FACTORALY - E64 LAUGHTER

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Laughter is something we do instinctively. One of the first noises that babies make is laughter. But why do we laugh? What is Laughter? And what makes us laugh? This episode covers some of that... and here you can find out more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

hello simon hello bruce oh goodness me how are you today sir? Oh, I'm happy as Larry. Thank you very much. How are you? I am equally as cheerful as a fellow called Larry. Apparently, a complete side note before we even get started. Yes. Who's Larry? That phrase was originally happy as a larrikin. And a larrikin was an old medieval word for a child. Oh, right. So happy as a child.

Very good. There you go. Drop the mic. Off we go. That's it for today. thank you so much for listening my work here is done so hello everyone hello everyone who happens to be here with us in their ear holes hi guys welcome welcome to another episode of fact orally by way of introduction my name is simon wells and mine isn't nice to meet you isn't i tell you what just for today i'll call you bruce fielding okay all right just for today most people do they do they have a tendency especially when

they're using me oh you come to that yeah as a voice artist yes indeed which is what we do that's what we do it's not how we define ourselves no it's part of who we are yes it's part of what we do it's how we make our make our money yeah um when we're not doing that uh i think i would more eagerly define myself as a as a nerd or a geek yes or a lover of facts so we are here we we both love random and interesting facts we are both that that person who walks around the pub of an evening going did you know or i read recently or actually etc etc although the one thing that we aren't is um psychologists or researchers into any of these subjects no we're not because today's subject we thought it was going to be a bit of a giggle yes a bit of a laugh yeah but it turns out it's quite serious science and there are there are brain surgeons

who kind of get involved in this stuff yes so we are not brain surgeons no we're not so any any facts and information we give to you today is based on nothing at all other than a quick google search yes um it's stuff that we have found out through reading things it's it's not it doesn't come from any kind of place of qualification or professional experience exactly exactly we don't we know nothing yeah disclaimers left and right so today we are here and we are talking about laughter. Lol. Lolz.

We're talking about lolz, ruffles, pumzles, all sorts of things. Which is why we sound so cheerful and chipper. We have a certain routine before we start recording where we get ourselves into the mood by singing a certain little ditty. And today we did it in a laughing style and it just cracked us up before we even began. So tell me about laughter. What is laughter? Laughter is a funny thing. Well, funny and funny. Yes. Humorous and interesting. But we're not going to be talking about humour, are we? No. Well, I'm going to struggle to not talk about humour because when I think of laughter,

I instantly think of humour. I instantly think of humor. I instantly think of comedy and jokes and things that are funny that make you laugh. So there will be references to such things. But laughter is not just about humor. It's not just about finding something funny. That's quite a cultural thing. You know, different cultures will laugh for different reasons. Different cultures will find different things funny or amusing.

Unless you're Freudian. Sure. Because Freud suggested that laughter might be a reaction to undue repressed emotions. Oh, that's so Freudian. That's just like him, isn't it? Kill the mood, Freud. So the word laugh, let's start with a bit of etymology. In Old English, it's a horrible spelling.

It's full of H's and L's and more H's. And that funny symbol called the diphthong, which may be pronounced ah or may be pronounced aye. But either way, the Old English word was lachen. I won't do that again. I'm just going to wipe my screen. Yes, exactly. It kind of sounds a bit bit welsh and a

bit gaelic uh the german word was lachen and there was a time when the gh was pronounced like a and then yes the gh eventually became pronounced as an f it became laugh which became laugh i remember when i was learning chaucer in school um they made us pronounce all the G-H's in a sort of way. Right. Someone's daughter. Yes, exactly. Things like that. Yeah, fine. People have been laughing. Well, actually, not just people.

Laughter is a response within various members of the animal kingdom. It is. Apes laugh. If you put apes in a group together, especially if they tickle each other, it seems to be that apes are quite ticklish. As are rats. As are rats. Yes, I found that as well. Isn't that bizarre? I love this idea. Basically, if you're a researcher and you go into your lab every day and you tickle a rat, you can make it laugh. Yes. And if you do it every day for long enough, as soon as the rat sees you, it starts to laugh.

Really? But tickling rats seems to be something that scientists do quite a lot of. It's a hobby. Something to do, isn't it? They laugh when they're playing. It shows that they're happy. Yes. I mean, it's not just like showing their teeth.

Sometimes you can mistake a smile for a grimace. Yes. yes i mean they really it's not just like a showing their teeth like sometimes you kind of you can mistake a smile for for a grimace yes the rats properly laugh brilliant brilliant yep so apes apes laugh they they make that sort of vocalization sound and and that that that's in response to to being tickled to chasing each other, to playing, teasing each other even. They get a big smile on their face and they sort of make a deep, breathy, chuckly sound. So it's not just us. There's a thing where if you're playing with somebody and you're doing something which could be misinterpreted as violent. Yes, yes.

But if you laugh, then onlookers know that it's not serious. Yes. So there are sort of various ideas of how laughter evolved into being what it is. So one of them is that it kind of deflects a potentially negative or dangerous situation. It also shows others that you are part of a social group. So I read that either we or apes or both are 30 times more likely to laugh in a group than alone so it's a social thing yeah that explains like comedy gigs because yeah if you listen to comedy on the radio or watch it on tv yeah you can hear people laughing but you're not in the same room as them so you don't really unless it's an incredibly funny joke yeah or story you don't really laugh when you're on your own no you might have a quick snort or a titter but you won't but it's definitely a social

activity yeah yeah and it is catching just like a yawn uh laughter is contagious if you see someone else laughing you will be inclined to laugh you know there are so many videos sort of floating around the internet these days of try not to laugh videos. And if that video contains someone else laughing, it's very difficult to not join in. Well, you say that it's contagious. Yes. You're not talking about Tanganyika, are you?

Tanganyika, that's... Tanzania. Tanzania. You see, I love using old names for stuff. Yes. No, it's in 1962. There was an outbreak, a laughing outbreak, which lasted for a long time. It started in a school.

Apparently one little girl started laughing in a school. Yeah. And it lasted for weeks. Really? There was an epidemic of laughter that went around all the schools in Tanzania. We have a blog on our website called factorily.com. Factorily.com? That's the one.

And I'll put a video that explains the research that went into why this contagion spread throughout all these schools in Tanganyika. Yeah. throughout all these schools in tanganyika yeah there's there's apparently a part of our brain called the premotor cortical region um which is triggered when you see someone even just someone smiling um and this part of the brain gets triggered by that and that part of the brain is is partially responsible for facial expressions right so you see someone pulling an expression or smiling or laughing that part of your brain is triggered and automatically causes your face to do the same thing. So it actually is physiologically contagious. So laughter is ancient. No one can say when laughter began. We've been doing it for forever.

As I said at the beginning, i've found it quite hard to separate laughter and humor so i went down a little bit of a dive around jokes you know to sort of try and prove how long people have been finding things funny um and the first written down joke was from samaria in 1900 bc wow um which is quite a long time ago i think something is lost in translation but this joke says, something which has never occurred since time immemorial, a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap. Isn't that hilarious?

It must have meant something to them at the time. It might have been a reference to a stand-up routine that they'd seen in Samaria at some point. Quite possibly. Who knows? But there are sort of records of, of you know the pharaohs telling jokes and laughing uh the the romans were were quite big on on jokes or at least witty puns you know okay um there was a roman chap around 40 or 50 ad who wrote a book called the Philogalus. Of course it was.

Which translates as the laughter lover. Okay. And it's sort of repeated to be the world's first joke book. Interesting. So Romans, you know, great orators, speakers, philosophers would sort of stand up and insert jokes from this book into their speeches and their lectures. Okay. One of the jokes in this particular book went,

I walked into the barber, this is obviously a rough translation, but I walked into the barber's, the barber asked me, how should I cut your hair? And I replied, in silence, please. And that was a joke in the Roman joke book. But so funny was it, Enoch Powell apparently used it whilst visiting the House of Commons barber. But, you know, I just laughed.

Yes. But I didn't really laugh. No, you didn't. You fake laughed. Yeah. So fake laughter is quite interesting. Your brain can tell the difference between real laughter and fake laughter. Yes, it can.

They've done laboratory research with this um and and it it's about understanding other people's emotions so your brain is very good at telling whether somebody is actually happy or if they're just not really that bothered yeah just laughing to you know be polite right um although your your brain can tell the difference between real laughter and fake yes it seems that your body can't oh so if you induce yourself into a fit of laughter even if it's false your body will do the same things that you that it would do if you were having a real laugh and um they say that laughter is the best medicine, which apparently is taken from a proverb in the Bible.

That's right. A merry heart does good like medicine. Interesting. And there are extensive research studies into the physical symptoms and side effects of laughter. Isn't there a therapy? There's kind of like a yoga therapy, which is laughter therapy.

Yeah, so I've actually met a chap at a networking event in the past who is a laughter therapist and he he goes into workplaces and he does constructed laughter sessions at the beginning of the day he doesn't tell jokes he doesn't do anything funny he does breathing and stretching and things like that and then he says right now we're going to laugh for five seconds everybody make yourself laugh and it sounds ridiculous it sounds fake it sounds ungenuine yes but after you've done it a couple of times you inherently start to find it funny because look we're all here in an office in our suits and we're laughing isn't that silly so you actually start to laugh but um you know it gets the blood pumping it um you know it changes your your respiration rate um it's sort of a little bit of a workout in your stomach muscles you know

but also it's it's a bonding thing so if you're laughing together with somebody else then you feel an affinity with that other person who's also laughing even if you're not laughing at anything yes and it's it's a very good, I mean, as you were saying, for like, you know, in work, you know, a bonding exercise can just as easily be, you know, either, you know, falling backwards into somebody's arms or just laughing together. Yes. But it is, I mean, you're saying it's good medicine.

Yeah. You know, it is good for your health. They used to say that you burn a lot of calories when you laugh. Yes, they've changed their mind about that now, haven't they? They have. They say you don't. No. So it's basically for every 10 to 15 minutes of laughter,

you burn about 10 to 40 calories. Okay. I mean, to put that into context, if you laugh solidly for three hours, you just about burn off a packet of ready salted crisps. Oh, that's not worth it. That's not worth it. Yes, and not so great at calories, but it increases endorphins. It actually causes you to feel happy.

Studies suggest that it increases your memory. It reduces stress and anxiety. It increases certain immunoglobulins in the body, which are part of the immune system. It could actually boost your immune system. Prolonged laughter increases pain tolerance. It does all sorts of things, and therefore people actually use it you know we're sort of familiar with the idea of having a clown or a comedian go around the hospital wards yes to sort of you know boost people's morale and so on but it actually boosts physical health as well yes um doctors have sent people to um improv classes in order to stave off the the symptoms of parkinson's disease. Wow.

It's good for marriages and stuff as well, actually. Okay. There's a chap called Bob Levinson, Professor Bob Levinson, who asked couples to discuss something which would annoy them, you know, like a touchy subject. Yeah. And he encouraged some couples to laugh and smile when they were talking about it. And they felt much

better about this this problem that they had really and and there's proof that couples who laugh together stay together for longer all right okay um and it's something that we can that makes us like i was saying with the bonding it's part of that if you laugh together you feel closer yes so psychology yes there's a chap called richard wiseman right who created a thing called laugh lab which is a web-based international experiment to find the world's funniest joke okay which i think we probably all know the world's funniest joke it's that that one in the monty python sketch isn't it it has to be written on several pieces of paper it's so funny that no one person was allowed to read the whole thing no no this is this is the one about a couple of a couple of guys on a hunting in a hunting party no i'm not

familiar with it are you not no so this is the world's funniest joke. Are you ready? I'm ready. So there are two guys go hunting. One of them falls over and cracks his head. And the other one goes, oh, my God, he's really hurt. So he calls the emergency services. And they say, OK, now, don't panic. First of all, you need to make sure that he's dead.

So there's like silence. Then there's like a and then he comes back to the phone he goes okay now what see i find that mildly amusing yeah mildly amusing i'm not so sure i would say it's the world's funniest joke according to dick weisman it is the funniest joke in the world measured by what system of metrics well i'll put a link in the show notes to his research but he's testing all these things i mean they're he's mostly they sound like they What system of metrics? Well, I'll put a link in the show notes to his research, to the laughter lab. But he's testing all these things.

I mean, mostly they sound like they were dad jokes. Yes. See, I'm quite partial to a dad joke. I love a dad joke. I'm not sure they're dad jokes. I think they're just good jokes. They're just funny. One of my favourites is,

I was sitting at a baseball game the other day and I couldn't understand why the baseball seemed to be getting larger and larger. And then it hit me. Yes. Great. I did come across one which I love. I think it's a great joke.

So a skeleton goes into a pub, goes up to the bar and he says, can I have a pint of beer and a mop? Very nice. I like that one i read that um back in the 13 1400s laughter was actually frowned upon in certain parts of the world especially sort of in in western christian areas yes laughter was seen as being quite vulgar quite um hedonistic and frowned upon and you couldn't laugh in in polite society it just wasn't the thing to do yes and slowly over the years that's obviously changed and we all now think it's it's a very good thing so from culture to culture era to era laughter may or may not have been connected to humor as much as it is now i think of laughter now and i instantly think of funny videos jokes comedy stand-up yeah um but as we've said you

know you you can you can laugh from being tickled although not everyone you know that i know some people who hate tickling that's that's absolute anathema to them but you could laugh just from i know someone falling over or saying something in a particular way. It doesn't necessarily have to be funny per se, but for some reason it just triggers that reaction in you. Interesting. So you don't have to find something funny to laugh. But it's also sometimes it's about timing. I mean, there's a great joke about sort of why don't scientists make very good comedians timing?

Brilliant. Why don't scientists make very good comedians timing? So the way that you deliver something can also be funny and make people laugh. And the laughter is part of the communication. Yes. And even just sort of silence can be an awkward silence can be funny. You know, I remember seeing a play years ago where the first three whole whole minutes was silence it was just a person standing on the stage yeah in silence and at first it was odd and then it was intriguing and then for some reason it became funny yeah people started laughing and that was the whole beginning of this this actor's monologue um so yeah some things we

just find amusing even if they're not yes they say you can laugh somebody into bed right they've done a study of personal ads and discovered that both men and women specified a sense of humor like gsoh yeah um more frequently than intelligence education profession or sex drive really so the idea that you know you find somebody more attractive if they laugh at your jokes right yeah okay and that's part of this sexual attraction thing yeah and i suppose that's also the fact that the other person is hanging on your every word and and paying attention to you and listening intently to what you're saying and that sort of thing so that sort of builds up a rapport and a relationship doesn't yes you can also um

laugh yourself to death which i've heard but i never assumed was actually true um but apparently this has happened i i found a whole list of instances going all the way back to ancient Greece to the modern day where people have laughed so hard. They haven't necessarily died directly from laughing, but the laughter has caused a heart attack or a loss of breath or whatever it might be. So you can actually laugh yourself to death. That's interesting because i have had problems with my heart in the past and i was told by a consultant that actually if you feel that your heart needs a bit of a kickstart one of the best ways of doing it is either to cough or laugh

really and apparently that's a very good way of i mean this you know this could be a life-saving tip here on on yeah i suppose it causes your chest to convulse in a fairly rhythmic pattern. Yeah. And sometimes quite violently so. So, yeah, I can sort of see that that could shock your heart back into working. I'm not sure I'd necessarily feel like laughing at the time, though. There is a phobia of laughter. Is there?

Hmm. Called? Gelotophobia. Gelotophobia. Well, this is the fear of being laughed at. Oh, I see. So, characterised by atypical laughter processing in the brain. Those who suffer from gelotophobia react to all laughter as if it's at their expense.

In other words, there's no we're laughing with you or even we're laughing near you. It's always we're laughing at you. And they don't trust friendly laughter. If someone's just enjoying themselves. There's a psychologist, a guy called Willibach Ruch, who's, I'll put a link to his research in the show notes. Yeah. There's a global survey of more than 15,000 potential gelotophobes, which found that people in Finland, which is seen as a largely egalitarian society, are the least likely to believe that people laughing in their presence are laughing at them.

Whereas 80% of respondents in Thailand believe this to be true. Yeah. How interesting. Yeah. What a cultural difference. So you can be scared of laughter. What does the Book of Guinness have to say about laughter? So as we've already discussed, it's quite difficult to separate laughter from humor i found a lot of records about jokes and comedy and stand-up and things like that um but i found the longest recorded laugh now this threw me off at first because um it didn't come from the guinness book

of records it came from the harvard book of records which i didn't know was a thing apparently it is oh i've never heard of the harvard book anyway the which I didn't know was a thing. Apparently it is. No, I've never heard of the Harvard Book. Anyway, the Harvard Book of Records records a gentleman called Rajendra Kumar from Rajasthan in India. In February 2022, he laughed. And again, I don't know whether this is a put-on laugh for the record

or whether he just found something immensely funny. But three hours, 47 minutes and 54 seconds. Sorry, how long? Three hours, 47 minutes 54 seconds is the world's longest laugh. Now, I can't help thinking that you would have asphyxiated, passed out, had

a hernia, anything in that time. Yes. It just seems a phenomenally long time for me. Wow. Another record was the longest laughter therapy class. As we've spoken about, yeah. Indeed. Various instructors got together and sort of created this continuous therapy session

where people came and went and came and went. This was again in India, actually, in Uttar Pradesh in 2018. This lasted for 36 hours and two minutes. Fun country. Yeah, seems it. Well, I'm all laughed out. I'm all laughed out as well.

Yes, I am cracked up. So before we go, we need to do those those podcaster things uh what do we want them to do simon well if people have enjoyed listening to us then the most natural thing to do would be to go on to whichever podcast player they have used and to give us a lovely five star rating and a bit of a review that would be great wouldn't it you could feel free to go out and tell your your friends about this show yes so that they can join in the fun and games as well when you're when you're out for a laugh hmm and of course they've probably already subscribed

haven't they oh i'm sure they have you think yeah yeah they've had a lovely little notification pop up on thursday morning saying hey it's factor Factorily time. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And we have a Facebook page. We do. If you want to go there. You can go there and complain about us. Or if it's a real proper complaint, you can email us at hello at factorily.com.

You can. And tell us what we got wrong. We love a good correction every now and then. If you found any facts that are more interesting than the facts we've presented, then come and tell us. Oh, yes. Yes yes yes absolutely because you'll then be one of those people who go actually i think you'll find yes indeed join the gang so that's it for another fun-filled laughter loaded episode of fact orally thank you for coming please come again next time. Bye-bye.

Au revoir.