I have had a very sore throat for the past few days, and while coming home from school today my mom said something that made me laugh. I quickly regretted it and asked her not to say anything funny because it hurt when I laughed. I then starting thinking about what we were talking about in class a few days ago. If words have no real meaning (they only mean what we say they mean), how can some words cause a physical reaction from us? Everyone knows what it's like to try to stifle a laugh after hearing a hilarious joke. If what was said was extremely funny, it is often impossible to stop the reaction. The same thing happens when something sad is said. How can simple words cause the uncontrollable physical reaction of tears? If words really mean nothing, aren't we laughing and crying for no reason?
-Alexa Kaczmarski
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I think that these words cause reactions because of the affective connotations we give them. That certainly explains the concept of an "inside joke." A simple word that is merely a part of many people's vocabularies might seem hysterically funny to other people simply because of the memories and thoughts they have surrounding that word. Our physical reactions are not really caused by the word itself, but by the memories that the word evokes.
ReplyDelete-Tara Burns
Words mean different things for different people. It's the way we *interpret* the words that truly matters. What you thought was funny may not have been humorous for someone else.
ReplyDeleteWe do laugh and cry for a reason. We are the arbiters of which words will have a more profound effect on us, and which ones won't.
-Chloe Martianou
I feel as if laughter is more of a social function than a genuine expression of the recognition of humor. There have been various studies showing that people are far more likely to laugh at a joke told by someone in a position of authority than at the same joke told to them by someone in an underling position. Along with this, by laughing at someone's jokes (however funny they may be), that someone is far more likely to like us.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, whether we believe the words stated in a joke have meaning or whether we believe that they're "just words", who the speaker is and the context of surroundings play a much greater role in provoking laughter than what is actually said.
-Bryce Cody
I think there have been several blogs in here about the power of words and how they can persuade people and things like that. Words only carry the power we give them. We give them the power to evoke ideas and emotions, and therefore they can. It doesn't matter if the joke had no meaning on its own; you gave it meaning and so it was funny.
ReplyDeleteThis is where the expression "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" comes from. The insults one child says to another don't have any affect until the child chooses to give them meaning. As my dad used to tell me, you are in charge of your emotions. You can choose to let words have meaning and bother you or not. As much as I hated hearing that, he's right.
By the way, feel better, Alexa!
~Becca LaRosa
Thanks Becca!!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, my mom also always tells me that I'm in charge of my own mind and that I can choose to let things worry me or just let it go. I guess I never really realized how true that was until recently.
-Alexa Kaczmarski
Going back to Tara's comment, I don't think it's the words that have cause laughter. It's either the connotation, or in the case of puns, the denotation of the words that causes the laughter. The way a joke typically works is as follows: some expectation for a scenario is established (Why was the blueberry late for work?) and then that expectation is twisted or thrown away entirely (It got stuck in a jam!). In the case of the blueberry joke, one would expect some typical explanation, like sleeping in or taking a wrong turn instead of some ridiculous encounter with a condiment. The laughter doesn't come out of the words, but rather their surprising meaning.
ReplyDeleteTo this extent, it goes back to the whole "symbolic nature of words" spiel. The words aren't making you laugh. You are hearing one word and interpretting it (blueberry - a small, blue fruit mostly native to North America, then hearing another word and connecting it to the first (jam - a jelly, and a traffic pattern? zomg! haharoflroflrofl). The mental process necessary for this symbolic connection is the source of the humor, not the words blueberry or jam themselves.
Colin Groundwater
I disagree that the words themselves or even the thought process itself is the primary cause of laughter. Once we recognize a joke, we often make a subconscious decision about whether or not to laugh based on the speaker and our surroundings.
ReplyDeleteI think this article was pretty interesting for this subject. I used it in a project in 8th grade about socialization.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/science/13tier.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=laughter%20social%20lubricant&st=cse
-Bryce Cody
I agree with Bryce to an extent. Certainly, I 'm going to laugh, or at least do my best to feign it, if a teacher or boss tells a joke. However, if one of my friends tells a bad joke, I don't feel that same pressure to laugh. When on an even playing field like with friends, laughter often comes from the thought proccesses a joke triggers. For Alexa's initial example, with her Mom, Alexa felt no pressure to laugh, what was said was actually funny.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting note, is how people laugh about bad jokes. Last year, one of my friends told a boring and not at all funny story about her socks. Nobody laughed at the story, but we found how bad the story was hilarious, and still reference its awlfulness today. I should probably add, that she laughs as well.
~Becca LaRosa
I'm on the same page as Becca. If I was only laughing because someone of higher status than myself was telling the joke, I would have stopped myself because it was too painful. Even a few days ago, when my friend came to visit me, we shared some laughs that were uncontrollable. If I could control it, I would have sacrificed my show of entertainment for my own comfort, but it was a subconscious reaction brought up by memories and affective connotations of what was said or done.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Becca, maybe your friend's story wasn't supposed to be funny in the first place. Maybe she was just trying to explain why she was wearing cute socks on a day that we didn't have gym. haha
-Alexa