Volume 45 - No. 32
August 6, 2015
By Frederick Gomez
On the set of history’s most famous television talk show, Johnny Carson was busy chatting it up with one of his favorite comedians, Buddy Hackett. Hackett was a familiar guest on “The Tonight Show,” primarily because he registered exceedingly high with the show’s millions of viewers. And on this particular night, Buddy Hackett showed no mercy in fracturing the funny bones of NBC’s live studio audience, including Carson’s. “A lady goes to the dentist and the dentist looks in her mouth and says, ‘I’m gonna have to pull that tooth out.’ And the lady says, ‘Are you kidding?! I’d rather have a baby!’ And the dentist says, “Well make up your mind ‘cause I have to adjust the chair.’” Jokes can be more complex than what we casually see on the surface. That is, they are used in a variety of ways, and their intended purpose is not always as simple as just making people laugh. For example, in the case of comedian Joan Rivers, some jokes were used as therapy to help her struggle through personal tragedy. To help heal the wounds of her personal life. When her husband committed suicide in 1987, his death left her devastated. In her own words, she explains how jokes saved her sanity. “I dealt with my husband’s suicide immediately on stage. Immediately. ‘Cause I knew that the audience knew and I knew there was a tension there when I walked on, and my first line – for a long time – was, ‘My husband just killed himself and he left in his will that I have to visit him every day. So I had him cremated and I’ve sprinkled him through Neiman Marcus – and I haven’t missed a day.” The audience laughed, and Joan laughed. But inside, she knew that what was best for her is not always the same recipe for everybody. In this case, Joan Rivers did what was best for her own life. And it worked.
Occasionally, a humorous narrative may provoke elements of truth. Such as the dread of going to the DMV and surviving the infamous long lines.
It is most interesting that a funny joke in America may produce, at best, a mild yawn in China or, worse, a ‘thumbs down,’ in another culture. What ‘plays’ in America, may not fare well in distant lands. Humor researcher, Richard Wiseman, reports that, “There seems to be social, cultural, national, age and gender differ-
The Paper - 760.747.7119
website:www.thecommunitypaper.com
email: thepaper@cox.net
ences in what we find funny.”
Seems Americans, in particular, enjoy jokes which contain elements of (1) Insult, or (2) Hints of threat. For example, from the perspective of insults, you have this popular anecdote:
Texan: “Where are you from?” Professor: “I’m from a place where we do not end sentences with prepositions.” Texan: “Okay – where are you from, jackass?”
In regards to vague hints of threat (category #2 above), there is this popular American narrative: “Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are completely shut. The other hunter grabs his cell phone and calls 911. The dispatcher asks the nature of the emergency. The panicked-struck hunter hollers into his cell phone: ‘My friend is dead! Help me, please!’ The emergency operator answers, ‘Calm down. First off, let’s make sure he’s dead.’ There is a silence, then, a shot is heard in the background. The hunter gets back on his cell phone and says, ‘Okay, now what?’”
Anthropologists find it intriguing that the human psyche processes
comedy in vastly different ways, continent to continent. Researchers found it fascinating that Europeans, for example, particularly enjoy jokes that seem absurd, or surreal (surreal is defined as: unreal, bizarre, weird, or unearthly). The following serves as an example of a popular European joke: “A German Shepherd goes into a telegraph office to send off a telegram. The German Shepherd takes a blank telegram form and writes, ‘Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof.’ The clerk looks at the form and tells the dog, ‘There are only nine words here. You can add another ‘Woof’ for the same price.’ The dog replies, ‘But, that would make no sense at all.’”
It is an intriguing entry into human psychology as to what chemical changes in the human brain occurs when we laugh. Hard science confirms that laughter triggers the release of “endorphins,” in the human body. This finding is significant in that these endorphins appear to contain bountiful health benefits. Health benefits that may improve the quality of human life. Dr. Robert R. Provine, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, and
Laughing . . . Continued on Page 2
author of “Laughter: A Scientific Investigation,” agrees strongly with the world’s scientific community that this unknown factor needs to be re-discovered: “The definitive research into the potential health benefits of laughter just hasn’t been done yet.”
People who laugh a lot are the beneficiaries, healthwise. The chemical release of endorphins (produced by laughing) is now being examined more enthusiastically than ever before, as a viable treatment of an assortment of physical and mental ailments, including anxiety.
Lab test results from the world’s foremost authorities on the human body have yielded a most shocking discovery of just how important laughing can have on human physiology. Consider the following discoveries: (1) Laughing Relaxes the Entire Body. A good, hearty laugh relieves physical tension and stress and actually leaves your body muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes afterward! (2) Laughter Boosts the Human Immune System. Laughter decreases stress-producing hormones and increases immune cells at the same time, all of which produces infection-fighting