What is laughter?
Laughter is natural for people. We start to laugh at about four months of age. We start to laugh even before we start to speak!
Laughter is social. It connects us with other people. We laugh more when we are with other people. Studies find that we are 30 times more likely to laugh with others than when we are a【小题1】. When one person laughs, other people begin to laugh, too.
It is difficult to pretend. Laughter is h【小题2】. Try to laugh right now. It’s difficult, isn’t it? When people pretend to laugh, most people know it’s not real. Studies show that people don’t like the sound of fake(虚假的) laughter.
When do people laugh?
Only 10 to 20 percent of laughter is about something funny. Most laughter is about being friendly with other people. Most laughter says “I don’t want to compete with you. I like to be with you.” This kind of laughter brings people t【小题3】.
We often laugh when we feel n【小题4】. At the beginning of the meeting, someone often tells a joke. It’s usually a small joke, but we laugh a lot. Our laughter helps us relax.
What is funny?
Some things are funny because we don’t e【小题5】 them. When a joke begins, we already have an idea about the end. We think we know the end, but then the joke ends in a different way. The end of the joke surprises us. It makes us laugh.
Silly things are sometimes funny. We laugh at jokes about people and their m【小题6】 because we know something they don’t know. We think we are better than they are.
Not everyone has the same sense of humor(幽默感). Some people think a joke is funny, but other people don’t think so. People have different idea about what is funny. For young children, the world is new. Many things surprise them, so they laugh a lot. Teenagers often worry about what others think of them. They laugh to p【小题7】 themselves. Teenagers laugh when they feel embarrassed. Adults laugh at things that give them stress. Our reasons for laughter change over time.
