why is uncontrollable laughter sometimes a reaction to experiencing pain?
In: Biology
Because watching someone else get smacked in the nuts is absolutely hilarious.
Or did you mean experience the pain yourself? ;P
If you think about it nearly all jokes are funny because we relate to them in a way, getting hurt is no different. We all know the embarrassment and pain that come with a slip onto your butt.
The reason we laugh ultimately is because its a social lubricant. It would bring the people in a tribe together, lighten the mood, and it would become a bonding experience.
This gets overrided when someone is seriously injured. We are able to instinctively know when someone is dangerously hurt or if they just more or less bruised their ego.
For some people, laughter can be a stress response, and experiencing pain can be rather stressful.
Laughter is a common stress-coping mechanism. We don’t just laugh at funny things, similar to how when a cat meow’s it doesn’t mean it is happy. (Could be angry, scared, trying to get food).
Or maybe you’re laughing at pain because (for example) you fell 10 feet to the ground but no bones were broken. So you’re happy (laughing) because you only walk away with scrapes and bruises.
Because you learned that all your choices in life make you who you are. Even foolishly playing Dom-Jot against Nausicaans.
Laughing released endorphins which act upon the same receptors in the nervous system as opiates. So it literally makes the pain less bad.
Laughter is a social tool to communicate ‘everything is fine’ – particularly when that might not be obvious, and pain is a warning signal (to yourself) that the is a potential physical threat.
So laughing tells others around your that ‘things arent too bad’ while also decreasing pain because ‘things arent too bad’.
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