So, I had been watching an interesting video on YouTube about the neuroscience behind humor. Dr. Siddharth Warrier is a neurologist and he was dissecting a joke in the name of science with professional standup comedians like Tanmay Bhat, Kaneez S, and Abhish Matthew.
I found it quite fascinating because I happen to be a keen connoisseur of both – a good old joke with some science and coke. (dope, right..!) Lol.
I’ll spell out some of my favorite takeaways from the hour-long chat which you can find here.
1. A laugh is a reward your brain gives you for solving a problem successfully.
The premise of a joke is that there is a problem told to you, followed by a solution. The catch is that they don’t add up. And after a little pondering, a.k.a.solving the math of the problem in your head you realize that it “obviously didn’t make any sense” and then you laugh.
Under the hood, your brain pats your back by telling you that you are a genius to make sense of it all, and wallah, there’s your little dopamine burst, go ahead laugh it out, you’ve earned it. Fascinating.
So, what happens when you don’t find a joke funny?
2. You only find stuff funny when it doesn’t pose a threat.
Joke stops being funny when you realize that this hypothetical problem that didn’t have a solution, can actually become real and hurt you in some way.
Another way of looking at it would be that we find it funny when something happens to others.
However, the victim doesn’t share our funny take at it. Why is that?
That’s probably because we feel safe that we aren’t the victim and pat comes the reward from our brain for escaping potential danger, in the form of a laugh.
However, if one is jerk enough to make it public that he is laughing at the victim, what happens next is called “offending someone”.
Offending someone essentially means threatening their opinion. And one of the strongest opinions a person has and guards is the one about himself. His identity as a husband, son, father, mother, employee, religious person, or a political activist.
So, if your joke poses a threat to identity, then it stops being a joke.
I hope you’ve realized that making someone laugh without offending them is no laughing matter.
You can tell me your take on it here and here.
Dr. Sddharth Warrier can be reached here.
Video of the week :
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