. Laughter can also be a response to physical touch, such as tickling.

Answer 5

Laughter is an audible expression or appearance of merriment or amusement or an inward feeling of joy and pleasure (laughing on the inside). It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling and other stimuli. Inhaling nitrous oxide can also induce laughter; other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter. Strong laughter can sometimes bring an onset of tears or even moderate muscular pain as a physical response to the act. Laughter can also be a response to physical touch, such as tickling.

Answer 6

Laughter is what makes us human. Humans are the only creatures on earth that laugh. It starts when something is funny - now what is funny? Humor is when there is both a Yes and a No - something that is not supposed to happen but does.

Answer 7

laughter is an expression of how to show people you are having a wonderful time, and it starts by seeing or hearing something very hilarious. (like this question...lol)

Answer 8

Laughter is a noise you make when you think something is humorous.

Answer 9

laughter is a form of excitement, and how your body expresses happiness and joy.
it starts with your sense of humor.

:]

Answer 10

To give vent to a good feeling. Noticing something unlikely.