In the story “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor,” by Sherman Alexie, Jimmy uses humor to cope with tragedies in his life, such as his mother-in- law passing away, harassment by the police, and his wife Norma leaving him. Humor is something that is not only used when there is a tragedy event; it is also used in at joyful events for example, at a wedding giving the best man speech. Jimmy uses humor to fulfill the gap in his life that was created by the unfortunate event of him having a tumor. Jimmy is very optimist person, who looks at life as glass half full instead glass half empty by having humor in everything. Humor is something that comes naturally to some people not everyone has this ability; having humor in life can help a person deal with unfortunate events, if the humor is tasteful and used efficiently. Humor is a great asset in a person life; it helps a person to establish a bond with friends and family, also it’s a great tool to motivate a person to face their challenges and keep their head up in the hard times. …show more content…
Humor helps a person to dissolve stressful emotions, it’s a creative way to mentally solve a problem without being depress about the circumstances. Humor encourages a person to realize that there is a problem and something needs to be done about the situation, than a person is not in serious or stressful mode. Sharing your problems with other people helps to ease the pain and with humor added into the problem, helps a person to talk about their feelings and the person who is listening can relax too, because there is somewhat of sense of humor in the problem that does not put the listener in a discomfort position. With this humor mechanism a person can actually realize they have problem and that they have to solve it, instead being depress about the
This shows the aspect of humor because, he wants to show he can do the impossible and become a world renowned scientist for solving one of man- kinds many ailments. Such as skin ailment and /or paralysis among other aliments he thinks of. He also develops a life under the use and abuse of drugs, crystal meth. He identifies himself with drugs, falling to the drug addict status, which impacts his life on a different setting, further explaining that he felt down after his dealer in drugs fly’s out of the country.
When there is humor involved people seem to enjoy things way better, the reason for this is that people will
The. In this short story, the narrator, Jimmy Many Horses, who suffers from terminal cancer, keeps joking about his tumor, telling his wife, Norma, that “[his] favorite tumor was just about the size of a baseball, shaped like one, too. Evan had stitch marks” (157). Norma, who cannot tolerate Jimmy’s jokes about his cancer, leaves Jimmy and goes to Arlee, yet she later comes back to Jimmy because the person she lives with in Arlee is too serious. Humor plays an important role throughout this story; at the end of the story, it is again humor which improves the relationship between Jimmy and Norma.
“The practical disengagement of humor…helps explain the opposition between amusement and negative emotions.” (530) There are three effects of humor; irresponsibility, blocking compassion, and promoting prejudice. Humor can take away what we are/should be doing in life and sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with that. Sometimes when we hear a hateful thing we just laugh it off as if it was no big deal when it really was. “An
In “Turkeys in the Kitchen,” an essay written by Dave Barry, humor is used as an aid to make a point about the usefulness of men after Women’s Liberation. “A Plague of Tics,” a personal narrative written by David Sedaris, uses a different kind of humor to explain the reasoning behind his behavior. Through these two essays and their author’s personal experiences, humor is presented as a device to captivate reader’s attention and declare the author’s intended meaning.
Laughter is a very complex process. We don’t ever think about it, but our bodies can use up to 80 muscles. Meanwhile, body structures and systems of the brain, such as the limbic system are hard at work also. Although it is a rather difficult method, whenever our body produces laughter, it helps us in more ways than just one. It can help us physically by releasing endorphins, lowering the chances of heart attacks, and even our immune system. It can help us both mentally and socially as well, building great relationships and by releasing stress. If the human race did not laugh, more and more people would die of things such as heart disease or even depression. Most people can agree, without laughter, our world would be a much darker place. It’d definitely be an unhealthy society.
Steve Almond’s “Funny is the New Deep” talks of the role that comedy has in our current society, and most certainly, it plays a huge role here. Namely, through what Almond [Aristotle?] calls the “comic impulse”, we as a people can speak of topics that would otherwise make many of uncomfortable. Almond deems the comic impulse as the most surefire way to keep heavy situations from becoming too foreboding. The comic impulse itself stems from our ability and unconscious need to defend and thus contend with the feeling of tragedy. As such, instead of rather forcing out humor, he implies that humor is something that is not consciously forced out from an author, but instead is more of a subconscious entity, coming out on its own. Almond emphasizes
Various populations can benefit from the therapeutic use of humor, often it is used with either the exceptionally young or old populations, but the benefits of humor extend beyond age and gender limits. Commonly, it’s implemented in young populations with severe to mild physical or mental disabilities or with those experiencing serious and terminal illness (Saper, 1990). Humor is used as a method of coping with or coming to terms with life changing illnesses for both old an...
Laughing is resorted to in times where we need to laugh. It’s an escape from reality, its comfort, its fear. Laughing subdues any emotion that is too high strung in our system. It lets it vapor out in a melancholy form that helps us cope with problems that no one else can really understand and help us with. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest it allowed emotional tension escape from the patients and made nurse Ratched lose her ward.
Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental.
Methods and Procedures: To carry this study out, they used event history techniques in order to analyze humor attempts and successes. They did this using groups of 6 people each. They further used their results with their insights on status and emotion to develop a new theory (talked about in the Background and Purpose section above). Once this theory was developed, they examined what they had from the additional data from the group discussions. Many ways that they came up with their findings in the research was by using bar graphs to plot their knowledge.
Richman, J. The lifesaving function of humor with the depressed and suicidal elderly. Gerontologist 35(2): 271 (1995).
Feeling down and depressed? Laugh all those troubles away. Laughter is a simple yet substantial way of putting that little spring back in the step. When people say “Laughter is the best medicine,” what are they referring to? Laughing acts as calorie burner, prevents heart disease or other illnesses, can increase learning abilities and focus, or even bring a more optimistic outlook on life.
Humor is the tendency to look at things from the mirthful or incongruous side. It is the quality that makes something laughable or amusing. Humor is the ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing or comical. It is the source of laughter and the catalyst of smiles. Humor is the spark that lights our eyes as well as the cause of tears that never grows old. Humor is a state of mind.
If there is one way to bring a smile to someone’s face, it is laughter. Funny jokes, comical stunts, sarcasm- Every person is different when it comes to what makes them laugh. Some find dry humor comical. Others think sarcasm or joke-filled ranting are the best. ‘Comedy’ is such a broad term, broad enough to allow everyone to find something they find comical. In fact, ‘comedy’ includes a specific type of drama, one where the protagonist is joyful and happy endings are expected. Comedy is like a drug; it allows you to escape reality. When we say the word ‘comedy’ in the present, we are generally referring to a type of performance which provides humor. However, in its broadest sense, comedy has only one purpose: comedy makes people smile and