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The Language Of Laughter

            Laughter is part of the universal human vocabulary. All members of the human species understand it. Unlike English, French, or Swahili, one does not have to learn to speak it. We"re born with the capacity to laugh. .
             One of the remarkable things about laughter is that it occurs unconsciously. You don't decide to do it. While we can consciously inhibit it, we don't consciously produce laughter. That is why it's very hard to laugh on command or to fake laughter. It provides powerful, uncensored insights into our unconscious. It simply bubbles up from within us in certain situations.
             We also know that laughter is a message that we send to other people. We know this because we rarely laugh when we are alone. Laughter is social and contagious. We laugh at the sound of laughter itself. A whole room can erupt in laughter when actually only about a third of the people may know the joke. That is the power of laughter.
             Most laughter is not about humor; it is about relationships between people. When we laugh, we"re often communicating playful intent. So laughter has a bonding function within individuals in a group. As Victor Borge once said, "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." It's often positive, but it can be negative too. There's a difference between "laughing with" and "laughing at." People who laugh at others may be trying to force them to conform or casting them out of the group.
             Laughter puts things into a new perspective. Everything that makes us laugh is typically something we relate to, but by laughing our brain is opened and sees everything in a different way. Laughter has the remarkable power of making an object come up close, of drawing it into a zone where one can finger it familiarly on all sides, turn it upside down, inside out, and break open its external shell. Laughter demolishes fear and piety before an object, before the world; making of it an object of familiar contact and clearing the ground for an absolutely free investigation.


Essays Related to The Language Of Laughter

1. Look at laughter

... or laugh ok maybe if you laugh too much! When speaking to her patients she wants to understand the healthy side of laughter. She tries to communicate to her patients in an easy to understand language. Her vocabulary that she uses is not over your head; instead it is something that you can ... relate to. When she starts to talk about the mechanics of laughter you can tell that she is educated in her field of study. The words that she uses are advanced, ... to have a second heart attack if you experience 30 minutes of laughter. In the middle of her research she tells you that it is great f...

  • Word Count: 611
  • Approx Pages: 2
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2. Comparison Between Dulce et Decorum Est and The Soldier

... and honour that it seems, and that in reality, dying in a war, no matter for what cause, can be both painful and full of suffering, while Rupert Brooke on the other hand, uses language in The Soldier, to give the reader the impression that dying in war for one's country, is very honourable, and glorious. As both poets have different opinions about war, in fact, almost ... by, which may be what he thinks about England, or what natural England looked like at that time. The words he used, also gives the reader the impression of a fantasy place, where everywhere was joy and laughter, with n...

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3. The Locus Of Laughter

... information is sent along. In this paper, we will discuss the biological means and matter of laughter and how science has possibly discovered a part of the brain which effects laughter and mood, and is undoubtedly affected by laughter and mood. To begin, what is laughter? Laughter is defined as "A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the face, particularly of the lips, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction, or derision, and usually attended by ... order to assure accuracy, the testers tested all participants on their cognitive abilities t...

  • Word Count: 2665
  • Approx Pages: 11
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4. The Chocolate War

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  • Word Count: 12087
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5. Language

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  • Word Count: 8535
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6. Laughter and Terror in The Caretaker by Harold Pinter

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7. Descriptive Language Personal Short Story

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8. One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest

... so nobody bothers him. This book has many motifs and different symbolic meanings. A few of them include: power of laughter, invisibility, the fog machine, sexuality, and the electroshock therapy. All these meanings play an important role in this book. The power of laughter is brought up throughout the book. The patients are deprived of this and forgot how it actually feels to laugh. They only know to smile or snicker ... you smell a motor pulling too big a load" (pg 5.) Nurse Ratchet represents our government. She controls the staff and patients as the Government controls us. Turning pe...

  • Word Count: 1279
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9. Overview of Angelman Syndrome

... look and move in ways similar to a puppet controlled by a string. The children have epilepsy, learning difficulties, severe speech delay, jerky movements, tongue-thrusting, a characteristic facial appearance and a happy mood with sudden bursts of laughter. Angelman syndrome is caused by the absence of certain genes normally presents on the copy of chromosome 15 inherited from the mother. What is Chromosome 15? Humans normally have 46 chromosomes in each ... swimming, horse riding and music therapy have also been being beneficial. Behaviour problems are present in males and females of al...

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