"Laughter Medicine"
Amazing post, Paige! This post is a different approach than others who came before simply because instead of analyzing one type of humor, Paige broadened the scopes and began to analyze how these types of humor are actually helping us in our lives. When Paige said that humor "can aid in creating bonds between doctors and their patients," I began to think about my sociology class and how this could count as another study, besides psychology, to prove just how much humor impacts our lives or how our lives impact our humor. Sociology is basically the study of human behavior as well as human interactions. Laughter is an integrated part of human behavior regulated by the brain, that often stems from human interactions, to provide an emotional context to conversations. Humor and laughter help us through many of our life struggles, as Paige pointed out, however, our lives and our interactions with others often impact our own humor and what we tend to laugh at as well. This is simply because a lot of comedians tend to base their humor around social issues of the time period, and often try to alter people's belief systems or make them question certain issues. Our lives are being altered through our everyday interactions with people. These interactions, including comedic ones, are what make us who we are today and who we will be in years to come. Laughter is definitely the best medicine for our psychological benefits as well as our sociological understanding of who we are.
Amazing post, Paige! This post is a different approach than others who came before simply because instead of analyzing one type of humor, Paige broadened the scopes and began to analyze how these types of humor are actually helping us in our lives. When Paige said that humor "can aid in creating bonds between doctors and their patients," I began to think about my sociology class and how this could count as another study, besides psychology, to prove just how much humor impacts our lives or how our lives impact our humor. Sociology is basically the study of human behavior as well as human interactions. Laughter is an integrated part of human behavior regulated by the brain, that often stems from human interactions, to provide an emotional context to conversations. Humor and laughter help us through many of our life struggles, as Paige pointed out, however, our lives and our interactions with others often impact our own humor and what we tend to laugh at as well. This is simply because a lot of comedians tend to base their humor around social issues of the time period, and often try to alter people's belief systems or make them question certain issues. Our lives are being altered through our everyday interactions with people. These interactions, including comedic ones, are what make us who we are today and who we will be in years to come. Laughter is definitely the best medicine for our psychological benefits as well as our sociological understanding of who we are.
I also agree that Paige's post was so different because it actually related to our own lives. This is interesting because we like to think of humor in terms of how it actually works, but I think it is even more important to research how it can affect our own lives.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great example of how we can expand how we think of comedy and what it means to write about comedy. I think you are right that there are sociological implications of laughter as well as psychological. It seems to help improve psychology but also bring people together even as it addresses difficult issues. That's of course exactly how Hutcheson thought of it.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about humor altering people's perspective on important things in their lives... We often view humor as something we use to relieve stress or make fun of people, but humorous interactions can actually have a lasting impact on us, and that's not something we take into account a lot. Especially in this day and age, with political satire and talk shows more popular than ever, our opinions are very easily shaped by humor used to present the opinions of others.
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