The fake laugh when you listen to yourself on any conversation or pay close attention to your own and you’ll hear laughter. From explosive bursts to muffled snorts, some form of laughter punctuates almost all verbal communication. Electronic communication, too, LOL. People can notice that, more often, the laughter is in response to something that was neither very funny nor funny at all.
Laughter at its purest and most spontaneous is associative and bonding. To our forebears it meant, “We’re not going to kill each other! What a relief!” But as developed humans our repertoire of laughter, tries to achieve ends apart from its original function of telling friend from foe. Some of it is like a social lubrication — sometimes we chuckle to be amiable and polite.
“Laughter is often used to conceal painful or unwanted feeling, but it can backfire,” not only because of the cognitive dissonance from laughing when you try to fake it, but then bad or clueless behavior may precede it.
A stand up comedian feels that we begin to learn to fake laugh and judge the authenticity of others’ laughter in early childhood and improve on it as we grow up.
There is always a big difference in how we feel after a genuine laugh. Research indicates that laughter increases our tolerance to pain. Fake laughter doesn’t have the same feel-good result. Sometimes we may feel tired of pretending to laugh.
We should become more conscious of when and why you laugh. Unlike fake laughter, you can’t turn genuine laughter on and off like a spigot. It ripples and reverberates, providing comfort to the soul. Hence, every opportunity should be used to laugh joyfully, and lavishly.
