Writers Workshop

HUMOR

Humor dates back to the Middle Ages, according to my trusty computer, Webster’s.  “It states that it was believed that a person’s health and disposition were the result of a balance of four fluids in the body, “humors” from the Latin word “humor,” meaning “moisture.”  The four fluids were blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. 

If a person had a cheerful disposition, it was said to be a result of an excess of blood. 

A sluggish disposition was the result of an excess of phlegm. 

A hot tempered disposition was said to be caused by an excess of yellow bile, and the disposition of a gloomy person was the result of an excess of black bile. 

In time, humor came to be used as a general term for “disposition” or “temperament.” 

From this developed the sense of “a changeable state of mind” or “mood.”  More recently humor has come to refer to something that is funny. 

Laughing then stirs up the four humors, cleaning, and exercising the inner beings.  Ancient and medieval psychology indicated that one of the four fluids were believed to enter the constitution of the body and to determine by their relative proportions a person’s health and temperament. 

Wit, humor, irony, sarcasm, repartee means a mode of expression intended to arouse amusement.  It suggests the power to evoke laughter by remarks showing verbal facility or ingenuity and swift perception, especially of the incongruous.”  Of course what is funny to me may not be funny to others.  An article in the Whole Health Library, “The Healing Benefits of Humor and Laughter” reflects that in the 1970’s Norman Cousins, a journalist, had markedly improved his symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis through the use of humor.  He regularly watched Marx Brothers movies.  His book, “Anatomy of an Illness” contributed to an increasing interest in healing and laughter.”  Want to exercise your innards and see if humor and laughter works for you?  You may want to try some suggestions as stated in Mindful Awareness Moment: 

How many times do you have a good laugh?  Is it enough?  How often do you make others laugh?  How often for your colleagues, and how often do you make family members and friends laugh? 

Who makes you laugh? 

Do you ever use dark humor to cope with stresses at work or at home or out and about?  Are you careful to laugh with others, rather than at them? 

Do you ever recommend more humor to others? 

Do you think laughter truly is the best medicine? 

Laughter and humor indicates that it can have an inverse association of coronary heart disease and propensity to lower heart attack.  A 2018 study found that laughter therapy effectively delays cardiovascular complications of type 2 diabetes.  Watching a comedy show decreased overall rise in glucose levels after eating. 

Higher propensity to laugh correlates with fewer episodes of arrhythmias in MIs, myocardial infraction, during recurrent cardiac rehabilitation.  Laughter increases pain tolerance.  Laughter therapy improved self-esteem and mood in cancer patients according to a 2015 trial.  Watching a funny movie decreased bronchial responsiveness.

  Laughter and clowning reduced hyperinflation of the lungs in people with severe Chronic Obstructional Pulmonary Disorder, COPD. 

Laughter reduces stress and anxiety, and agitation. 

It can increase happiness, lead to increased learning ability, delayed recall and visual recognition per a study of older adults. 

Comedy improv training led to subjective improvements in symptoms of patients with Parkinson’s Disease. 

A study of 30 people with schizophrenia found that 10 hours of humor skill training can improve outcomes and sense of humor (including change in negative symptoms). 

Laughter decreases inflammation and it can reduce wheal or skin swelling.”  And the list goes on. 

Sounds like laughter is the “go to cure for whatever ails you.  In case you haven’t heard, a frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller.  He can see from her nameplate that her name is Patricia Whack.  “Miss Whack, I’d like to get a $10,000 loan to take a Holiday.”  Patty looks at the frog in disbelief and asks his name.  The frog says his name is Kermit Jagger; his dad is Mick Jagger, and that it’s OK, he knows the bank manager.  Patty explains that he will need to secure the loan with more collateral.  The frog says, “Sure.  I have this,” and produces a tiny porcelain elephant, about half an inch tall, bright pink and perfectly formed.  Very confused, Patty exclaims that she’ll have to consult with the bank manager and disappears into a back office.  She finds the manager and says, “There’s a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $10,000, and he wants to use this as collateral.”  She holds up the tiny pink elephant.  The bank manager looks back at her and says, “It’s a knick-knack, Patty Whack, give the frog a loan. His old man’s a Rolling Stone.” 

Get more inner exercise.  Keep laughing. 

— Carol Beason is a Washington State University Master Gardener.