Healing with Humor: Those Who Laugh, Last

(Page 3 of 3)

Dec. 5, 2008
By Michael Castleman 
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If you have a particularly funny friend, you might do the same. If not, Goodman and Klein offer these suggestions:

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  • Know your audience. Humor is individual. Psychology Today once published 30 jokes and asked readers to rate them. Responses were all over the map. Every joke was rated “very funny” by some, and “not funny” by others. As the late comedian Henny Youngman once said, “Humor is a form of communication understood by some, and misunderstood by most.”
  • Laugh at yourself. “Those with no sense of humor,” Youngman quipped, “can be very funny.” Of course, they don’t mean to be. When people begin laughing, those who are unintentionally funny may become embarrassed or insulted. If this happens to you, try to step outside yourself and see your gaffe the way your audience sees it. Laugh at yourself and people laugh with you, not at you.
  • Keep it tasteful. Don’t poke fun at anyone’s race, ethnicity, gender, weight, occupation or anything else that’s potentially offensive. Avoid sarcasm and ridicule. If the joke needs a butt, target yourself or an inanimate object.
  • Keep a joke book handy or bookmark a humor Web site, for example Funny Times funnytimes.com and dip into it several times a day.
  • When friends are ill, instead of flowers or food, give a joke book, comedy video or gag items.
  • Look for the absurdities of life. If you look for them, you’ll find them.
  • Encourage others to laugh. Mirth is contagious.

“We don’t laugh because we’re happy. We’re happy because we laugh.” — William James

Resources:

The Humor Project.

The Healing Power of Humor and The Courage to Laugh by Allen Klein. Available from Amazon.com.

Funny Times. This newspaper scours the media for cartoons, jokes and humorous stories.

Association of Applied and Therapeutic Humor. An organization of nurses, psychologists, clergy and social workers who use humor in their work.


Michael Castleman is “one of the nation’s top health writers” (Library Journal). Visit mcastleman.com.
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  • Geoffrey Taylor 12/18/2008 4:52:04 PM

    Having a good time and laughing at the beauty of the world is probably the natural human condition, but it's certain that humankind would not have gotten this far without it. It's a form of communication, all right, and it's disarming. Laughter dissolves tension, relieves stress, melts worry like a blowtorch on butter, and is our best shield against the fear of anything.

    Great story. Good timing for the holidays, when we all need to lighten up a little. Not to dampen the spirit, but these are the good old days. Our pending challenges as individuals and members of society are not to be faced by the faint of heart. Laughter is universal courage. You can find it by merely looking around at the way things are. Not so bad, but a few matters are supremely worthy of our immediate attention. Humor evokes immediate attention. As a way to move readers, Stephen King ranked it right behind Horror.

  • Gene Blair 12/15/2008 11:03:41 AM

    This article confirms what I have believed all my life. No matter what life is throwing your way, there's something funny about it. Even when I was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999. I was being prepared for surgery and the Nurse who came to shave the hair off my abdomen joked that she was the only person who was taking something away that would come back stronger and thicker than before. I laughed and thanked her for reducing my fear. I began to see hope where there was only fear before and i am cancer free now for over nine years. What you say to someone when they are in severe stress makes all the difference in the world.

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