Humor

“Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.”  (Mark Twain, 1835--1910)

• Where do old unicorns go?  To the glitter glue factory.
• What do you call a transsexual rabbi?  Reformed.
• New advertising slogan:  Chick-fil-A, we do chicken rites.
• New state travel slogan:  Missouri loves company

I’ve been doing some serious thinking about humor.  Until recently, I was unaware that ‘humor’ was the subject of serious discourse, not only among comedians, but among philosophers and psychologists.  I can not recall any discussion of humor in my undergraduate Psychology classes.  During medical school I was aware of the work of Norman Cousins who documented the benefits of laughter in his recovery from a serious chronic illness. A little later there was Doctor Patch Adams. But otherwise, humor was not a subject taught in medical school.  Now, 35 years later, I discover that there are courses being taught on The Philosophy of Humor, texts written on The Psychology of Humor, and labs studying the biology of humor.

As a child psychiatrist I had occasion to observe the connection between humor and development.  The baby, mastering object constancy, gets a good laugh from peek-a-boo.  The young child, mastering bodily functions, loves a good poop or fart joke.  Children, as they learn to make friends and identify with groups, often tell jokes ridiculing the outsider.  With cognitive maturity, humor becomes valued for its cleverness and originality.  With old age, bodily function, I fear, is once again the ‘butt’ of jokes.

As a child psychiatrist, I saw humor as a marker of good mental health.  I was always concerned about a child who could not laugh. I was concerned about the parent and child who could not share laughter with one another.  On many occasions, I advised parents to boost their child’s confidence by teaching an important social skill.  I advised them to teach their child to tell a joke.  Many took me seriously.  A few thought I was joking.

I have learned that there is power in humor.  It has power to heal or to wound, to bring together or to alienate, to humanize or to marginalize.  In individuals, laughter has been shown to have power to reduce stress-related hormones, to reduce blood pressure, to help alleviate pain, to improve immunity and, if I recall correctly, even to improve memory.

There is political power in humor.  In a democracy, humor is a force of conscience and accountability.  In a despotic state, it is a threat to government stability.  There was no late-night stand-up comedy in Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union.  I suppose that no ‘bad barber’ jokes are allowed in North Korea.  Beware the government that frowns upon humor.

I once read a book about stand-up comedy.  It said that comedy is mostly about either the hard, the weird, the scary, or the stupid.  Involuntarily my thoughts drifted to politics which, currently, provides abundant material for the hard, weird, scary, and stupid.

So, help me with this one:  The President, the Chief Justice, and the Speaker of the House walk into a bar.  The bartender says, “What’ll you have?”  

I need you to give me the punch line.  I think I just lost my sense of humor.