Bergson, laughter and personal well-being

They say that the conference that the French philosopher and Nobel Prize for Literature 1927 Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was going to give in New York generated so much expectation among the public that it paralyzed traffic around Broadway Street.

Bergson had a reputation as a good orator and drew huge audiences. This is not a frequent phenomenon, because philosophers are considered brainy and intelligent, but rather boring. However, when they are entertained, their ability to summon is extraordinary.

laughter and philosophy

Possibly, Socrates was also entertaining, as Michael Sandel is today, who fills large audiences. It was also the case with Professor of Law Ronald Dworkin, my tutor at Oxford University, whose classes were always overcrowded.

One of Bergson’s most curious works is Laughter: an essay on the meaning of comedybut he was not the first philosopher to speak of laughability.

In its PolicyAristotle points out: “Young people should not be educated in order to amuse them but to accompany them in suffering.”

For his part, Immanuel Kant said: “Laughter comes from an expectation that suddenly ends in nothing.”

On the border between philosophy and psychology, Sigmund Freud devoted an entire book to good humor. In The joke and its relationship with the subconscious, analyzes the essence of graces, their classes and their relationship with dreams. An observation: the examples you use are not very funny. As he explains: “A new joke is considered almost like an event of general interest and passes from mouth to mouth like the news of a very recent victory.” Something similar to what happens nowadays in social networks.

On the other hand, his consideration that dirty jokes are verbal sexual assaults, and that those who laugh at these jokes behave as spectators of that aggression, makes us think.

In an attempt at synthesis, Freud defines the joke as: “A playful judgment, mating of the heterogeneous, contrast of representations, the sense of madnessthe succession of astonishment and enlightenment, the discovery of what is hidden and peculiarly brief”.

More recently, North American academics have formulated a more canonical and academic definition, although I don’t know if comedy professionals would subscribe to it: “Humor occurs when an epistemological assumption, accepted as a state of mind, turns out to be wrong.”

In general, serious books on humor generate little humor. It’s kind of like what happened to a journalist when she asked Chris Rock what’s funny. The humorist’s response was: “You know what’s not funny? Reflect on it.”

EB White already said it: “Analyzing the meaning of humor is like dissecting a frog: few people are interested and, meanwhile, the frog dies.”

Laughter and personal knowledge

Bergson’s book is more entertaining and helpful than average in understanding how jokes work. The French philosopher does not provide a specific definition of humor. His philosophy prioritizes intuition over conceptualization. Instead, he provides multiple examples and offers categories of what is humorous. I believe, however, that there are two statements in which Bergson is wrong.

The first, when he states: “There is no comedy outside of what is properly human.” Zoology shows that primates have a sense of humor and there is speculation about laughability in other species. We also see humans laughing with their pets and they seem to get along with the joke.

The second mistake is to maintain that they always laugh in a group, that laughter needs an echo and socialization. Although laughter is contagious and empathetic, as long as the jokes are good it is also possible, and I would even say advisable, to have fun alone.

Laughing with oneself allows us to get to know ourselves better and provides us with resources to maintain good spirits. A good read with entertaining passages or watching a funny movie can generate moments of genuine fun. You will have to test which authors are the most comforting.

There are two movie classics that never fail me: A Night at the Operafrom the Marx Brothers, and The beast of my girlde Howard Hawks.

However, as Adam Smith explained, “society and conversation are the most powerful remedies for restoring tranquility to the mind (…) and they are also the best safeguard of that uniform and happy good humor which is so necessary for internal satisfaction.” and joy.”

Comedy, a social skill

There are two great types of comedy, according to Bergson. Verbal comedy, through the use of language, and situational comedy, through the creation of appropriate characters and circumstances.

Verbal comedy is the consequence of ingenuity, of the ability to use language to provoke laughter, either by pretending to say what was not meant to be said, playing with the meaning or pronunciation of words, or incurring in the so-called ” Freudian lapses”.

Wit is that ability to quickly and easily reason or invent the spark to see the funny side of things. This faculty is not innate but acquired through the exercise of two capacities: social intelligence and memory resources.

Social intelligence has to do with the ease with which we get along with others and is a form of emotional intelligence that requires a proactive attitude, not simply letting oneself be carried away by one’s own sociability, if one exists.

Perhaps you’ve dealt with a comedian offstage, and been struck by the fact that they’re not joking at all times of your day. It is logical that they want to rest when they are not acting, and even adopt different attitudes. But this shows that, to a certain extent, joking is a facet of behavior that you have to engage in, and even prepare for.

If you want to be funny at a meeting or conference, as well as improvise with memories, jokes, and jokes, it’s always helpful to think ahead.

‘And two boiled eggs’

In relation to the comedy of the situation, Bergson identifies three main resources.

1. Repetition, which is supported by the fun of insistence or iteration. You will remember the famous scene in the cabin of A Night at the Opera, which has even become an expression to designate small places where a pin does not fit. In this situation, when Groucho is making the order for breakfast, Chico’s voice is heard adding to each dish “and two hard-boiled eggs”, a request that Harpo seconded with a honk and Groucho himself confirmed, like this up to four times. This repetition is laughable, and perhaps you have seen yourself saying “and two hard-boiled eggs” when someone asks you for something.

2. The inversion, when a situation takes a sudden turn or the roles are reversed unexpectedly. Impersonation is a very recurring form of investment, and once again the Marx brothers’ film serves as a reference. Stowawaying on a ship to New York, Harpo, Chico and Ricardo impersonate three famous aviators and are only discovered when they have to deliver their speeches to the authorities. The long beards and the uniforms that serve as disguises turn out to be the best comic contribution to the gag.

3. Series interference, better known as plots, is when a situation belongs to two different series of events that converge generating the joke. At the beginning of A Night at the Opera (The Marx Brothers again!), the millionaire played by the ineffable Margaret Dumond waits impatiently at her table in a luxurious restaurant for Groucho, who has already been too late. When she asks that they sing his name to locate him, it turns out that he has been having a lively dinner with another young woman for an hour, right at the table behind.

Beyond the categories of resources that Bergson formulates to understand jokes, and given that humor has varied and sophisticated sources, ranging from the innocuous to the cruel, I think there are three pertinent pieces of advice:

• The first, taken from Freud: “Innocent jokes are more valuable than tendentious ones, and those lacking in content more than profound ones.”

• The second, taken from the words that Shakespeare puts into the mouth of the charlatan Polonius in Hamlet: “As brevity is the soul of wit and prolixity its body and exterior decoration, I have to be very brief.” In a similar vein, there is Baltasar Gracián’s maxim: “The good, if brief, is twice as good”.

• The third, taken from own experience: to be funny, be nice to others. People who treat their friends or colleagues tactfully and with kindness are more likely to cause laughter when they deliberately seek it out than less-liked ones. If you have leadership responsibilities, don’t overuse humor, because the risk is that people will laugh and thank you for being who you are.

a brain activity

Laughter – exercising it or observing it – activates multiple regions of the brain: the motor cortex, which controls the muscles; the frontal lobe, which helps to understand the context; and the limbic system, which modulates positive emotions. Turning on all of these circuits strengthens neural connections and helps a healthy brain coordinate its activity.

These observations have led psychologists, counselors and educators to recommend laughter as a regular, daily exercise, for all its benefits on the body and mind. Do not let situations in which you can have fun or joke with others escape you: it is as healthy as playing sports.

My deep gratitude to the Marx brothers for brightening our existence.

A version of this article was originally published on LinkedIn.

Santiago Iñiguez de Onzoño, President of IE University, IE University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.