Cinema Without Borders Blogs

The Sensation of Laughter: An Introduction

What makes us laugh?
Have you ever thought about what happens in our brain which creates the effect of laughter?
When we hear a joke, what happens in our brain and why are chemicals pumped in our blood to create the sensation of laughter?
Let’s try it by hearing a joke first, and then I will analyze its effects step by step to understand this sensation.
The Joke: A man approached a TV talk show producer and asked him to be introduced in his show as a man with extraordinary talent.
“What is your extraordinary talent?” the producer asked the man.
“I can count cattle in a zip of a time” the man answered.
“Let’s try you first “
The producer said took the man to a sheep farm and asked him to count the sheep there. The man looked at them and in less than two second he answered: “268 sheep”.
They counted the sheep one by one and to their amazement he was right! There were 268 sheep in that farm yard.
The producer said: “Ok that was too easy. Let’s go to a bigger farm house.”
They went to a much larger place where they had lots of cows.
“Count these now” the producer said. The man looked at them and immediately answered: “3958 cows”.
The producer and his assistants started counting and after about 6 hours, they reached the same number the man had told them, 3958 cows! They were astonished! “I will take you on my show. You are a genius”.
On their way to the studio the producer asked the man: “What is the secret to you counting so fast, can you tell me?”
The man said: “If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone?”
“Sure! I will not tell a soul.”
The man said: “I usually count the feet and then divide the number by four”.
Now if you found this joke funny, I will tell you the secret of laughter next week. Why did you laugh at this joke? What happened in your brain? What made you laugh?…

To be continued Amir Ghahrai