3 Comic Relief Take Aways

Here are 3 things that I found most important in Morreal's Comic Relief:

1. The concept of humor as a cognitive shift.
One of the most interesting things that I got from Comic Relief was the pattern of us enjoying a cognitive shift. The pattern basically starts with a cognitive shift, which is a rapid change in our perceptions or thoughts. After the shift, we are in a play mode rather than a serious mode, so we are disengaged from conceptual and practical concerns. Because we are in this play mode, we enjoy this shift, which we express with laughter. This basic pattern is seen in many jokes.

2. Amusement is not an emotion
Morreal explains that the feeling of amusement is not an actual emotion because it does not have the typical characteristics of emotions:
1. Beliefs and desires
2. physiological changes
3. adaptive actions
4 sensations of those physiological changes

His example that really helped me was his story about the eggplant at the market. He saw an eggplant that looked like Richard Nixon's nose. He laughed in his mind about that, but he didn't believe that it was really Richard Nixon's head. He wasn't triggered by fear or anger, and he had no "fight or flight" reactions. To be amused, you don't need to have any of the characteristics of emotions.

3. Laughing is healthy
A lot of people find a lot of laughter foolish or childish. Few people know of the positive physiological effects of laughter. Morreal points out that laughter can reduce stress, blood pressure, muscle tension, and even heart rate. Now that I know this, I can tell my dad he doesn't even need his Lipitor, he just has to laugh at my jokes.

These three things might not be the most profound points that Morreal makes in Comic Relief, but they are things that made me think of humor in a different light. Before this book, I never really thought about why people laugh. Now every time I laugh, I might enjoy that cognitive shift a little more.