The Science of Laughter

Fortunately, this doesn’t require any knowledge of physics and chemistry. The only physics I know is the concept of gravity and how Laurel and Hardy frequently fall prey to the clutches of gravity. The only chemistry I know is that salt and cake don’t go together unless it is salted caramel cake(rolling eyes). 

There is a science behind why we laugh and why ants probably don’t. I know this because I have never seen an ant laugh even under a magnifying glass. 

The first reason why we laugh is superiority. Even if you don’t feel superior or don’t have an accent that is considered superior, you can still laugh due to the superiority theory. When we come across Mr Bean, or Laurel and Hardy, we feel superior. We laugh at the misfortunes of others. It might not be so funny when it happens to ourselves, but when it happens to others, it might become comedic. All seriousness aside, Laurel and Hardy must have bean(err… been) the insurer’s nightmare. 

The second reason why we laugh is because of incongruity. If something seems different than expected, we laugh due to our surprise. Think, of a giraffe moonwalking. Or people not taking New Year’s resolutions(this one is not funny). But a giraffe moonwalking with its 4 legs, might just throw your neural pathways into a tizzy, grappling for a suitable response, which then gets it to send a signal to your body to laugh. 

These are just some of the theories of why people laugh. If Michael Jackson were to moonwalk in the sun, would it be called moonwalking or sunwalking? Duh! He moonwalked on Earth as well and didn’t call it earthwalking.