"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." Mark Twain
It’s not mentioned in the mental health world with all the meditation and the morning sunlight and the nature walks. But I believe humor is as good a tool as any when navigating through this complex (wonky) world.
When thinking about these popular ‘protocols’ that are effective in improving mental well-being, there’s a common theme: they can help remove us from our narrow-minded, self-absorbed perspectives. As Arthur C. Brooks (Harvard professor, bestselling author) explains it - “what we need is a sense of the transcendent that makes us small.”
Take meditation for example, a practice commonly associated with ego-dissolution.
Nature, through its awe-inspiring quality, can also have the effect of making us feel small and part of something bigger. Like the problems we’ve been dwelling on aren’t as important as the voice inside our head has led us to believe.
Our default perspective as humans is to focus inward: me, me me, mine, mine, mine - this horribly bad traffic is annoying to me; this atrociously long line at the grocery is ruining my day; and so on and so forth.
I believe that humor has this same ability to remove us from our narrow-minded perspective, though not completely and only temporarily. And it may be the most accessible tool we have.
A well-crafted sense of humor helps us see the problems we’ve been caught up with in a more realistic way. It can also help us become less rigidly attached to the beliefs we hold as certain.
Research shows that laughter also has physiological benefits. I’m pretty dumb, so I’ll let Alvin Powell from the Harvard Gazette take it away:
“Psychologically, it improves mood almost immediately and lowers stress and anxiety. Physically, it lowers cortisol levels, the stress hormone, while raising the “feel good” neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.”
So no matter how you see it, humor is a helpful tool to cultivate in oneself. As Harvard Psychologist Natalie Dattilo explains: “Health care is expensive. If we can find a tool that is as simple as laughter, that is free for the most part, with no side effects, and has no contraindications, that would be really great.”
Humor & the Holocaust
“Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation.” Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl, an influential Austrian psychiatrist, spent three years in four concentration camps. His classic book Man’s Search for Meaning describes his experience through the holocaust and the profound impact on meaning in a person’s life.
These are his thoughts on humor:
“It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.”
During the unimaginable suffering through his time in the camps, Frankl recognized how powerful a tool humor is. The following story shows how Frankl used it:
I practically trained a friend of mine who worked next to me on the building site to develop a sense of humor. I suggested to him that we would promise each other to invent at least one amusing story daily, about some incident that could happen one day after our liberation.
He was a surgeon and had been an assistant on the staff of a large hospital. So I once tried to get him to smile by describing to him how he would be unable to lose the habits of camp life when he returned to his former work. On the building site (especially when the supervisor made his tour of inspection) the foreman encouraged us to work faster by shouting: “Action! Action!”
I told my friend, “One day you will be back in the operating room, performing a big abdominal operation. Suddenly an orderly will rush in announcing the arrival of the senior surgeon by shouting, ‘Action! Action!’
I think this story highlights an uncommon perspective on humor. We tend to think about our sense of humor as something innate to us - some people have it, others don’t. And something I find funny may not be funny to you, that’s just how it works.
But in this story, Frankl treats his friend’s sense of humor as something to be developed as a tool for his survival. Later in the same book, Frankl refers to humor as “a trick learned while mastering the art of living.”
And it’s an idea that could be seen as offensive - one friend (Frankl), encouraging another to make light of the terrible circumstances they’ve been forced to endure. Especially in an age when there is so much weight given to the title of “victim.”
So I wouldn’t necessarily encourage others to use humor as a tool when facing their own hardships. I can only imagine negative outcomes if I were to do that. But I can take this advice for myself and hope that when the time comes when I’m inevitably faced with grief and hardship, I can yield this tool.
The entire perspective Frankl takes on humor changed my own. Thinking of humor as something to cultivate, not just for laughs, but for resilience. When further researching this topic (aka doing one single Google Search), I found this quote from Drs. Steven J. Wolin and Sybil Wolin’s book, The Resilient Self:
“When we notice the humor in a situation, we are in an observant role. It takes a little bit of psychological distance in order to see the humor in ourselves and our circumstances.”
To me, it makes sense that this is why humor can be so effective. The authors continue:
“At the same time, humor isn’t exactly escapist; it doesn’t deny the awfulness of adversity.
For example, people who have shared a difficult experience often share a gallows humor: jokes and wit about their suffering that are only appropriate to be told by and among those who have shared the adversity.
This in-group humor can help acknowledge and dispel negative emotions and strengthen social support among people who have come through trauma and challenges. It can also be a way for people who have survived a difficult experience to mentor and encourage those who are still going through it.”
Coping with Life
“Our life has become so mechanized and electronified that one needs some kind of an elixir to make it bearable at all. And what is this elixir if not humor?” László Feleki
When viewing humor as a tool, the idea that some things just can’t be joked about makes less sense.
By not allowing ourselves to laugh at the tragic things, we remove a valuable tool in facing tragedy when it inevitably comes knocking.
I understand that the act of not laughing at something can be a powerful signal of one’s beliefs. Standing against a specific joke in a sort of rebellion puts an even bigger exclamation mark on your convictions. But I hope that these people, who are unwilling to laugh at the horrible in public, are still able to yield this tool behind closed doors.
And humor isn’t just a tool for dealing with tragedy. Here’s a a quote I found from US Army Ranger, Joe Asher about how humor got him through his incredibly difficult training:
“If I can laugh once a day, every day I’m in Ranger School, I’ll make it through.”
It gives us the ability to endure difficulty. And this isn’t just beneficial for you, it’s what we need as a society. Wade Davis, the famed Canadian anthropologist, says that “pessimism is an indulgence.” While this can seem like a harsh statement under many conditions, I think it’s ultimately a good pithy saying to live by.
Pessimism isn’t just negative for ourselves but also the world around us. Humanity’s greatness lies in our ability to develop innovative, previously unimaginable, solutions to hard problems. I believe that pessimism can block our innate propensity to devise these creative solutions.
And I’m not saying that a lack of a sense of humor necessarily leads to pessimism - but I do think that humor is a good way of avoiding that, even (or especially) in situations when brutal reality may seem to call for nothing but pessimism.
So don’t look on the bright side of things. Look on the funny side.
Another quote from Frankl to sum up:
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Viktor Frankl