Laughter...

Last week, my friend came over, for holiday, for visiting, for the reason, the factory she's working in, was closed for a week, for maintenance.
When I went shopping for souvenier with her, she found some car window stickers which were very amusing :-)
Both of us, OH, ESPECIALLY HER, laughed our head off in front of the shop keeper.....

one says, "Born to fish, Forced to work", (well... she did fishing a while ago, so, it really applies to her a lot)
another says, "Who cares WHO's ONBOARD"
the third one say, "Mother-in-Law in BOOT" (haha! I like this one best)

OK... when my friend was here, we (she, my other 2 friends who're already staying here for more than 10 years, and I) laughed a lot for the past week,
(ya, that's why, I ended up, having not enough water, not enough sleep, and even not enough air, now, I'm struggling with my flu!!)
and I came across this sentence in one of the David Hewson's book, "The Sacred Cut", paperback, pg.6
".., in the end, why people laughed at all, because it made the pain go away, if only for a little while."

Why do people laugh?
well... I suppose there're many reasons, however, yep, the above sentence caught my attention, as THAT can be one of the very good reason too...
:-)

Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
"There are two main questions in understanding laughter: how laugher happens (that means what happens in terms of reasoning, language and neurophysiology), and why do we laugh. (In more formal terms, the first question asks for a cognitive model, while the second for a model of appreciation). "
"For Aristotle, we laugh at inferior or ugly individuals, because we feel a joy at being superior to them.
Socrates was reported by Plato as saying that the ridiculous was characterised by a display of self-ignorance. Schopenhauer wrote that it results from an incongruity between a concept and the real object it represents.
Hegel shared almost exactly the same view, but saw the concept as an "appearance" and believed that laughter then totally negates that appearance.
For Freud, laughter is an "economical phenomenon" whose function is to release "psychic energy" that had been wrongly mobilised by incorrect or false expectations.
Philosopher John Morreall theorises that human laughter may have its biological origins as a kind of shared expression of relief at the passing of danger.
Robert A. Heinlein's view of why people laugh is explained in one of his most praised novels, Stranger In A Strange Land, as simply seeing someone being hurt in one form or another. "

However, there is not satisfactory theory of why we laugh yet... but rather, there are quite a few theory of HOW we laugh...
As there are billions of people in the world, I suppose, one can come out with billions of reasons... as every individual is unique.

Sometimes, when I went home, back to my parents, my beloved brothers... I laughed most of the time, as I was amused at their sayings, until they asked me if I have not laughed for the past years...
Maybe, it's because whenever I am with my close family, I am back to my young and little self... carefree, worry-free, I don't have to keep my image... I am basically their clumsy lazy potato couch big sister, and that's all.
I have some friends who could actually give me the same type of 'laugh therapy' as good as my brothers, however, I don't see them as often as before... but we still keep in touch.
Life progress, status changes, these are things that I can't really control, the only thing that I can do, is to make an effort, to always keep in touch with friends...
I have some other friends, where I can laugh with, laugh at, laugh together as well, out of my hometown, however... I know very well that, the laughter is different, I am slightly different as well... the chemistry is different...

This is the reason why I am pretty drawn to 'the reason why people laugh'...
of course, the first thing that trigger me to start wondering is, this saying and insight by David Hewson...

One of my friends sent me these jokes the other day... (for best result, say it out loud) :-D
JOKE 01
An American and a Japanese were sitting on the plane on the way to LA When
the American turned to the Japanese and asked, "What kind of -ese are you?"
The Japanese confused, replied, "Sorry but I don't understand what you
mean."
The American repeated, "What kind of -ese are you?" Again, the Japanese was
confused over he question.
The American, now irritated, then yelled, "What kind of -ese are you...
Are you a Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese! etc......???"
The Japanese then replied, "Oh, I am a Japanese."
A while later the Japanese turned to the American and asked, "What kind of
'key' was he". The American, frustrated, yelled, "What do you mean what
kind of -kee' am I?"
The Japanese said, "Are you a Yankee, donkee, or monkee?"

*MORAL - NEVER INSULT ANYONE*

JOKE 02
A junior manager, a senior manager and their boss are on their way to a
meeting. On their way through a park, they come across a magic lamp. They
rub the lamp and a ghost appears. The ghost says, "Normally, one is granted
three wishes but as you are three, I will allow one wish each"

So the eager senior manager shouted, "I want the first wish. I want to be
in the Bahamas, on a fast boat and have no worries." Pfufffff" and he was
gone.

Now the junior manager could not keep quiet and shouted "I want to be in
Florida with beautiful girls, plenty of food and cocktails." Pfufffff" and
he Was also gone.

The boss calmly said, "I want these two idiots back in the office after
lunch at 12.35pm."

*MORAL OF THE STORY IS: " ALWAYS ALLOW THE BOSSES TO SPEAK FIRST"*