The Science of Laughter and the Laughter of Science

I know they do this. In a world where a new crop of dissertations is needed every year and research grants can make or break a university I’m sure there have been extensive scientific studies into laughter. Without so much as a quick google search, however, I’m equally sure that they missed the joke. Laughter is precisely the kind of thing that will always confound scientists because it is so intensely human. It is that which bubbles up to the surface from the parts of us too deep to fit in a test tube. To put it another way, you can’t get there from here.

Which is why it’s so funny, and telling, that they try. One of the most common forms of humor is when the prideful take a fall. The Emperor’s, shall we say, exposure, comes from this fertile field. How much more ridiculously prideful can man be then when he thinks he can come to a fundamental understanding of man? How can we not laugh when one of us takes another of us and earnestly tries to squeeze us under a microscope? And when our bellies begin to shake, instead of joining in the fun, the fool scientist sits down to take notes.

The Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I’m enormously grateful for those who make careful study of our bodies, who develop skills in healing and making well. I have nothing but admiration for scientists who seek to think God’s thoughts after Him. Trying to grasp laughter, however, isn’t seeking to think God’s thoughts after Him but seeking to think himself god. It is a baby dressed in a business suit, an ant driving a car.

God, in His glory, has done something glorious with us. He has made us so complex, so grand in bearing His image, that every one of us that seeks to diminish us by claiming to master us, sits on a whoopee cushion. Anyone who claims humans are simple enough to understand doesn’t understand that humans are too simple to have that understanding. Anyone who rightly professes that we are too complex to understand shows himself a fool when he claims to understand.

This is not just true of laughter, but all that we are. The behaviorists who insist we can shape people by shaping their environment first must confess that the only reason they believe that is because they’re conditioned to. The people in favor of big government, on the grounds that people are so terrible, seem to forget that big government is led by terrible people. Those who insist that our denial of our racism is proof of our racism find themselves hoisted on the same petard. People are people and what’s sauce for the geese is sauce for all the other geese. It’s funny, you know?

One last thing. Don’t know if you’ve heard, but Buzz Lightyear recently got engaged. He and his fiancee’s bridal registry is at Bed, Bath… AND BEYOND.