The Anatomy of Laughter: 50 Questions Solved by an Economist

2019/12/17

Laughter is a familiar emotional expression, but it is difficult to define when asked what it actually is. Many philosophers and psychologists have struggled to unravel its mystery. They have described laughter as a sense of superiority, mechanical inelasticity, the release of pent-up psychic energy, or the incongruity between expectation and reality. While each explains one aspect of laughter, none are complete. Riddles do not look down on anyone and are not inelastic. Puns are not as grand as a release of energy, and motion sickness arises from an incongruity between expectation and reality but is not funny.

I have always liked rakugo and comedy, so I wanted to research laughter someday. The catalyst was my appearance on the NHK E-Tele program "Oikonomia" with Naoki Matayoshi. Hearing directly from him about the world of comedy inspired me to step into this unknown territory.

The source of laughter lies in the unnaturalness of the world. Laughter is the act of neither ignoring, nor trying to solve, nor getting angry at that unnaturalness. It is accepted by the mind, processed, and finally, the heart is liberated. However, not everyone can laugh at all times. There must be certain conditions to reach that point. After receiving many hints from professors of psychology, brain science, and clinical psychology and reflecting on them, I arrived at two conditions: "familiarity with the subject that caused the unnaturalness" and "non-involvement in the unnaturalness." Because there is familiarity, it is accepted, but because of the non-involvement, one can liberate the heart without becoming deeply entangled. Thus, the "Four-Stage Theory" from the discovery/creation of unnaturalness to the liberation of the heart was completed.

The hurdles to clearing these four stages rise or fall depending on our environment and the state of our own brains. This is the diversity of laughter. The business of laughter can be interpreted as a competition to develop techniques for efficiently lowering these hurdles.

It makes sense that the function of laughter did not atrophy. Humans, who evolved brain functions and acquired high levels of sociality, were simultaneously forced to confront human-specific stress. Laughter, which liberates the heart from unnaturalness, became indispensable for such humans. We who live in the modern age should make more use of laughter.

The Anatomy of Laughter: 50 Questions Solved by an Economist

Takanobu Nakajima

Keio University Press

212 pages, 1,800 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.