What is the evolutionary advantage of laughing at funny things? Why are some things considered funny?! Anybody got (or heard of) any theores?

Maybe its very simple? If we didn't laugh maybe we really would cry!

I would imagine there are more social reasons for keeping laughter around. Expressing delight at the anecdotes of your fellow tribesmen could lead to being accepted.

Anything can be funny when you're with the right people.

allegedly laughter is very close to crying.

Not everything has an advantage. What advantage does consciousnes have? It would seem that we would work faster and with greater efficiency if we didn't stop to wonder why we were doing it.

Not everything has an advantage. What advantage does consciousnes have? It would seem that we would work faster and with greater efficiency if we didn't stop to wonder why we were doing it.

We would then be robots; we wouldn't stop to laugh or cry either. Efficiency at the cost of humanity...no thanks.

We would then be robots; we wouldn't stop to laugh or cry either. Efficiency at the cost of humanity...no thanks.

Not saying its better or worse, just saying.

Laughter...is medicine.

Not everything has an advantage. What advantage does consciousness have? It would seem that we would work faster and with greater efficiency if we didn't stop to wonder why we were doing it.

Consciousness made us king of animals

Consciousness made us king of animals

what does that mean?

What is the evolutionary advantage of laughing at funny things? Why are some things considered funny?! Anybody got (or heard of) any theores?

The last I heard laughing is meant to be a way of gaining approval of more dominate members of a group. Sometimes you will notice people that are truly funny don't even laugh at their own jokes, yet others do.

There are studies that show that people who laugh live longer - pessimism vs. optimism. Helps people get well from sicknesses, diseases, helps fight cancer, reduces the pain threshold, and is said to be good for your heart, although some people have "died laughing" after they had a heart attack! :D

One of my dogs laughs too! That's my Border Collie. He has a high-pitched exhaled squeal whenever I make fun of his name by exagerrating it in a rapidious intermittent high-pitched prolonged way. He laughs so hard that he uncontrollably pees all over the floor, swinging his tail faster than a propeller.

Like muttley? (Well, the laughing part)

Suppose a member of a group has an advantage in life, if the group is well bonded and everyone is entrained. Then some way of getting everyone on the same page and in the group would be valuable.

Group bonding has to occur in some way not directly connected to the actual benefits or functions of the group - because it's too late, when the need of coordinated response arrives, to start bonding. So some kind of apparently superfluous mutual sharing of comprehension and approach is necessary - in advance of, therefore not caused by, any immediate need.

Just a possibility. An intrinsically rewarding, unproductive, leisure time shared activity among a small group seems to be necessary; and it should lead to mutual and simultaneous comprehensions.

Laughing also has several health benefits, it has been shown in lab studies that people who generally laugh more are also more healthy.
Some of the known effects are lowering stress, and giving a temporary boost to your immune system.