So we are all lovers of laughter.. You know how a lover spend most of his time? Yes..Thinking of the loved one.Being lovers of laughter ,then don’t we need to think about laughter? Homour loving toastmasters and distinguished guests,Good evening.
Before I plunge into discussing why we laugh, for instance hearing a joke,let me remind you something. Laughter also happens when tickled. Also, the deadly disease called Kuru results in uncontrollable laughter. We do not have to account for these cases of physiologically induced laughter, any more than an account of crying would have to explain crying while peeling onions . Hence we will restrict our discussion to homourous laughter.
In heaven there is no laughter,declared Mark Twain.He reasoned “The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow”.He was guided by the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle who believed that laughter is derision or the expression of superiority.
A man spoke frantically into the phone, "My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart!"."Is this her first child?" the doctor asked. "No, you fool!" the man shouted. "This is her husband!"
Why did we laugh..? Because we felt superior to those humans who were weaving confusion through the phone.We believe we would have done far better.This thinking though implicit, makes us laugh. Hobbes , a philosopher explained superiority as eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly. This also explains why we are able to laugh at the earlier blunders we committed. We believe we are superior now compared to our earlier state.
All these thinkers from Plato to Aristotle to Mark Twain to Hobbes attributed laughter to superiority theory. But,the theory of laughter that is now appreciated throughout is called incongruity theory.It explains laughter this way. When our minds have suddenly moved from one state to another and if we enjoy this movement , we laugh.There is a classic example used by many thinkers to explain incongruity theory
The bronchial patient is visiting the doctor.A bronchial patient’s talk will be like he is whispering because his voice is affected by the disease.
“Is the doctor at home?” a bronchial patient asked in his bronchial whisper. “No,” the doctor’s young and pretty wife whispered in reply. “Come right in.”
The doctor’s wife is expecting the visit of her illicit lover. She expects the lover to whisper ,well ,for reasons well known.Here, the bronchial patient and the illicit lover are the incongrous states..There is a sudden shift in our mind due to the trasition from the state of ‘brochial patient’ to the state of ‘illicit lover’ through the connecting factor “whispering”. Our mind is incapable of taking such sudden shift and the energy hence created is release as laughter as the shift is a pleasant one..
Don’t feel that these theories have no practical aspects.There are joke machines-i.e automated computer programs based on these theories that can generate jokes.What more, then we can also possibly create jokes and make others laugh based on these principles.Well, overnight you may not become as great as joke machines like Rajdeep Manwani and Chendil Kumar.But its worth a try.
We have now thought of laughter in two modes – the superiority mode and the incongrous mode.And why did we think of laughter? Because we are lovers of laughter. In real life situation the lover girl will get angry if the lover boy forgets to call her as promised.And when she enquires about it , if the the answer she gets from lover boy is like “ I was thinking about you and hence forgot to call you” would make her doubly angry .Simliarly we, the lovers of laughter ,also should not forget to laugh by becoming busy thinking of laughter. It can make laughter angry.Hence lets all laugh , laugh and laugh to make laughter,our lover ,happy.Waste no time.Start laughing. Over to the ever smiling toastmaster..
(Project 5 of CC)
Watch the video at : http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ErvEEuxDFHQ
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