The Ultimate Body Language Book

is why it is important to surround ourselves with people that make us feel good. Conversely, we can
become the person others seek to initiate positive feelings, so taking the time to make someone laugh
can have a huge payoff.
Chapter 6 - Smiles and Laughter
Laughing Cycle, Laughing Makes People Laugh
Laughter, it is no surprise, is very contagious. When we hear laughter we often take part, or at the very
least, crack a smile. When we get really caught up in laughter the cycle continues in an open loop
circuit, perpetuating itself until we are unable to breath or are in tears.
Consider the events of 1962 where an outbreak of laughter in Tanganyika Tanzania. It started at a small
boarding school where twelve to eighteen year old school girls started a six month long bout of
laughter. The laughter was so severed the school had to be temporarily closed, but upon its closure, the
children carried the infectious laughter to other parts where it spread to other communities. While
certain logistics makes it impossible to endure such a long bout of laughter, particularly because it
makes eating and sleeping impossible, let alone the acuteness of loss of breath and dizziness which
would occur, it still helps illustrates the infectiousness of the laugh that we have all experienced.
The addition of laugh tracks to television situational comedies is another artifact of our desire to join in
with laughter. If you have ever watched a similar comedy absent of the track or a studio audience, you
will have noticed that it becomes obvious how important laughter is in the jokes effectiveness.
Instinctively during a conversation or joke, we all know exactly the right time to laugh and even laugh,
absent of anything else, still elicits laughter, showing just how pervasive it is.
Chapter 6 - Smiles and Laughter
Theory Of Jokes, Humour And What Is
Appropriate
The theory of how humour works has been extensively studied. The actual numbers of theories and
reasons for making us laugh is well over eighty but some of the more common reasons we laugh
include irony, slapstick, black humour, satire and farce. Most humour though, has roots in surprise, that
is, the joke or physical stunt has a result that we didn’t expect, and so this un-expected result makes us
excited. Sometimes we laugh at the misfortune, stupidity or clumsiness of someone else, because for
that moment, we feel superior to them.
Jokes must always be situational and contextually appropriate. In the right company, almost anything
goes, but when in the office, or around mixed company, censorship is a must. Self deprecating humour
is almost always a good way to open joking because the only victim is oneself. However, during a job
interview, it would be silly to joke about one’s inadequacies. We definitely need to make ourselves
appear more equal to our peers and self jokes can do this. Amongst a new crowed, self deprecating
humour can show that we aren’t uptight or feel superior to others.
In the workplace, dirty, sexist, racial and religious jokes need to be particularly avoided. Men, more so
than women, will welcome sexist jokes, but there are always exceptions to any norm. Most men will
feel uncomfortable with sexist jokes poking fun at women, especially when women are present. Racial