Humour is a powerful tool to improve communication and put people at ease. Victor Borge, the famous comedian once said, "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people."

Laughter has been described as a release of tension mediated through the autonomic nervous system⁽¹⁾. A good belly laugh will relieve pain⁽²⁾⁽³⁾, boost immunity⁽⁴⁾⁽⁵⁾, and rest the brain⁽⁶⁾. Humour when used in a sensitive, caring manner builds rapport and breaks down barriers of communication. Humour has been called the "bullet-proof vest against the ravages of negative emotions". When you can laugh at a problem, the problem ceases to exist in its original form and becomes more manageable and less threatening. Dr. Joel Goodman director of the Humour Project and pioneer in the area of the therapeutic effects of laughter says, "Laughter can take you from moping, to coping, to hoping."

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LAUGHTER'S PURPOSE

Not only is laughter therapeutic, but laughter can be a way of uniting and uplifting us as human beings. It can also be a way of ridiculing, degrading and putting people down. Laughter is used in many societies as a way of maintaining the status quo. There is a tendency for children to laugh at those who some way stand out, are peculiar or different. Laughter can be used as a way of making people conform so that they look and act the same.

Many jokes can be abusive and are about nationalities, religions or ethnic backgrounds. People increase their own self-esteem by negating those who are different. It is a way of accentuating differences and discriminating against groups who are unalike. "You don't have to snuff out my candle in order for yours to burn more brightly". People try to increase their own self-esteem by negating others. When we teach children to laugh at others who are different we are setting up barriers and teaching them prejudice at a young age. Laughter at the expense of other peoples' feelings is degrading and helps to create rifts between individuals and nations.

We have all found ourselves laughing at dirty jokes, male chauvinistic humour which degrades women or jokes about nationalities or religious groups. This kind of laughter often leaves us with a bad taste in our mouth, or with a feeling of discomfort. When we laugh at someone who makes a mistake or falls and hurt himself, we are sometimes laughing out of discomfort or over-identification.

Think back over some of the most embarrassing moments in your life. What was so distressing? One of child's greatest fears is to be laughed at or ridiculed and this concern carries over into adult life. Many people stop themselves from interacting with others, going into social situations or standing up in front of audiences because of the fear of making fools of themselves or that people might laugh at them. Often an abusive parent or sibling may have repeatedly embarrassed the child in public. I advocate laughter that unifies rather than separates us. I recommend not telling jokes that put other people down.

A patient of mine who survived the Nazi death camps told me that his sense of humour is what helped him stay alive. No matter how terrible things were there was always a part of him that could see the humour or the absurdity of a situation. They could never take his smile away. As long as he could laugh he felt human. "Laughter is a way of "thumbing one's nose at the inescapable and incomprehensible vagaries of existence and declaring " … I choose to rise above this. I choose to meet life head on excited about the varied possibilities in each day...Laughter is freedom." ⁽⁷⁾

You don't have to be Carole Burnett or Jerry Seinfeld in order to bring humour into your life. The first thing that is necessary is a willingness to acknowledge how important laughter and play can be especially when we are sick. George Bernard Shaw said, "Life doesn't cease being funny when people die, anymore than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

When people take anything too seriously they put blinders on, which cause them to miss the important aspects of what is going on around them. They develop "tunnel vision", which limits and distorts their perception of reality. ⁽⁸⁾

Some professionals place joke books, toys, and funny art in their waiting room to give the message that their office is not a laugh-restricted area. Bulletin boards with tasteful jokes especially about health care issues can bring some levity into an otherwise stressful environment. Many hospitals have laughter rooms or humour carts filled with funny magazines, books, videos of comedy, and laugh tapes. Patients can avail themselves of these laugh stimulants.

Years ago I ran a joke contest in the office. I had a notice on the bulletin board that said the best joke brought in would win a prize each month. There was a wonderful response and patients told me jokes and brought in cut out cartoons. I began to see aspects of people's personalities that I had never known before. The atmosphere in the office changed. My nurse enjoyed it as well. We gave ourselves permission to giggle. Health care centres can have funny activities like Halloween dress up parties, silly hat days or laughable theme days to help staff lighten up.

Researchers interested in how humour affects learning found that the use of humour by teachers increased student attention; reduced test anxiety; improved critical thinking, literacy skills and concept learning; and promoted positive classroom climate.⁽⁹⁾ Humour stimulates learning. When something is learned with humour it is learned well.

Humour is not necessarily joke telling or comedy but it is a sense of delight and exuberance that life is funny. Alison Crane a nurse, who teaches how to bring laughter into health care settings, explains, "You don't have to be a stand-up comic to get your patients to relax, but just have a cheerful, spirited approach and be willing to respond to their humour."

Carl Simonton, author of "Getting Well Again"⁽¹⁰⁾, believes that play is essential for health, not elective. He found that play is one of the first things to go when patients get cancer. As part of his strategy to help people deal with cancer he has patients list 20 playful things to do, 50% of which cost less than $5. He makes it mandatory for patients to put play back into their life.

John F Kennedy wrote, "There are three things which are real, God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond comprehension. So we must do what we can with the third." The pursuit of happiness is one of the basic precepts of the Declaration of Independence.

There is so much humour in our day-to-day life that when you begin to look at the frailty of the human condition, you can see the humour in all predicaments. Humour can be a way of raising consciousness and getting closer to each other. The comedian Danny Kaye used humour to communicate across all racial, religious and cultural communities. His cross-cultural humour didn't need language because his humour was that of the human condition and it was understood across the world.

Frederich Froebel said, "Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it, alone, is the free expression of what's in a child's soul." Remember, catch someone laughing and join in. You don't have to be happy to laugh, you are happy because you laugh. What happens to a duck who flies upside down? He's apt to quack up. Laugh and the world laughs with you. A smile is your umbrella. He who laughs, lasts. All work and no play make dull a Jack boy.

Mel Borins is a family physician and public speaker. He is the author of “Go Away-Just for the Health of it” and a new book “Photos and Songs of a Pronoic Physician”. Visit www.melborins.com.

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