Blogpost #5: Culture at its Best

Laughter isn't just about funny things, it's also about the approach of a situation to us. Laughter approaches different people in different nations and there are approaches that are comparative and some, superlative. I'm saying that there is laughter that is better and there is best, and it is about culture. Laughing is a universal symbol, all people of all nation laugh, who doesn't? But on the other hand, we don't share the same laugh with other nations. Every country has its own way of expressing its happiness through laughter, and it's a fact.

I think there is one nation who uprises the most among other nations, and that is the Filipino nation and that is my unbiased opinion, whenever we see something that appears funny to us, we laugh hard and I think it's very shallow when you really think deep into it. Well I'm not gonna talk about our culture in terms of laughter but I'm gonna talk about the culture of laughter in different perspectives and in variety of countries. In my previous posts, I have stated some theories regarding laughter, but in this post you will know that we laugh not only within these theories but we also laugh beyond it because of culture.

I have observed that not all people laugh at the same thing that appears to be funny to them. For example, "a man slips" some people laugh hysterically, some people just smiled, and some people just showed how pokered their faces are. It's because of the approach, each person has his/her thoughts of what is funny. Culture of laughter is about how people of different nations laugh and their approach to a certain kind of funny. I wanted to learn about and that's why I researched about it.

Now, I have read articles that somehow talk about culture, it's an article of Leodini (Laughter in Different Cultures) he's a Filipino magician and he wrote about different nationalities' POV to laughter, here it is:

Japanese - Very reactive, all tricks, even the simplest, blow them away.

Taiwanese-reactions are slow in coming, slight smiles. 

Americans - Extremely noisy in laughing, they laugh with the simple jokes. 

Filipinos- all of the above are in mixture, pinoys could be the best audiences.

There is one unique culture above them all, the Chinese people, I got this from an article who has an anonymous author. He said that Chinese does not use humor in political speeches. Why? It would appear different to the Chinese audience, so most of the politicians never use humor. Well I think that's one of a kind because people use humor and wit in some speeches to really entertain people.

Well in terms of the other countries, it's good to know about it. I learned that all nations laugh even they looked so serious and unpaintable, without bias, Filipinos really are the best comic of all. We laugh at shallow jokes, we laugh when someone is bald-headed and it does not look good, we still laugh even if we are already swimming in flood that brought disaster, we laugh when someone laughs too. Our professor said it's stupid but it's fun and it's a positive feedback.

In conclusion, culture is one of the best branches of study, especially when it comes to laughter. Even though we differ in many ways, laughter is still a universal language. We share one thought and feeling, it's a factor of happiness and gladness. When we laugh, it's the best thing! We can share with the world what we feel, the culture of laughter is one of the most essential discoveries throughout history.