What Are You Laughing At?

I have to admit when I first read the series of (often conflicting) theories of humor for class, I began to wonder if it was even worth trying to figure out why we laugh. From Descartes' biological explanation of laughter being spontaneously produced when blood fills the lungs to Hobbes' belief that we laugh because we recognize our own superiority, it seems unclear if we'll ever really know the physiology behind laughter.

Freud's theory, however, raised new questions that renewed my interest in the topic. When Freud discusses humor (which he categorizes as different from the comic and joking), he remarks that in making a joke about one's own situation "one spares oneself the affects to which the situation would naturally give rise and overrides with a jest the possibility of such an emotional display." To me, this shifts the focus from "What causes us to laugh" to "What purpose does laughing serve"--a question I find infinitely more interesting.

A quick search query about humor as a defense mechanism led me to this blog entry. In it, "Dr. Sanity" blogs about various levels of defense mechanisms. The first (and most psychologically detrimental) manifests itself in denial and delusions. The second (categorized by immaturity) is marked by projection and "acting out." The third (widespread, but ineffective coping mechanisms) contains things like repression and dissociation.

Humor, however, falls into the fourth category--a category "Dr. Sanity" says is both the most healthy and most mature way of dealing with difficult events. Humor has for it's category-mates altruism and anticipation: both categories that illustrate foresight and useful action.

Humor, then, seems to not only be a defense mechanism, but one of the most sophisticated and productive ones. I think it would be very interesting to look at the types of humor that come about as defense mechanisms and to see if there are any correlations between types of humor and severity of the trauma. (Some of the information that I found while browsing this topic included studies over the humor some Jewish victims used during the Holocaust).

Of course, defense is not the only productive role humor can play in our society. Humor can also make us think about a topic in more depth (as we discussed when watching the George Carlin clips) or perpetuate ideas in an attention-grabbing way (the first thing that comes to mind is the anti-smoking campaign that often uses humor to get across its message).

I may be starting to venture into a new topic now, but I think that this last point also brings up a clear concern with the way that humor is used in our society. As a critical viewer of advertisements, I have realized that many ad campaigns use humor in place of substance. Instead of illustrating the worth of a product, many commercials rely completely on making us laugh. The most obvious example to me would be the beef jerky commercials with the Sasquatch; there's nothing in these commercials that should make someone want beef jerky or that illustrates why this beef jerky is the best quality, value, etc. The primary goal of the commercial is to make us laugh and, presumably, to remember them (ironically, I've forgotten the brand name). I would like to look into it more, but I assume that this advertising strategy is effective or it would not be used so often. If so, does this highlight some of the risks of humor? Can it be a distraction from substance? Shouldn't we, as a society, think more critically about the ideas being pitched to us?