LAUGH OUT LOUD

THERESA HANG

PEPPER MAGAZINE

Although laughter is one of the distinguishing features of human beings, little is known about the mechanisms behind it. However, scientists have observed that most social laughter does not result from any obvious joke. It can be triggered by embarrassment and other social discomforts, or helps us bond with the community. These are nine different types of laughter.

In a study of laughter episodes, a scientist found that people tend to laugh at perfectly bland statements like “Can I join you?” or “See you later.” Laughter could have been developed by our ancestors before full speech, so the sound might as well be a way to communicate and show agreement.

If you’re trying to ascend the corporate ladder, you’re not the only one laughing at the boss. We tend to laugh with anyone who can help us out, which is why a group of undergraduate students may guffaw at a professor’s bad joke, while a job applicant’s attempts at humor may fall flat with those who are already gainfully employed.

C O N T A G I O U S L A U G H T E R

A laughter researcher found in one experiment that nearly half of his 128 undergraduate students giggled on first response to a simulated laugh. And they did this despite knowing the source to be an artificial laugh-simulator.

According to the researcher, contagious laughter raises the possibility that humans have laugh detectors. In other words, people are made to respond with laughter on hearing laughter itself, much like the mystery of spreading a yawn.

NERVOUS LAUGHTER

During times of anxiety, we often laugh in a subconscious attempt to reduce stress and calm down. However, nervous laughter usually just heightens the awkwardness of the situation.

A professor of psychology at Yale University says that nervous laughter has the same general form as laughter from humor but does not think it signals amusement or happiness. “Perhaps laughter serves a self-regulation function. That is, it... may help to downregulate the nervousness. Or perhaps, laughter in combination with nervousness suggests to other people around the person that they too should help down-regulate that nervousness.”

THERESA HANG PIGEON LAUGHTER

Pigeon laughter, which is often practiced in laughter therapy or laughter yoga, involves laughing without opening your mouth. By keeping your lips sealed, the laughter produces a humming sound, much like the noises a pigeon makes.

It’s also been compared to the humming of bees.

BELLY LAUGHTER

Belly laughter is considered the most honest type of laughter. It may also be the hardest type to experience, because we have to find something truly hilarious before we’ll let go with the kind of laughter that has us clutching our bellies and gasping for air.

It’s good to take note of what tickles your funny bone, however, because it just might save your life. In the 1979 book, “Anatomy of an Illness,” Norman Cousins writes of how he used laughter to fight an illness that doctors told him was near incurable.

PEPPER MAGAZINE SNORTING LAUGHTER

When you aren’t actively trying to practice the art of silent laughter, odds are some kind of sound will occur when something strikes your funny bone. Most laughter is, after all, a string of vocal ha-has or ho-hos. If you laugh through your nose, you’re a snorter.

If this is your kind of laughter, you’re either blowing air out or sucking it in through the nose when you laugh. You may want to drink in sips for those times when your friends try to catch you off guard with a new joke.

Silent laughter is a skill that many of us have perfected so that we can look at funny videos and memes during class. Mindfully practicing silent laughter can have real benefits, because it involves the same type of deep breathing that comes with belly laughter.

One woman who works as a clown in a children’s hospital explained to Canadian Living that teaching sick kids the art of silent laughter enabled them to go back to sleep after waking up from a bad dream. The children got the calming benefits of the rhythmic exhalations without waking up any roommates.

CANNED LAUGHTER

Canned laughter is another term for what’s commonly referred to as the “laugh track.” Canned laughter is real laughter—it just happens to be laughter taken completely out of one context and placed in another.

Because of laughter’s social connection, television producers understand that placing canned laughter over the soundtrack to programming increases the chance of an audience finding humor in the material—or at least laughing in response to it.

STRESS-RELIEVING LAUGHTER

Stress is one of the most important reasons to find something humorous. Laughter is a sure cure for stress.

Stress builds tension in the human body, and that tension has to go somewhere. Usually it’s the muscles. So what to do? Yes, you could get a massage, but have you ever considered a good laugh? Stress-relieving laughter can encompass many forms, but it’s usually found in an outburst—much like belly laughing.