Signs of Happiness

The joy of laughter is all around us/everywhere nowadays. From the front page of reddit.com to the lecture of my college classes. Humor have it’s way into sneaking into our lives no matter where we head. But what is humor, and why do we laugh at the thing we laugh at. According to John Morreal laughter is a cause by the sudden change to happiness or greatness “Laughter result from a pleasant Pscyological shift Morreall (249)”. Morreall states that this theory applies to nearly all laughter. It does not matter what age nor situation somebody is in, this theory applies to it all. For example, he states that a baby laugh at a game of peekaboo because the baby feels the sudden change of somebody disappearing and reappearing.But the baby will only feel this joy of sudden shift by the presence reappearing. The baby will feel despair if the shift have gone another direction and the pleasant presence does not appear. I do agree with Morreall theory of laughter that laughter mostly result from a pleasant physiological shift.

Morreal other reason for laughter is being forced into it by a social situation. “ But the muscle involved in laughing are voluntary muscle, and so can laughter be perform as an action of independently of our being in any particular situation, Morreall (252)” Most of us can relate to this theory. We have all been in a situation where have to laugh because it was appropriate. For example when a famous comedian came perform at my college. Even though I did not find his act funny . I had to laugh because everybody around me was laughing. I did not want to be the person with a neutral expression on his face while everybody was having a good time laughing. So I force myself to laugh because it was appropriate in tha...

... middle of paper ...

...able to express this emotion everywhere. We are able to show respect and trust to each other through this action.“As in laughing and broadly smiling the cheeks and upper lip are much raised, the nose appears to be shortened, and the skin on the bridge becomes finely wrinkled in transverse lines, with other oblique longitudinal lines on the sides. The upper front teeth are commonly exposed. A well-marked naso-labial fold is formed, which runs from the wing of each nostril to the corner of the mouth; and this fold is often double in old persons. Darwin 812” This laughter that is caused by the sudden pleasant Psychological shift might have saved our ancestors lives.

Laughter being appearance of happiness might also explain why people fake laugh. By faking our laugh, we will appear harmless to other people. This deception greatly increase trust between each other.