by Ray Karaczun
Part 4
“Comedy is tragedy plus time.” -Carol Burnett.
“The more one suffers, the more, I believe, has one a sense for the comic.” -Soren Kierkegaard.
“They tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat.” -Jewish people explaining the significance of their holidays.
According to relief theory, we laugh to release bottled up nervous energy in a non-fight-or-flight way. For example, around age one we develop object permanence, which is the understanding that objects still exist when we cannot see them. This age is precisely when we are fascinated with peek-a-boo. When our caregivers hide their faces behind their hands, we anticipate their faces to pop out. When they do, we laugh to unleash our excitement.
Can relief theory explain offensive humor? Does tension build up inside of us upon the mention of delicate subjects, then we laugh when we realize it was just a joke? And that is why we don’t laugh when we don’t find it funny: we continue to hold that nervous energy and feel endangered. Is making fun of ourselves and our situations a coping mechanism?
Laughter therapy is recognized in the field of health science to be a non-pharmacological intervention alongside exercise and music therapy. It has been proven to reduce short term and long term stress by both relieving stress and promoting happiness. Laughing decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, alleviating stress on a neurological level. It also aids in muscle relaxation to decrease stress on a physical level. Laughter increases serotonin and dopamine levels. Low levels of these neurotransmitters are associated with anxiety and depression; so laughing can help relieve these issues. Doing so, laughing improves the quality of life.
I’m sure all of us wasted plenty of time on the Internet during quarantine where we could both joke about the unprecedented times or distract ourselves completely from the ongoing apocalypse. During the summer of 2020, Internet personality June Lapine, better known by her YouTube channel name Shoe0nHead, launched a series called Hell World. The videos joked about the worst things she had seen in the news and online recently, with a particular focus on social issues and American politics. The bisexual woman talked down on the evils of exploitive corporate marketing during Pride month:
“And the worst part is it works. People will actually buy the gay Oreos. I’m people.” She complained about the counterproductive trend of removing POC mascots from brands: “There can’t be any racism against minorities if there’s no minorities.” The neurodivergent woman also expressed her distrust over Neuralink, a brain implant intended to test for health conditions, which was funded by Elon Musk. “You get that brain chip, you’re gonna be waking up in a cold sweat like, ‘I really want a Whopper. And a new pair of Nikes.’” By cracking jokes, June not only educates the audience on current events in an interesting way, but also relieves herself from the exhausting tension that is living in the 20’s.
Many people argue that humor is not a healthy coping mechanism because the speaker is distancing themselves too far from the subject that irks them. Handling a subject matter in a fun way and comforting yourself with the positive emotions of humor is not truly addressing the subject. Uncomfortable topics are supposed to feel uncomfortable, and comedy making it hurt less is apparently a bad thing. My two bits is that if you treat offensive humor with this attitude, it is only fair to view all other art forms in this same way. Is poetry an unhealthy coping mechanism because the writers are subliminally handling their internal issues under layers of beautiful metaphors, instead of discussing it explicitly? I disagree that humor is an avoidance strategy because you are not avoiding the subject, you are just avoiding the negative feelings associated with it.
Humor can certainly be unhealthy when it is used in a way that proves superiority theory. It is disrespectful and immature to degrade another person to raise yourself up. My last post put superiority theory in a positive light because the example provided was using it as a response to unfair treatment. Initiating superiority theory in the first place is inappropriate. Humor as a coping mechanism is, in my observations, more healthy for everyone when it targets issues; not ourselves or each other.
Sources
Akimbekov, N. S., & Razzaque, M. S. (2021). Laughter therapy: A humor-induced hormonal intervention to reduce stress and anxiety. Current Research in Physiology, 4, 135–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crphys.2021.04.002
Lapine, J. (2020, November 2). The American abyss | Hell world ep 2 [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyZ7x1oduWU
Outley, C., Bowen, S., & Pinckney, H. (2021). Laughing while black: Resistance, coping and the use of humor as a pandemic pastime among blacks: Correction. Leisure Sciences, 43(1–2), 345. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1835292
Sarkis, S. (2012, May 6). 25 quotes on humor part 2. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201205/25-quotes-humor-part-2
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