[ExI] Nature of Humor: Grinning and Laughing

ben benboc at lineone.net
Tue Sep 16 22:18:12 UTC 2008


"Lee Corbin" <lcorbin at rawbw.com> scratched:

>Several books suggest that laughing, smiling, and grinning
>came about as evolutionary signals.
>
>Question: when you are completely alone, and something
>strikes you as amusing or funny, do you ever smile or laugh
>out loud?




Why do you even have to ask that question?

Does this mean that you don't?

I probably laugh out loud (or at least have a chuckle) to myself just
about every day, when there's no one else around. Usually because of the
Simpsons or Futurama, or something I've read.

That's not remarkable, but the thing i find interesting is the
phenomenon of grinning or even laughing out loud, not because of
something funny, but just because you feel great. Usually during
physical exercise. I've broken into laughter from riding a bike before,
and skating round the streets of London almost always puts a big grin on
my face after a while.

I suppose you could call it 'Exhilaration laughter'. Dunno what the
evolutionary basis of that might be.

Ben Zaiboc

PS And this from Spike definitely made me guffaw, with nobody else
around at all:

"So then, if we ever get to where we can download our mental selves and
if we can mess around with the code, one thing I want to do is find the
mechanism for humor and the mechanism for eroticism.  Then I want to
switch those two, so that funny is erotic and vice versa.  Just think of
the fun we could have with that!"

Spike is twisted.
Brilliantly, hilariously twisted.

Spike, I salute you.

Ben




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