The Importance of Humor On Happiness

Hi, I’m Paul Krismer, I’m your happiness expert and this week, I’m going to talk about entertainment and how you can have fun in your life. I’m in a city that’s all about fun and celebration, partying, and all that kind of stuff. It’s a funny thing, I moved to Vegas a little over two years ago and this is not a word of a lie, I have not spent a single nickel on gambling. At first, it wasn’t really intentional, I just didn’t have any interest when I first got here. Then after many months had gone by, I said, “Hey, this is actually a good thing that I’m not wasting money gambling.” So, I made a decision, I’m not going to gamble, and I just haven’t.

However, gambling is such a small element of the entertainment that’s to be found in this city. In spite of the huge sums of money, billions of dollars that the casinos take in, they also provide a lot of attractions to get you to the casino so that you can gamble. Tonight, I’m going out to a comedy club. I’ve been to a few here in Vegas, and of course, Vegas attracts really high-quality acts. So, I expect we’re going to have a great time, laugh a lot, and just enjoy our time together.

The interesting thing is that when you’re enjoying comedy, it’s less about the comic on the stage and usually more about the connection you feel with the people that you’re there watching the comic with, and even the crowd as a whole. Humor has this bizarre, high-quality happiness enhancing effect in our lives. Very briefly, that’s what this video is going to be about, so stay tuned, it’s coming right up. Thank you.

As international public speakers and best-selling authors, stay tuned to hear Paul and Jackson teach the practical science behind happiness and success. I saw this very interesting article in The Atlantic, and David will include a link in the description below. It was all about how humor has been studied. One of the observations, of course, is that if you study a joke, it ceases to be funny, and of course, that’s totally true. It’s the spontaneity of humor that makes us laugh, and it’s often the incongruity of something. We expect one thing and the comic turns us in another direction, or your best friend, or your boss, or your colleague, or whatever, or your kid. All those things make us laugh. Sometimes when you dissect the joke, you realize there was nothing funny about it. It was simply that two people had an unexpected event occur at the same time, and we laugh. It’s just socially binding.

If two people are walking along on a path together and they’re just enjoying a conversation, and then a big frog hops onto the path in front of them and hops away again, how will those people react? Well, frequently, they would simply laugh out loud. There’s nothing particularly funny about a frog hopping on a path, but it was unexpected. It was incongruent with the conversation and the trajectory of our walk. It was a surprise, and so we laugh. That is the interesting thing about humor, it’s the social bond that it connects. Of course, it also physically moves our body too. So, it creates, especially if it’s a big series of belly laughs, hopefully the comics tonight get us there. Then we get a whole bunch of physical releases, endorphins and dopamine as a result as well.

There’s even been lots of academic study about comedy and humor. One of the really interesting ones that I thought was just fascinating in this article was they took a group of senior citizens, selected them to be a part of the experiment, and then had another group of senior citizens that were the control group. The study group had exposure for eight weeks to humorous stories, daily jokes, and just lots of funny stuff going on for them. At the end of eight weeks, that study group was 42 percent happier, and a full 35 happier than the control group. I love how things that make just common sense and they seem like, “Of course, this is true,” but when we bring up the science to support it and just say, “Yeah, we can objectively prove this to be true,” well then maybe it’s instructive to us. It tells us to go out and look for opportunities to have fun and humor in our lives.

I like all kinds of movies, but I prefer comedies. I like hanging out with all kinds of people, but I really like hanging out with people who have a good sense of humor. I also know that even in my work, when I’m light-hearted and cheerful, looking for funny odd things to say that are incongruent and surprising in the context of a social setting, it entertains other people. The interesting thing is, you don’t have to be funny to get all this benefit. It’s not about being funny. In fact, some people would suggest it’s a lot of comics are maybe a little bit on a weird end of the spectrum, a little less than normal emotional states. It’s not about being the comic, it’s about being free to be in an amusing, positive environment yourself, and letting yourself laugh when you can. Then go ahead and let loose, and tell a few jokes yourself because other people around you will enjoy that.

I hope this is helpful content. I especially think about it in workplaces where so often we’re too serious, too focused on productivity, quality outcomes, and profitability. All these things that are the grind. If we can just be a little bit light-hearted at work and not take ourselves too seriously, how much better could life be? That’s it for this week. If you like this kind of content, click the like button, share it with your friends and family, and we’ll see you again next week. Bye for now.