In chapter two of Comedy Writing Secrets, the authors give the reasons why people laugh, well the reasons a psychologist came up with of why people laugh. The two reasons she gave were that we laugh out of surprise and we laugh when we feel superior. She also gave six other motivations for laughter that support the two main reasons. These supporting ideas are that we laugh out of instinct, we laugh at incongruity, we laugh out of ambivalence, we laugh for release, we laugh when we solve a puzzle, and we laugh to regress. All of these statements make for a strong argument of why people laugh.
I find it very interesting that a psychologist has come to the conclusion that people only laugh for two reasons. You would think that there would be many reasons to laugh but if you really think about why you are laughing it will turn out to be one of those two reasons. The knowledge of this theory is good to know when trying to, as Mel Helitzer would say, “write funny”.
The authors did a great job in explaining this idea. If a person understands why people laugh then it will be a lot easier for them to make people laugh. I think this information is very valuable for anybody who wants to be a comedy writer, or anyone who wants to be funny.
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