LaughterSlide 2Modern ManThe Id, the Super Ego, and Tendentious JokesTraits, States, and Behaviors Seriousness vs. PlayfulnessStatesMoods (States)Types of HumorSmilesEnjoyment SmilesNon-Enjoyment SmilesHumor Styles Craik, Lampert, Nelson, & WareSlide 13PowerPoint PresentationLAUGHTER VS. SMILINGLaughter is an InvitationSlide 17Slide 18PHILOSOPHERS’ STATEMENTS ABOUT LAUGHTERTHOMAS HOBBESIMMANUEL KANTWILLIAM HAZLITTARTHUR SCHOPENHAUERHENRI BERGSONSIGMUND FREUDTHE PARADOXES OF LAUGHTERJAMES AGEEGARY ALAN FINEJACOB LEVINED. G. KEHL CITING JAMES THURBERDel Kehl went on to divide laughter into ascending degrees of intensity:TICKLINGSlide 33FINAL CONTRAST OF HUMOR AND SMILINGPARADOXICAL CONCLUSIONLAUGHTER WEB SITES1Laughterby Don L. F. Nilsenand Alleen Pace NilsenLaughter23Modern Man•Modern man in contrast to primitive man has been called:•Homo Erectus (upright man)•Homo Sapiens (thinking man)•Homo Ridens (laughing man)4The Id, the Super Ego, and Tendentious Jokes•“The Id is a pool for desires and drives. •As society and parental influence (represented in the super ego) do not allow the direct expression of sexual and hostile impulses, gratification can only be achieved in an indirect way.•There, individuals repressing their sexuality or aggression should show a preference for sexual and aggressive jokes.” (Ruch [2008] 29)5Traits, States, and BehaviorsSeriousness vs. Playfulness•TRAITS: A “serious person” wants to function exclusively in the bona fide mode of communication. This is not true for a “playful person.”•STATES: We can be in a serious or pensive mood, or a silly mood. •BEHAVIORS: We can tell a joke or clown around. (Ruch [2008] 32)6States•Playful Mood–Cheerful mood–Hilarious mood•Serious Mood–Earnestness–Pensiveness–Soberness•Bad Mood–Sadness–Melancholy–Ill-Humor (Adapted from Ruch [2008] 34)7Moods (States)•“While an ill-humored person, like the serious one, may not want to be involved in humor, the person in a sad mood may not be able to do so even if he or she would like to.”•“Also, while the sad person is not antagonistic to a cheerful group, the ill-humored one may be.”•“Bad mood might also be a disposition facilitating certain forms of humor, such as mockery, irony, cynicism, and sarcasm.” (Ruch [2008] 34)8Types of Humor•“Affiliative Humor” involves the tendency to say funny things, to tell jokes, and to engage in spontaneous witty banter.•“Self-Enhancing Humor” is a coping mechanism.•“Aggressive Humor” involves sarcasm, teasing, ridicule, derision, put downs or disparagement.•“Self-Defeating Humor” is when a person allows himself to be the butt of other people’s jokes.•(Ruch [2008] 38-39)9Smiles•Willibald Ruch indicates that anatomically there are about 20 types of smiles, controlled by five facial muscles:–Zygomatic Major–Zygomatic Minor–Levator Anguli Oris–Buccinator–Risorius (Ruch [2008] 21)10Enjoyment Smiles•“When individuals genuinely enjoy humor they show the facial configuration named the Duchenne display, which refers to the joint contraction of the zygomatic major and the orbicularis oculi muscles (pulling the lip corners backwards and upwards and raising the cheeks) causing eye wrinkles, respectively.”•(Ruch [2008] 21)11Non-Enjoyment Smiles•“Smiles not following these definitions are unlikely to reflect genuine enjoyment of humor.”•“There may be smiling involved in blends of emotions (e.g., when enjoying a disgusting or frightening film), smiles masking negative emotions (e.g., pretending enjoyment when actually sadness or anger is felt), miserable, flirting, sadistic, embarrassment, compliance, coordination, contempt, and phony etc. smiles.”•(Ruch [2008] 22)12Humor StylesCraik, Lampert, Nelson, & WareSocially WarmReflectiveCompetentEarthyBenignVs. Socially ColdVs. BoorishVs. IneptVs. RepressedVs. Mean-Spirited(Ruch [2008] 41-42)13Laughter•“Most laughter is not a response to jokes or other formal attempts at humor” (Provine [2001] 42).•Laughter may be caused by all sorts of non-humorous stimuli (tickling, laughing gas, embarrassment) and can be triggered by imitation (watching other people laugh) (Attardo [2007] 117)14•Giles and Oxford (1970) list seven causes of laughter: humorous, social, ignorance, anxiety, derision, apologetic, and tickling.•Olbrechts-Tyteca (1974) point out that “laughter largely exceeds humor.”•Jodi Eisterhold (2006) discussed the “principle of least disruption,” which “enjoins speakers to return to a serious mode as soon as possible.”15LAUGHTER VS. SMILING•Because smiles can sometimes evolve into laughs and laughs can taper off into smiles, some people think that laughter is merely a form of exaggerated smiling.•However, smiles are more likely to express feelings of satisfaction or good will, while laughter comes from surprise or a recognition of an incongruity.•Furthermore, laughter is basically a public event while smiling is basically a private event.16Laughter is an Invitation•“To laugh, or to occasion laughter through humor and wit, is to invite those present to come closer.”•“Laughter and humor are indeed like an invitation, be it an invitation for dinner, or an invitation to start a conversation: it aims at decreasing social distance.” •(Coser 172)•(Kuipers (2008): 366)17•Laughter is a social phenomenon. That’s why “getting the giggles” never happens when we are alone.•In contrast, people often smile when they are reading or even when they are having private thoughts.18•Smiling is not contagious, but laughter is contagious. •That’s why radio and television comedy performances often have a laugh track.19PHILOSOPHERS’ STATEMENTS ABOUT LAUGHTER•Throughout time, philosophers have made many statements about laughter that are not true of smiling.•These philosophers include Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, William Hazlitt, Arthur Schopenhauer, Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud.•Each of these philosophers defined laughter in a different way:20THOMAS HOBBES•Laughter is “the sudden glory arising from the sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others.”•(Leviathan, 1651)21IMMANUEL KANT•“Laughter is an affection arising from a strained expectation being suddenly reduced to nothing.”•(The Critique of Judgment, 1790)22WILLIAM HAZLITT•“The essence of the laughable is the