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The Human Condition

Laughter is a Time Machine

Mark Weeks sees the funny side of suspended animation.

In the film The Bucket List, two terminally ill men work on a list of the experiences they’d like to have before they kick the bucket. One of the things they come up with is to have a really good laugh: laughing to the point of tears; a laughter that lets go of everything. Most of us can relate to that: there’s something special, other-worldly about an unrestrained mind-shaking laugh. The weird thing is that if you read through the academic literature on laughter or humour – and there’s quite a lot of it – you get almost no sense at all of why laughter can be such an intense and transforming event. Some of the serious literature on the subject misses the point to such an extent that it’s, well, laughable.

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