I don’t like thinking about a world where humor doesn’t exist. Where sarcasm is misunderstood as aggression, where a terse situation can’t be tempered with a joke. A lot of the time, we take it for granted. We see it as a distraction from the actuality that includes decaying sorrows and ignored injustices. Sure, a “sense of humor” comes up as the most common trait that a girl looks for in a guy on the critically-acclaimed Yahoo Answers, and almost nobody has an outright distaste for being amused. But then why do we pass up sitcoms and goofy comedies for more ‘substantive’ genres? Why is clutching-your-chest laughing unprofessional, trolling a nuisance, a comedian insensitive, and a jokester disengaged from reality?
Maybe, these people are the ones who feel it the most.
And by it, I mean the thousands of things people cry about. Things like that teacher not listening to your excuse, or that friend not talking to you, or that dull pain you feel every morning from stubbing your toe on the same coffee table edge.
And, they feel the thousands of things people should cry about. Things like kids your age working for a dollar an hour, like activists in other countries dying to overthrow oppressive regimes, like families who live less than 50 miles from you who can’t afford the lost income that an education takes the place of.
But in addition to that, they also feel the millions of things that people can and should be happy about. Things like scientific breakthroughs curing diseases and different races being able to sit next to each other on the bus, like clean water and a free primary education, like the human traits of civility and compassion.
Humorists aren’t ignorant, but rather intelligent in using the basics of human nature to not only make people happy, but also to dispatch meaningful ideas. Satire has used humor for centuries – from Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” to the Onion’s “Report: Unemployment High Because People Keep Blowing Their Job Interviews” - and has endured throughout the weaning and waning fads of society. This is because humor, being able to laugh at ourselves, at our situation, at society, is part of who we are; it keeps us alive.
Evolutionarily, laughing evolved from an irregular panting emitted from our primate relatives who used it to signal to other primates that their “rough and tumble play” was not to be confused with an aggressive act. Biologically, laughing results in endorphins being released from the prefrontal cortex, inhibiting the transmission of pain signals. Emotionally, we need humor because sometimes life is dark enough on its own.
People with ‘overly active’ senses of humor aren’t ignorant to the outside world, but rather, they have a holistic perspective. By poking fun at society, at themselves, or others, they say “hey, things are bad, but not so bad that we can’t laugh about it.” To the comedians/comediennes, the friends who crack jokes at inappropriate times, the people who lol-ed after I told them an incredibly life-changing and dramatic story, thank you for teaching me to not take myself so seriously.
