HUMOR DRAGONS

I began Meta Reflections on the meta-state of humor by looking at some of the theoretical frameworks about humor and I then identified the state of humor itself as a meta-state involving various meta-states. That’s what makes humor so powerful—while it feels really simple, basic, and primary, it is actually a complex state of mind-and-emotion which can involve numerous complexities of our self-reflexive consciousness. That’s why humor itself jars consciousness as it turns our expectations and understandings upside-down and inside-out. And that’s also why we would normally expect humor to expand and grow as intelligence grows and expands.

But it doesn’t always. It is not always so positive and bright. There’s seems to be a dampening effect so that whether it is in schools, churches, government, politics, industry, or business, the more intellectually complex something becomes, the more serious people get. And when they then become serious, they also become humorless. The humor goes. Things now are serious and “no joking matter.” Now things are in earnest and there’s no time for kidding around. Now things are life-and-death matters and so we banish playfulness, teasing, lightness, joking, etc.

It is for that reason that I wrote the last Meta Reflection and focused on the premise in Neuro- Semantics which heals the dichotomy between humor and seriousness. When we dichotomize seriousness and humor, we rob ourselves of a great resource that keeps us sane and human. If in seriousness we are likely to become “dead” serious, and then stupid, we need humor for balance and perspective.

Humor is that powerful. In terms of power, humor is very powerful. For example, those who torture and brainwash say that if a victim laughs, they have to start all over. In that context, humor powerfully protects our sanity. Humor is also powerful for improving our health and well-being, for expand our ability to mindfully reflect on things, gain inner distance, and keep perspective. Humor can reduce tensions, bond people together, and improve learning and memory.

Well, if humor is that powerful in a positive way, it is inevitable that humor can also be mis-used and abused. It can also be powerful in a negative way. It is inevitably that humor can be used in ugly and hurtful ways—ways that undermine health, sanity, and resourcefulness. In other words, we can turn humor against ourselves in various ways and be consumed by these humor dragons.

James J. Walsh in Laughter and Health writes, “While laughter is a mystery from its mental aspect, it is easy to appreciate its far-reaching physical effects. Laughter makes us feel better for having indulged in it. There seems no doubt that hearty laughter stimulates practically all the large organs, and by making them do their work better through the increase of circulation that follows the vibratory massage which accompanies it, heightens resistive vitality against disease. Besides, the mental effect brushes away the dreads and fears which constitute the basis of so many diseases or complaints and lifts men out of the slough of despond... Laughter makes one expansive in outlook and is very likely to give to the feeling that the future need not be the subject of quite so much solicitude as is usually allowed for it.”

Desacrilizing Dragons Humor is most powerful in the way it can desacrilize. To sacrilize is to see the value and importance of something. It is to gain a perspective of how something is special, valuable, precious, and sacred. So to de-sacrilize is to rob a person, experience, or thing of its value and specialness.

So via humor and laughter, we can laugh things off. We can use humor to dismiss things, fail to treat something as important or serious, and trash it. In this we have to be careful what we laugh at, laugh at precious and sacred things long enough and you can desacrilize it. You can rob it of meaning and significance. That’s why there’s a line of humor and laughter where once we cross it we enter into the area of being sacreligious and blasphemous.

When we apply humor to people, we can laugh at them rather than with them. This leads to the humor that insults, puts-down, and mocks. This is making someone the butt of our joke. This is the vulgar humor that gets us to laugh at another’s misfortune, deformity, weakness, etc. And when we do this, we can thereby violate the dignity and honor of a person and destroy a relationship.

This kind of derisive humor typically tends to be vulgar and scornful. It was this kind of humor that led to the superiority theory of humor that I mentioned earlier. This theory talks about the ugliness of using humor to put oneself up by putting others down and doing so via mocking them and making fun of them. Some stand-up comics use this kind of humor and get by with it because they do it to everyone and do so with a wink of the eye. Yet it is a dangerous kind of humor.

Then there is humor as a defense mechanism. We see this kind of humor in the nervous laughter that occurs when we feel insecure, unsure of things, out of place, etc. One of the first kinds of laughter that was ever studied was hysterical laughter. We often laugh with others or at something as a way to fend it off, to make it laughable to us, something to reject, show disdain to and not deal with.

It is the disarming power of humor itself that in some context can enable us to connect with each other and create a sense of rapport which in other contexts can take advantage of others, manipulate them, and enjoy a laugh at their expense. Humor and laughter, while seemingly non- serious and therefore innocuous are actually powerful and serious. To your healthy and enjoyable humor!