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‘A day without laughter is a day wasted,’ quoted Charlie Chaplin, the most memorable man of the films during the silent age of 1920s with his films so popular and famous around the globe. His appearance as a funny-looking man in The Little Tramp who had no money was always in trouble trying creative ways to get away from these in a humorous manner.
A powerful contagion
Humour helps people let go of the stressful worries and difficulties they face every day. So, giving people a reason to smile is a big deal. This helps line up the people while seeing a clown or a joker in a circus to laugh which is otherwise a daunting skill to bring smiles on the depressed or stressed faces. Seeing two people laughing at a joke you did not hear, will definitely make you smile even if you don’t realise it. It’s contagious.
Deciphering laughter
A duck walks into a bar. Is it a joke? Well, this in itself assess the pleasure and gives the reward of the ‘aha moments’ of defying the expectations. With any humorous punch line, the mind and heart jiggle with mirth and ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitters help for a titter or humour or a laugh sending signals to the brain – Hey! That’s clever, that’s worth it and we laugh.
We laugh
Before we could laugh, perhaps the laughter told the early humans that everything is OK! You may come to my side. Science reveals that laughing marks the pass of danger and we laugh out of relief when we are surprised with the element of the joke. Humour plays role in mood changes and laughter is like a punctuation mark.
To titter is human, to laugh?
Workplaces need not have to be serious. Rather, some humour may improve productivity and well-being. It brings the air of levity and dissolves the tension with collective happiness. Humorous blue-collar leaders are never less influential or less-respected, but certainly are more likeable and more trusted. So, to err is human, to laugh? Divine. It does not matter to God if one considers him the King of Jokes. As ‘He’ is only one who sees the cosmic comedy as sober but happy everlasting mirth.
Gusto-once a day
I need to stretch my cheeks helping exercise my jaws for a couple of minutes. New-born babies smile too by crying and have a spontaneous skill of reflex which the blind babies to possess. Jokes, humour and laughter radiate the eternal glimmer of lightness of the being. One day the joke may be on us.
Is the glass half-empty or half-full? This should be the focus of life. So, hearing a joke next time, whether you get it or not, you must let go yourself and enjoy a good hearty laugh which is good for you as there is always a free pass to your birth-right and incorporate it into your fabric of life and find the same nature in everything.
Jashan Jot Kaur is a researcher at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
