Radiolab
Laughter
Show #401
Friday, February 22, 2008
We all laugh. But why? If you look closely, you'll find that humor has very little to do with it. In this episode, we explore the power of laughter to calm us, bond us to one another, or to spread... like a virus. Along the way, we tickle some rats, listen in on a baby's first laugh, talk to a group of professional laughers, and travel to Tanzania to investigate an outbreak of contagious laughter.
Is Laughter just a Human Thing?
Aristotle thought that laughter is what separates us from the beasts, and that a baby does not have a SOUL, until the moment it laughs for the first time. Historian Barry Sanders, author of Sudden Glory, says that according to Aristotle, this moment of "human ensouling" is supposed to happen when a baby is 40 days old. We follow radio producer Amanda Aronczyk as she tests this theory on her newborn baby.
Then we go to Bowling Green State University in Ohio, to tickle rats with psychobiologist Dr. Jaak Panksepp. It's his notion that laughter is found all across the animal kindgom. Boom, Aristotle! Then Dr. Robert Provine, author of Laughter: A Scientific Investigation, shows us chimps who seem to be laughing. Boom Boom!
We also get the giggles with a bit of archival tape from comedians Elaine May and Mike Nichols. And Tyler Stillman, a psychologist at Florida State University, eloquently delineates the awesomeness of laughter.
More on Dr. Panksepp's research
More on Dr. Provine's research
Sounds of babies laughing
Elaine May and Mike Nichols will sell you a fridge
LOOK! Mina jumps for Radiolab
How Does Laughing Affect Us?
In this segment, we explore the rise and fall of a group of professional laughers hired to laugh for money on Fran Drescher's show "The Nanny." Then JoAnne Bachorowski, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University, says that giggling girls have more power than you think. She studies the sound of laughter, and explains how we use laughter to manipulate other people, or, says Barry Sanders, to make ourselves feel safe.
Fran Drescher's Cancer Schmancer Movement
The French School of Laughing, World Laughter Day
JoAnne Bachorowski's Laughter Recordings
Contagious Laughter
We travel across the ocean and back to the year 1962, to a girl's boarding school on the outskirts of a rural village in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), where an epidemic of contagious laughter broke out. Producer Ellen Horne investigates and her search for an explanation brings us back to the idea that laughter is social mechanism that responds to more than comedy...communicates more than mere merriment.
Special thanks to Christian Hempelmann for his work on this subject. You can read his paper on the the laughter epidemic here.
Provine Article on Contagious Laughter
Video of Contagious Laughter on Stage
Medical Jounral Article on the Tanzania Laughter Outbreak
Visitor Information for Tanzania
Support Our Tanzania Translator's Soccer Team
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