willakitty
Registered Senior Member
what the hell is laughing about anyway?
laughing
- Thread starter willakitty
- Start date
willakitty
Registered Senior Member
My brother told me that people shouldn't fight 'cause they can talk things out. Animals can fight 'cause they can't. Um...aren't people animals too? If so, why do people do alot of strange things that animals can't do. Like laugh (hyenas aren't REALLY laughing) and cry (alligators don't REALLY cry, they're just cleaning their eyes out when they swallow or something like that). And how come animals can communicate with each other but WE can't communicate with them? It all seem really unfair to me.
ripleofdeath
Registered Senior Member
hayya
maybe laughing is the evolutional stage of the brain to deal with all the unpleasant ness that we seem to think is nessecary?
notice how we have more and more comedy on tv but we have less and less peace in our enviroment!
just a little thought
groove on all
maybe laughing is the evolutional stage of the brain to deal with all the unpleasant ness that we seem to think is nessecary?
notice how we have more and more comedy on tv but we have less and less peace in our enviroment!
just a little thought
groove on all
Originally posted by willakitty
My brother told me that people shouldn't fight 'cause they can talk things out. Animals can fight 'cause they can't. Um...aren't people animals too? If so, why do people do alot of strange things that animals can't do. Like laugh (hyenas aren't REALLY laughing) and cry (alligators don't REALLY cry, they're just cleaning their eyes out when they swallow or something like that). And how come animals can communicate with each other but WE can't communicate with them? It all seem really unfair to me.
Laughing is our why to express our mood, just like crying, animals have other ways to show their emotions and moods.
That doesn't have anything to do with eachother, there is less and less peace in our society because we don't have the time to relax, and because of changed technology wars are gettin' worse and worse.
Because we have less time to relax we try to simulate that with comedy on t.v.(btw, is there really less and less peace in our society?, but that's worth another thread)
laughing = fun = great
have fun.
R D R R, get it?
I think animals don't laugh, maybe because they don't have the capacity to realize a funny situation, and besides, what's funny to us may not be neccesarily funny to them. Laughter is a sign of intelligence (I think, 'cause I can't stop laughing most of the time), and if animals could laugh, we'd probably be slaves 'cause humans are about pretty low on the survival skill scale. At that point, then I would see a reason for animals to laugh.
I think animals don't laugh, maybe because they don't have the capacity to realize a funny situation, and besides, what's funny to us may not be neccesarily funny to them. Laughter is a sign of intelligence (I think, 'cause I can't stop laughing most of the time), and if animals could laugh, we'd probably be slaves 'cause humans are about pretty low on the survival skill scale. At that point, then I would see a reason for animals to laugh.
When I was an animal I think I would be laughing all the time.
When a superior race shows you things like:
War, nuclear weapons, mass-murder, morture, racism and Jerry Springer...
Then the only thing you can do is laugh, because you realise it is much better to live peacefull without being superior then being superior and dealing with that problems.
(and the most funny part; the human-race thinks that they're superior and the best..........)
As long as animals aren't killing their own race, we can say they have a lot more reasons to smile and laugh then we have.
ripleofdeath
Registered Senior Member
lions eat lion cubs!
spiders eat their mate
crocodiles eat their babys
humans kill everything in a manner that nothing can eat it!
:/
groove on all
spiders eat their mate
crocodiles eat their babys
humans kill everything in a manner that nothing can eat it!
:/
groove on all
I'll start with yawns ...
And, no, I'm not criticizing this thread. It's just that the yawn itself is important here: a yawn results from a need to increase the volume of oxygen intake. Whether the air's impure, or if it's just your brain being tired and demanding more fuel for its work ... the yawn draws greater volume of oxygen into the body and has the short-term effect of livening the brain's activities due to an increase in available oxygen.
So what, then, is laugh? You can laugh yourself sick, or even laugh yourself to a sideache. So think about this: sideaches come from an overabundance of oxygen; as you run short of breath in a soccer (football; I know, but I'm a damn American, so nobody in this country would care, but either way I suppose it works) game, you might tend to breathe raggedly, gulping air. This is when the sideache sets in, no matter how short of breath you think you are. I stand on the merit of these assertions regarding sideaches on the grounds that I have grown up around too many American football coaches, basketball coaches, and running coaches to ever forget that litany. I will also note consistent results under impromptu and varying field tests.
So is a laugh something which draws more oxygen to the body? Sure. That assertion is a little more ... uh ... yeah. That one's mine, as far as I know, for the moment; I'm making this up on inspiration.
Why draw more oxygen through laughter? Is it possible that among the chemical responses in the brain that make us amused--perhaps when we perceive with our eyes certain cognitively absurd events, or hear with our ears similarly absurd ideas or sounds--that cause the body to prepare for some form of exertion, or that in any way require greater oxygen consumption? Perhaps something absurd enough to make one laugh will excite a specific response in the brain that causes a set of absurd signals to pass through the body, giving diverse orders throughout the body in a spontaneous electrochemical burst that is followed by no actual process? The result of which is the sensation of extreme happiness and a seizure-like respiratory arrhythmia?
It could also explain why false laughter sounds so damn false: it's an addictive response or perhaps a compulsive response. Why does anyone laugh falsely? Largely because of insecurity in the moment, whereby the brain, seeking to avert an increase in negative feeling, craves the drug of laughter so that a person is compelled to push out laughter in search of a fix.
In this sense, and even with an addictive edge, the nature of what laughter is makes it one of the most pure, least contrived human acts. It is the nature of good feeling unleashed.
But I'm going to stop now, else I stop making any sense whatsoever.
thanx,
Tiassa
And, no, I'm not criticizing this thread. It's just that the yawn itself is important here: a yawn results from a need to increase the volume of oxygen intake. Whether the air's impure, or if it's just your brain being tired and demanding more fuel for its work ... the yawn draws greater volume of oxygen into the body and has the short-term effect of livening the brain's activities due to an increase in available oxygen.
So what, then, is laugh? You can laugh yourself sick, or even laugh yourself to a sideache. So think about this: sideaches come from an overabundance of oxygen; as you run short of breath in a soccer (football; I know, but I'm a damn American, so nobody in this country would care, but either way I suppose it works) game, you might tend to breathe raggedly, gulping air. This is when the sideache sets in, no matter how short of breath you think you are. I stand on the merit of these assertions regarding sideaches on the grounds that I have grown up around too many American football coaches, basketball coaches, and running coaches to ever forget that litany. I will also note consistent results under impromptu and varying field tests.
So is a laugh something which draws more oxygen to the body? Sure. That assertion is a little more ... uh ... yeah. That one's mine, as far as I know, for the moment; I'm making this up on inspiration.
Why draw more oxygen through laughter? Is it possible that among the chemical responses in the brain that make us amused--perhaps when we perceive with our eyes certain cognitively absurd events, or hear with our ears similarly absurd ideas or sounds--that cause the body to prepare for some form of exertion, or that in any way require greater oxygen consumption? Perhaps something absurd enough to make one laugh will excite a specific response in the brain that causes a set of absurd signals to pass through the body, giving diverse orders throughout the body in a spontaneous electrochemical burst that is followed by no actual process? The result of which is the sensation of extreme happiness and a seizure-like respiratory arrhythmia?
It could also explain why false laughter sounds so damn false: it's an addictive response or perhaps a compulsive response. Why does anyone laugh falsely? Largely because of insecurity in the moment, whereby the brain, seeking to avert an increase in negative feeling, craves the drug of laughter so that a person is compelled to push out laughter in search of a fix.
In this sense, and even with an addictive edge, the nature of what laughter is makes it one of the most pure, least contrived human acts. It is the nature of good feeling unleashed.
But I'm going to stop now, else I stop making any sense whatsoever.
thanx,
Tiassa
<i>"what the hell is laughing about anyway?"</i>
It's a complimentary color to crying. Just another part of the larger spectrum.
<i>"My brother told me that people shouldn't fight 'cause they can talk things out. Animals can fight 'cause they can't. Um...aren't people animals too?"</i>
Yes, we are animals, but we are God's favorite pets.
<i>"If so, why do people do alot of strange things that animals can't do. Like laugh (hyenas aren't REALLY laughing) and cry (alligators don't REALLY cry, they're just cleaning their eyes out when they swallow or something like that)."</i>
Well, they're not as evolved as us and are dumb and...er... Hmm, wait a moment. My dog and cats don't work either. They just hang out around my house, eating my food, and sleeping on my furniture. Hey!
<i>"And how come animals can communicate with each other but WE can't communicate with them? It all seem really unfair to me."</i>
I dunno.
It's a complimentary color to crying. Just another part of the larger spectrum.
<i>"My brother told me that people shouldn't fight 'cause they can talk things out. Animals can fight 'cause they can't. Um...aren't people animals too?"</i>
Yes, we are animals, but we are God's favorite pets.
<i>"If so, why do people do alot of strange things that animals can't do. Like laugh (hyenas aren't REALLY laughing) and cry (alligators don't REALLY cry, they're just cleaning their eyes out when they swallow or something like that)."</i>
Well, they're not as evolved as us and are dumb and...er... Hmm, wait a moment. My dog and cats don't work either. They just hang out around my house, eating my food, and sleeping on my furniture. Hey!
<i>"And how come animals can communicate with each other but WE can't communicate with them? It all seem really unfair to me."</i>
I dunno.
To refute (refine) the oxygen theory
Tiasa,
I like your corelation of yawning and laughing, but recently read an article which questions the yawning for oxygen effect. I have taken the following text form Discover Magazine, June 2001:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert R. Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, replies:
Virtually any stimulus associated with yawns— including viewing, reading about, and even thinking about, yawning— evokes yawns. (Are you yawning yet?) Yawning spreads in a chain reaction through a group, a compelling example of human herd behavior and a reminder that we are not always in conscious control of our actions. The urge to replicate an observed yawn is clearly an automatic response triggered by our brains.
Studies partially explain the reason for yawning. Although we yawn more when sleepy or bored, it is unclear whether yawning increases alertness. And scientific evidence refutes one of the most popular myths of yawning— that it happens in response to low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels in the blood or brain. Test subjects do not yawn more when breathing air with enhanced levels of carbon dioxide nor do they yawn less when breathing pure oxygen. One fact explains a lot of apparently inconsistent data. People yawn most during behavioral transitions, such as just after waking and shortly before bedtime. Yawning may help facilitate those changes. Contagious yawning may synchronize a group's behavior so that, for instance, a whole family goes to sleep together.
------------------------------------------------------
End quote
------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps laughing indicates the brain's transition (or attempt) to a less inhibited state. When one is surrounded by others with falling defenses, a natural response is to follow suit.
Tiasa,
I like your corelation of yawning and laughing, but recently read an article which questions the yawning for oxygen effect. I have taken the following text form Discover Magazine, June 2001:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert R. Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, replies:
Virtually any stimulus associated with yawns— including viewing, reading about, and even thinking about, yawning— evokes yawns. (Are you yawning yet?) Yawning spreads in a chain reaction through a group, a compelling example of human herd behavior and a reminder that we are not always in conscious control of our actions. The urge to replicate an observed yawn is clearly an automatic response triggered by our brains.
Studies partially explain the reason for yawning. Although we yawn more when sleepy or bored, it is unclear whether yawning increases alertness. And scientific evidence refutes one of the most popular myths of yawning— that it happens in response to low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels in the blood or brain. Test subjects do not yawn more when breathing air with enhanced levels of carbon dioxide nor do they yawn less when breathing pure oxygen. One fact explains a lot of apparently inconsistent data. People yawn most during behavioral transitions, such as just after waking and shortly before bedtime. Yawning may help facilitate those changes. Contagious yawning may synchronize a group's behavior so that, for instance, a whole family goes to sleep together.
------------------------------------------------------
End quote
------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps laughing indicates the brain's transition (or attempt) to a less inhibited state. When one is surrounded by others with falling defenses, a natural response is to follow suit.
Laughing...
Laughing was started when the first caveman, got the crap scared out of him by his own shadow. The second caveman started to grunt uncontrollably. Laughter isn't something I take seriously, its just fun to do, weather its something as simple as a misfired synapse, or watching a drunken idiot run away form the police on COPS.
What can I say, I try to keep some of these threads lighthearted. I'm sure Backslash 777 has some highly evolved snip about this entire thread. Bring it on. LOL
Laughing was started when the first caveman, got the crap scared out of him by his own shadow. The second caveman started to grunt uncontrollably. Laughter isn't something I take seriously, its just fun to do, weather its something as simple as a misfired synapse, or watching a drunken idiot run away form the police on COPS.
What can I say, I try to keep some of these threads lighthearted. I'm sure Backslash 777 has some highly evolved snip about this entire thread. Bring it on. LOL
willakitty
Registered Senior Member
that's what i think...oh, and
too