

How Good Are Laughs? - kapilkaisare
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/01/how-good-are-laughs.html

======
aothman
Chuck Klosterman wrote a wonderful essay (it's in his collection "Eating the
Dinosaur") about laugh tracks, and more broadly, about the way we use
laughter. His thesis was that, especially in the mundane interactions among
strangers that populate daily (US) life, laughter is a nearly continuous
stream that reassures everyone that both they and everyone else around them
know what's going on.

Next time you're in a conversation with a group of people you don't know, stop
and listen for the laughter - it will be hard to hear because you're so used
to tuning it out, but it will be shocking in its frequency when you finally
pick up on it. (NB: pointing the laughter out is a good way to alienate
yourself from strangers.)

Klosterman talks a bit about his essay here:
[http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/10/17/chuck-
klosterman-o...](http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/10/17/chuck-klosterman-
out-with-a-new-essay-collection-talks-seriously-about-laugh-tracks/)

------
wallflower
The other thing that sometimes irks me is the social lubricating that "How are
you?", "Good, how are you?" entails. I know people really don't care usually
but I do care how someone is - are they happy in the present moment, are they
present, what is interesting in their life...

I've managed to auto-pilot myself responding and have optimized at times to
"Good, yourself?". It's almost as bad as Chuck Palahniuk's saying that people
only ask about our weekend so they can tell us about their weekend. I think it
is a necessary bare minimum for small talk though. And, I've gone into the
dark side, I've started talking about the weather. It makes me wonder - at the
canned responses - we all give out - how much of conversation can be on auto-
pilot. I'm fascinated with conversational dynamics as I loathe to be the
person who gets the group into a reverse tizzy, all pauses and nervous drink
fondling. I think a lot of awkward conversations are auto-pilot as well. And
the thing, for me, that distinguishes true, great conversations is their back-
and-forth and seeming lack of cruise control. And I do find I can get a
reasonable proxy for intelligent discussion that I can't get everyday through
chatting (via IM) my good friends who are far away or HN. I do believe
everyone has a few signature stories - if I get one out of a new acquaintance
- I feel I've done my best - to be social.

A friend from a foreign country noted that we say "Thank you" so much in
America it seems to lose its true value. Do we really need to say "Thank you"
if a server refills our water glass? It seems to lessen the value of two words
when someone does an unexpected favor.

"Thank you" for reading this.:)

~~~
randallsquared
_A friend from a foreign country noted that we say "Thank you" so much in
America it seems to lose its true value. Do we really need to say "Thank you"
if a server refills our water glass? It seems to lessen the value of two words
when someone does an unexpected favor._

I've never heard the idea that you should only thank someone for unexpected or
surprising actions, until now, but I think the surprise component is carried
by tone, when present.

What would you say instead when a server refills your glass, to avoid the
otherwise implicit rudeness?

~~~
wallflower
> What would you say instead when a server refills your glass, to avoid the
> otherwise implicit rudeness?

I've started memorizing Thank You in various languages. I now almost always
use a non-English thank you with a smile to indicate. And every once in a
while, the server lights up if it was their native language or home country.

------
wazoox
This doesn't explain the continuous existence of comedy and farce from
Aristophanes to "la commedia del'arte". I stand unconvinced.

~~~
hugh3
I was particularly unconvinced by this part:

 _As recently as the 1860s, it was considered impolite to laugh in public in
the United States... By the 1870s … to say that someone lacked a sense of
humor was seen as one of the worst things that could be said about him or
her._

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faitswulff
That's a Western historical view on it. I wonder what other cultures thought
of it.

~~~
joe_the_user
It's a history of attitudes towards laughter in some Western cultures,
specifically Europe and the United States.

Histories of other cultures would interesting too.

But I can't see it as a "western view" any more than a history of wood carving
in Japanese culture would be an "Eastern historical view".

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wahnfrieden
Woah, this was a curious article, but it unexpectedly turned gloomy with this
final, sudden excerpt: "A large-scale study … found optimism and sense of
humor in childhood to be inversely related to longevity."

~~~
wallflower
Don't be sad. The abstract for the large-scale study itself concludes that
there are too many interlocking relationships to reach a definitive
conclusion.

From Dr. Howard Friedman's other research (evidence humor and its underlying
personality characteristic may be more good than bad for life satisfaction):

"Results indicate that emotionally expressive, extraverted, and physically
attractive Subjects were evaluated more favorably in these initial encounters
than were Subjects scoring low on these dimensions. The relationships between
expressivity/extraversion and initial likability were independent of the
effects of physical attractiveness. Results suggest that conceptions of
overall attractiveness need to move beyond the physical qualities to include
dynamic, emotional aspects."

And: "Two groups of Type A's were found: one that was repressed, tense, and
illness-prone, and another that was healthy, talkative, in control, and
charismatic. Furthermore, in addition to the expected healthy Type B's, a
subgroup of Type B's was found who were submissive, repressed, and tense; had
an external locus of control; and may have been illness prone."

<http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~friedman/nvcabstract.html>

<http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~friedman/longabstract.html>

------
mise

      A large-scale study … found optimism and sense 
      of humor in childhood to be inversely related to 
      longevity.

:(

(If I've understood that correctly.)

