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Laughing Through the Covid Holidays
What makes something funny in bad, and sad times
Ho, ho, ho! Well, here we are, in Covid lockdown at I time where we are told, “Tis the season to be jolly!”
I guess at a time like this what can be better than to explore what makes something fun?
Humor is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, “body fluid”), controlled human health and emotion.
People of all ages and cultures respond to humor. Most people are able to experience humor — be amused, smile, or laugh at something funny (such as a pun or joke) — and thus are considered to have a sense of humor. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humor would likely find the behavior inducing it to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, culture, maturity, age, and many other factors. For example, young children may favor such as the 3 Stooges or certain cartoons, whose physical nature makes it accessible to them. By contrast, more sophisticated…
