why we need to laugh
Simply because, we need to assert ourselves that life is not a black hole that will permit no light of humor to go through. And also, as Kurt Vonnegut says 'Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward'.
Which brings up my favorite imponderable, do animals laugh? My feeling is, they do in their own little cute ways, without any of those loud guffaws or bodily tremors, and we probably are their biggest jokes!
I can imagine my dog, upon seeing me in front of my monitor, laughing to herself and thinking 'This guy has no life - he thinks the internet is THE universe'. :-)
Which brings up my favorite imponderable, do animals laugh? My feeling is, they do in their own little cute ways, without any of those loud guffaws or bodily tremors, and we probably are their biggest jokes!
I can imagine my dog, upon seeing me in front of my monitor, laughing to herself and thinking 'This guy has no life - he thinks the internet is THE universe'. :-)
posted by mani g. iyer at
8:25 PM
2 Comments:
From wikipedia.com:
Laughter in Dogs
The dog laugh sounds similar to a normal pant. But by analyzing the pant using a spectrograph, this pant varies with bursts of frequencies, resulting in a laugh. When this recorded dog-laugh vocalization is played to dogs in a shelter setting, it can initiate play, promote pro-social behavior, and decrease stress levels. In a study by Simonet, Versteeg, and Storie, 120 subject dogs in a mid-size county animal shelter were observed. Dogs ranging from 4 months to 10 years of age were compared with and without exposure to a dog-laugh recording. The stress behaviors measured included panting, growling, salivating, pacing, barking, cowering, lunging, play-bows, sitting, orienting and lying down. The study resulted in positive findings when exposed to the dog laughing: significantly reduced stress behaviors, increased tail wagging and the display of a play-face when playing was initiated, and the increase of pro-social behavior such as approaching and lip licking were more frequent. This research suggests exposure to dog-laugh vocalizations can calm the dogs and possibly increase shelter adoptions.
...so a human's nervous-laugh seems so paradoxical.
From wikipedia.com:
Laughter in Dogs
The dog laugh sounds similar to a normal pant. But by analyzing the pant using a spectrograph, this pant varies with bursts of frequencies, resulting in a laugh. When this recorded dog-laugh vocalization is played to dogs in a shelter setting, it can initiate play, promote pro-social behavior, and decrease stress levels. In a study by Simonet, Versteeg, and Storie, 120 subject dogs in a mid-size county animal shelter were observed. Dogs ranging from 4 months to 10 years of age were compared with and without exposure to a dog-laugh recording. The stress behaviors measured included panting, growling, salivating, pacing, barking, cowering, lunging, play-bows, sitting, orienting and lying down. The study resulted in positive findings when exposed to the dog laughing: significantly reduced stress behaviors, increased tail wagging and the display of a play-face when playing was initiated, and the increase of pro-social behavior such as approaching and lip licking were more frequent. This research suggests exposure to dog-laugh vocalizations can calm the dogs and possibly increase shelter adoptions.
...so a human's nervous-laugh seems to be so paradoxical.
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