Laughter

[Beat Mango]

Laughter - what is it? Why do some people laugh often and other people laugh never? I can think of some people who I've never seen laugh. Other people I know are always laughing, it's like their primary mode of being. Me personally, there are two things that always make me laugh: being tickled, and staring competitions.

Some people seem to find me very funny, and I'm wondering why for clues as to what humour is. Coming across the MBTI psychology, I am quite sure that it is Ne that people find funny. I see connections between things. I am cynical, kind of caustic at times, other times silly, other times smart ass. People who are intelligent find me more funny than other people, so I'm thinking that intelligence could have something to do with it as well. Oh yeah and when I get someone to laugh, they usually crack up laughing, it's not a mild laugh - it's an all or nothing thing.

I think when you see people laughing in conversation in a social setting, at a bar or something, it's usually a quite different laughing. It's more bodily than cranial, often more mild and based around the group rather than the individual. I think this type of laughing has more to do with the S or possibly the E - there are certain dynamics in the group that these people are highly attuned to and the laugh when these dynamics are shifted or tensions are released. Or, they can relate to an S story someone is telling and this makes them laugh. I rarely laugh a social laughter and I'm often blank faced when someone tells a "funny" story or joke.

F humour I think you see in romantic comedies where the woman is laughing kind of out of happiness. This could be related to sexual laughter where sexual tension is being played with (I think person-person tension, ie dynamics, is a recurrent theme with humour)

Anyway I know this is a bit jumbled but I'm interested in laughter because it's unconscious, it can't be willed and as such probably holds a lot of information about how people interact.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

well, the tactic is to make a humourous (and intelligent) joke about an idiot (or anyone not intelligent) directly in front of the idiot, the smart people laugh and the thick kids just don't have a clue! such fun, like taunting an furry animal

aah, good times...

 

[Ermine]

^ That is so much fun!

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

...but when your friends fail to see the full extent of the joke, it kind of sucks

i think it is due to making connections. sometimes, i have to explain my jokes, and usually they are layered (i love layers in everything ) so i have to delve into the three meanings behind each joke. must be an INTP thing...

 

[Fedayeen]

Laughter can be caused from many things, one of which is relieving tension. Which is why a joke is a good way to "break the ice" aka tension.

EDIT: to clarify I meant basically we laugh when we are nervous to help not be.

 

[brain enclosed in flesh]

A friend of mine told me that he had decided I was one of the funniest people he knew. He said my humor was, 'drier than a deer bone.... that's been baking in the sun... for centuries...' He also told me that if you blink, you're likely to miss it.

I'd say it has to be Ne, as well. My Fi seems to be absent from my humor. When Fi is laying its warm fuzzy blanket over everything I don't think I'm even remotely funny. Maybe that's why my husband doesn't think I'm all that funny. I think I'm funnier when I'm around Ts- maybe I pick up on the Ti via my Ne and blam! Instant hilarity. Guess that's why I dig 'em.

My husband is an S funny. He's like Jim Carrey or Jerry Lewis while I'm Demetri Martin or Jeeves from Jeeves and Wooster. That's probably another reason why he doesn't think I'm all that funny. My kind of humor doesn't play to his crowd so I see little point in bringing it out.

Not that he doesn't make me laugh. Because he does, even if my intellect balks at his kind of humor.

Oh, being tickled makes me want to punch whoevers doing it. Crowd humor, likewise.

 

[flow]

I think laughter is our mating calls... lololol

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

A friend of mine told me that he had decided I was one of the funniest people he knew. He said my humor was, 'drier than a deer bone.... that's been baking in the sun... for centuries...' He also told me that if you blink, you're likely to miss it.

I've been told the same thing. So very few people seem to get my humor as it can be dry and often making obscure references that require knowledge of the reference to understand. Agree with Soth, layers are everything.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

I think laughter is our mating calls... lololol

*head pops up from the shrubbery*

MUST MATE!!

 

[RubberDucky451]

My sense of humor is very strange, although i do tend to sympathize with black British humor.

In my opinion this is brilliant: http://www.haggis-on-whey.com/

 

[Toad]

There are definitely different types of humor.

I for one do not laugh at MadTv jokes. But my friends love it. I think NT's appreciate more intellectual humor. I really like observational dry sarcastic jokes. I find Jon Stewart's news show to be hilarious. I also enjoy Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Colbert, and Bill Maher.

I can not stand gross jokes like farting, burping, or any bodily function jokes. They tend to make me want to puke more than laugh.

I also don't find Russel Peters to be very funny either. Which is weird because the world seems to love him.

 

[drumir93]

I once had a friend who was very extroverted, I wrote some jokes to him over the internet and he said that I made him laugh out loud to himself which is wierd because normally he only laughs out loud around other people.
I found that odd because I'm the exact opposite. I laugh out loud all the time up here alone in my room, but in public I reserve myself and just give a slight smirk or nothing at all. I guess for most people laughter is something that can and should be shared. For me it's personal and done for my own health and happiness.
Is anyone else like this?

 

[truthseeker72]

I think what make people laugh is the best litimus test for determining whether they're S or N. S folk don't get our humor, and we find S humor to be childish and a little annoying.

 

[brain enclosed in flesh]

I found that odd because I'm the exact opposite. I laugh out loud all the time up here alone in my room, but in public I reserve myself and just give a slight smirk or nothing at all. I guess for most people laughter is something that can and should be shared. For me it's personal and done for my own health and happiness.
Is anyone else like this?

Yes, very much so. If I do laugh with someone, it means I feel very comfortable around them.

And yes, truthseeker, I wholeheartedly agree.

 

[dwags222]

and I'm wondering why for clues as to what humour is

there are actually theories of humor. the main theory i believe is the incongruency theory, which i think aristotle might have started but i might have made that up. basically, anytime the mind experiences something that is different then what it expected in a novel way, it causes us to laugh.

there is also the superiority theory. whenever we experience something that makes us feel superior to others, then it causes us to laugh. this is why seeing someone else trip and fall on their face can be funny, or when someone says something really idiotic and you can't help but laugh because it is so stupid. of course, it could just be the statements incongruency which caused you to laugh, and not the fact that it made you feel superior.

there is also a third theory of humor, but i can't remember what it is right now. hmmmmmmmm.

ok so i looked it up. the third theory is the theory of relief. for example, you are in a really awkward situation and you make an off hand coment, and every one dies laughing to an extent which the comment didn't really merrit. well the reason it is so funny is because the comment broke the tension, which brought relief, which for some reason is funny. it sounds kinda dumb, but when you think about it it is definitely true.

 

[walfin]

The search for the world's funniest joke turned up a joke that didn't seem particularly funny to me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaughLab
Rather morbid.

The problem with NT jokes is that not even all NTs might get all of the jokes all of the time. This is usually not a problem for slapstick sensing-type humour.

 

[echoplex]

This thread got me thinking about the concept that Tragedy + Time = Comedy. You could say, to some extent, that our very existence in a troubled and chaotic world is an "awkward situation." So, in this situation, we may break the tension by bringing humor to events that once caused great sorrow. It think this plays into the theory of relief but in a more universal way.

 

[Toad]

I laugh nervously when I am uncomfortable.

 

[Enne]

A friend of mine told me that he had decided I was one of the funniest people he knew. He said my humor was, 'drier than a deer bone.... that's been baking in the sun... for centuries...' He also told me that if you blink, you're likely to miss it.

I'd say it has to be Ne, as well. My Fi seems to be absent from my humor. When Fi is laying its warm fuzzy blanket over everything I don't think I'm even remotely funny. Maybe that's why my husband doesn't think I'm all that funny. I think I'm funnier when I'm around Ts- maybe I pick up on the Ti via my Ne and blam! Instant hilarity. Guess that's why I dig 'em.

My husband is an S funny. He's like Jim Carrey or Jerry Lewis while I'm Demetri Martin or Jeeves from Jeeves and Wooster. That's probably another reason why he doesn't think I'm all that funny. My kind of humor doesn't play to his crowd so I see little point in bringing it out.

Not that he doesn't make me laugh. Because he does, even if my intellect balks at his kind of humor.

Oh, being tickled makes me want to punch whoevers doing it. Crowd humor, likewise.

I read an essay on the INTP temperament that said that XNTPs enjoy Monty Python style humor. I used to attribute my affinity for British comedy (Coupling, Father Ted, My Family, The Office, Mr. Bean, Black Books..to name a few lol) to my parents and their British influenced preferences. But reading that made me realize that it's the temperament talking. I found that I always hate seeing British shows that appear 'too American' in their setups / plot appeal. I've also noticed that if it's not satire or a really good standup, Comedy Central can't make me laugh. Must be the SP Channel.


Hmm.. I've been told that my laugh is WAY too loud, and is on the list of things that I have to 'tone down'.

 

[Ermine]

Makes me wonder what it is about British humor that tends to appeal to me. Also a Mr. Bean fan.

 

[Enne]

Makes me wonder what it is about British humor that tends to appeal to me. Also a Mr. Bean fan.

YAYS! Maybe it's the dry wit involved, or the more elaborate setups. Like I <3 Coupling, and it's a highly situational / sexual show, but the characters tend to have more ... interesting things to say, and they tend not to rely on pop culture references to make jokes. Maybe that's at least a part of it.

 

[Ermine]

Yes, at the very least they put some thought into the humor. And another common thing is the idea of taking things out of context. Definitely my favorite type of humor.