Why, as humans, do we laugh when we hurt ourselves?
In: Biology
our humor response is triggered by “unserious threats”. I.e. your ticklish spots are in pretty dangerous spots on your body, but the light touch is “unserious”. Same for jokes: the setup of a joke presents the “threat” and the punchline will establish the “unserious” quality (matter of fact: when we perceive a joke as in bad taste or offensive, usually its because the “threat” isnt made “unserious” enough for our social views).
Hurting ourselves in ways that arent particularly debilitating follows this same scheme — the injury is a “threat” but if its not debilitating, you may be perceiving it as “unserious”, and so you laugh.
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