Philadelphia, PA

Dear Pawlik,

In my impression and experience, appreciation of humor depends on a very high level of accomplishment in a second language. The reason seems to be that you have to know a great deal about what those who share humor --what they know and believe--and how it is expressed.

There is a famous British-American example which helps make the point. I thinking of the American comedian Johnny Carson who hosted a late night TV program, every night for many years --usually starting with a very successful stand-up comedy sketch. As I recall, they tried broadcasting the program in GB, and it simply fell flat. Very few people could understand the humor --which often depended on what are called "running jokes."

The British comedy show, based on the humor of Benny Hill, had similar problems with general audiences in the U.S., though it was better received on "high-brow" public television.

The general conclusion I'd suggest is that humor is highly contextual and tends toward dependence on the culturally specific.

H.G. Callaway

Dear Béatrice Pawlowski Pawlik,

This is due to cultural differences, different mentality, different interpretations of certain concepts and behaviors, different historical conditions of culture, etc.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

طبعا الناس يختلفون في الضحك والمزاح ، ليس على مستوى الثقافات المتعددة ، وانما على نوع الشخصية كذلك ، بعض الناس لا يتقبل الضحك بنفس السلاسة التي يتقبلها اخرين ،. لكن الاختلاف وارد مثله مثل اللغة ، و الازياء ، التي يتمتع به كل مجتمع ، الثقافة الشعبية مزيج معقد من الافكار و المعلومات و الموروث و مستوى التعليم التي تنتج المناخ المناسب للضحك .

There are many factors which play role such as religious terms, cultural differences, different mentality and mind set up, behaviour differences and different interpretations of certain concepts and the list goes on ....

Each community, group has a distinctive culture of its own. As we all know culture includes everything, it is the total way of life. As we have different food habits, dress patterns, religious beliefs and practices, so also different emotions, feelings and family bonds. Laughter is a form of human emotion, which may vary from group to group , individual to individual depending upon varied situations and of course culture. Béatrice Pawlowski Pawlik

Thank you for all your feedback ! It is very helpful ! Do you know experts who worked the perception of laughter in different cultures ? Thanks again for your comments !

I have always had the impression that Italians, compared to North Americans, appreciate language creativity and playfulness more than slapstick. The focus of Italian comedy, starting probably with great comedian Toto' is on language, especially during the second part of his career. Just my opinion though. Others might easily disagree. Very interesting topic.

Could we start by asking what humans use laughter for? It seems to me to communicate from one person to another a shared distancing from something they both observe. This can be a part of their shared exploration of where each stands, so it unites those who can both laugh at a third party. It also marks a lightening of emotional engagements, taking a serious issue to a shallower and less damaging level. It can relax social tensions, like those widespread phrases 'no matter', 'ca ne fait rien', 'fa niente'. Some societies laugh through embarrassment; I think this use may be found in Japan, at the risk of stereotyping. The actual content of what is laughed at varies locally. By making something laughable we establish our distance from it, and possibly our opposition to it. By laughing at all of our neighbours we consolidate our local unity.

This is an interesting question which remains quite under-researched I believe. Before analysing the various ways people laugh across cultures, I think it is essential to investigate the meaning of laughter across cultures. We may laugh as an answer to humour (which is itself a tricky topic in our field), but it can be also a laughter of embarrassment in a culture where saving Face is paramount.

Dear Ms. Pawlik,

Attached you find an interesting article (in Czech) from my friend and collegue, the Czech-German writer Jan FAKTOR (Berlin), about speech & intonation in the Czech population and culture, which might help you with your analysis.

Srdečně zdraví

David Chmelík

www.slavonic-europe.org

Culture

I think that, to offer a naturalistic account of laughter, it is far more interesting to investigate the common origin of laughter between different cultures and in animals, rather than starting from the differences. Until now, philosophers have often assumed that laughter was a unique human behavior (today the vast majority of scholars believe that this is not true). Also note that, as Provine often said, scholars typically investigate humor, not laughter, underestimating the difference between the two phenomena. Hence they misjudged its primarily affiliation and communication function (which we share with other animals). Together with Elisabetta Palagi and Frans de Waal, I am currently working on a Special Issue focusing on a naturalistic and evolutionarily sound approach to laughter, also highlighting cultural differences but mainly focusing on common social and communication functions.

you can find some ideas that go in this direction here:

Chapter Emotional Mirroring Promotes Social Bonding and Social Habit...

Article Mirroring other’s laughter. Cingulate, opercular and tempora...

Article Two Neural Networks for Laughter: A Tractography Study

Cultural norms and values differ from place to place and they are influenced by religion, received and assumed ethnic mentality and social (de)construction of what is moral. Just as this are different from place to place, so also do the codes that govern laughter and what is funny differ. While someone can laugh at nudity is some cultures, it is deemed profane an obscene in another. So, to sum up, the difference in cultural values mean that the laughter will also be different.

We become accustomed to laughter as a native language, taking it as a natural acquisition. Nevertheless, man is born without knowing how to speak. Nor is he able to laugh.

Laughter is not as natural as breathing. Laughter is one of the tools of human communication. Depending on the specifics of the history of society, the specifics of the formation of the cultural code:

1) different situations in different cultures are recognized as funny or unfunny;

2) a person expresses laughter in different ways - in different behavior accepted in the culture to which the person belongs.

Dear Dr. Béatrice Pawlowski Pawlik

Undoubtedly, there are certain interpersonal and intercultural codes in the manifestation and perception of the act of laughing" as well as evidence and point out the power relations in unequal environments that very well can lead to the opposite. What is laughter? How is laughter communicated? Why don't we hold back in reflecting before performing the act of laughing? The act of laughing arises spontaneously at the moment in which we greet with gallantry at the moment of shaking hands with someone and we continuously observe it in images of high-ranking leaders worldwide and it is an act of gallantry that follows its protocol at an apparent moment of total normality, also in unequal power relations and all this also suggests models of interculturality that are hardly perceived but when an "intercultural clash" occurs and the people continue to smile so as not to "look bad" at the "diplomatic" moment that touches us represent in any silent communication. It is not only a business of intercultural diplomacy, the act of laughing on a daily basis is usually contagious and is a good therapy to make day to day bearable

Cf.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0533316422115021

Article Learning about humour

Perhaps you would like to look at my edited book, Humour, Comedy and Laughter. Oxford, Berghahn Books 2016

Cultural differences are in fact very interesting and very revealing!

The significance of laughter in culture

The article examines the significance and funcitonal features of laughter in culture and laughter culture, as represented in ritual and spectacle forms, verbal works and familial speech.

https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/znachenie-smeha-v-kulture

https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/znachenie-smeha-v-kulture/viewer

The role of laughter in different cultures

There are two fundamentally different perspectives on laughter due to two different cultures. These are the ancient and Christian traditions. In antiquity, comedy and laughter as a genre were respected. Rather, laughter was based on the mockery of everyday things or political events. To antiquity, laughter was a light-hearted sentiment. For Christianity, it plays exactly the opposite role.

Let's try to find the so-called "antithesis of laughter", that is, something opposite to it. Traditionally, I am referring to the culture in which we still live, which is based on Christian customs, laughter and lament, the comic and the tragic are opposed. The Venerable John wrote in The Ladder: "If nothing is so consistent with humility as weeping: surely nothing opposes it so much as laughter. Weeping is an expression of a bad condition: longing, sadness, grief, suffering (even "tears of joy" as a sign are usually associated with inner distress and therefore not an exception). Laughter, in my opinion, carries more meaning than tears in the signifier. So their opposition would remain at the level of external manifestations. At the same time, for Christianity it was clear that one of the meanings of tears was purification (take for example the "Parable of the Feast of Simon the Pharisee", which tells of the sinner who washed Christ's feet with her tears, which helped her obtain forgiveness), good, while laughter was associated with the devil's laughter, a demonic smile and was naturally equated with evil. Christianity has called the devil "God's monkey". This reduction technique makes the image of the devil not fearful. The monkey denotes likeness, caricature, imitation - all this slightly reduces the image of the original, which, on the other hand, does not prevent the viewer from laughing at both the original and his caricature [1].

https://studbooks.net/723115/kulturologiya/rol_smeha_raznyh_kulturah

Jiang T, Li H, Hou Y. 2019 Cultural differences in humor perception, usage, and implications. Front. Psychol. 10, 123. (doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00123)

BUT,,,

I need articles that use experimental design for reducing Fearing laughter Gelotophobia at college students or others.......

I'm enjoying the variety of answers to this question. I think it's also useful to consider that laughter does not always imply humour, happiness or agreement. It can be an expression of nervousness or discomfort, and this again differs between cultures.

“Laughter is one of humanity's most ‘animalistic’ expressions. We go crazy. We become limp, lean on each other, turn red and shed tears to the point that the line with crying vanishes. We literally pee in our pants!”

A 2022 study by researchers Elisabetta Palagi, Fausto Caruana, and Frans de Waal contributes to an exploration of why we joke around, and what makes little kids so funny...

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2021.0175

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/open-questions/why-are-kids-so-funny