The brain and humor, and why it’s good for our bodies

“A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life.” ~William Arthur Ward

A little more than a year ago, I was watching television, and I saw this commercial.  Something struck me about this commercial, particularly the main actor.  You know how commercials are — they last only a few seconds and then they are gone.  A few days later, I saw it again.  I thought to myself, “It can’t be…No — it HAS to be…NO WAY!  It is!”

It turns out that the well-known Stanley Steemer Carpet man is no other than Dave Theune.  Dave grew up in a town a few miles from where I lived, and he was involved in a community theatre production that I was a part of back in 1998.  We are the same age, and we had mutual friends, and so through mutual friends and the show we got to know each other a bit.

Dave is absolutely one of the funniest people I know.  He is perfect for the part of the Stanley Steemer Carpet Man, and he has also been in several commercials as well.  This talented artist is also a member of an improvisational comedy troupe, named “Old Milwaukee,” and he now lives in California.  If you have ever tried improvisational acting before, you know very well that it is extremely hard to do, and you need to have a certain mind for that kind of humor and acting.  Dave will be joining me on my radio show Monday, April 2, at 12 PM Central.

I learned how important humor was at reducing stress and improving one’s overall well being.  In chiropractic school, I started out way to seriously, and I didn’t enjoy the learning process.  Fortunately, about half way through my years at school, I met two great guys (thanks Ken and Eric) who helped save my academic career.  They were hilarious.  They showed me how to have fun and laugh a little (or a lot), but also how to balance that with hard work when it needed to be done.

Why is humor so beneficial to us?  What’s going on in the brain and how do we process humor?  Before we look at that, however, we need to look at what humor is.  I would best define humor as the processing of paradoxical or inconsistent data entering the brain.  Kids call it “being silly,” because you are coupling two or more items in a way that is not conventional.  If you tell a child that you saw a horse wearing a dress, the child would tell you that you were silly because horses don’t wear dresses, and they would probably start laughing too.

It turns out that humor is an orchestrated process between several areas of the brain.  When someone is starting to tell a joke (called the setup), it usually starts out in a very logical manner.  This processing of the logical information is done on the left side of the brain.  When the joke ends (called the punchline), the brain realizes that the end of the joke presented an unexpected and unfitting twist.  Our frontal lobes process this information, and then, coupled with the right side of the brain, joins the processing of the left side of the brain to “get” the joke.

The benefits of humor can’t be denied.  Sharing laughter with another person forms a connection between two individuals, which increases happiness and can increase intimacy with others.  Laughter decreases the secretion of stress hormones which are known to suppress the immune system.  The more you laugh and the happier you are, the healthier you generally are.  Laughing can lead to relaxation of muscles, for up to forty-five minutes!  Laughter also releases endorphins, which can alleviate pain and give us feelings of general well being.  Also, laughter is good for the cardiovascular system, because laughter improves blood flow and improves the health of the vasculature.

Whenever I need a good laugh, I just take a look at  myself in the mirror.  I have enough to laugh about for days. 🙂  My daughter and I were being silly one day, and she took the picture you see on the right.  You have to be able to have fun once in a while.  Life’s too short to do otherwise, in my humble opinion.

So now you have an excuse to be a little sillier today.  Your health depends on it!  Have a wonderful, humorous, and happy day!