Blogpost #6: Mythological Humor

Gelotology is the physiological study of laughter. Gelos is a Greek word meaning laughter, that is where the Greek god Gelos, the god or the daimon of laughter, was named after. But mythology does not mean that it only represents the Greeks and the Romans, mythology is defined as the origin of a thing or where did it start or where did it come from and it's a mixture of facts and bluffs. This is where I write the information about it. 

Some people believe in myths and in supernatural things, you can say that by looking at the history of the ancient people of Greece, myths are so true that they sacrifice everything. But one thing is for sure, myths are either true or not. The origin of a thing is initiated by experts, they study it and give hypothesis and conclusions, and that is where the myth comes in. An experiment has been conducted, experts say that the first laugh is an expression of relief after a grave danger, and that is only a hypothesis.

An observation I had is, the faith of people to a myth even though it has no proof yet. It's interesting because a lot people do not have basis of what they're trying to say. They just say "Do you know that.." and people reply "Really? OMG I'm so gonna tell this to my peers.." That's a kind of an observation in which you tell people about and they suddenly agree with you. Laughter has many stories and myths to tell but in the articles I have read, there is none those having the relevance to my study, humor for them is one thing that keeps the world happy and there's no more other source of it. That's why I researched about it.

Gelotology is a part of science and partly of psychology because this study talks about laughter and its effect to the body and the brain, but I interconnected these 3 studies: Science, Psychology, and Mythology. But somehow, mythology does not have that deep connection to science and psychology, I mean, it's only connection is the name which is Gelos the god of laughter.

Gelos is not a major god, apparently, there are no records of him on how his life had started. Earlier, I have written that mythology is not just about creatures, legends, and about the Greeks and Romans but also about the origin of something and it's mythical stories and legends that talks about a certain topic. I will now tell you some myths of laughter according to the articles I have read.

But before thaaaaaaaaaat, here is a joke from me:

What does the eyebrow say to the other eyebrow?

*Heye brow! HAHAHAHAHA!

Here it is, it's an article written by InvokeLaughter.com entitled 3 MYTHS ABOUT LAUGHTER

1. We need a Sense of Humor to Laugh – Senses of Humor vary widely between persons – what is funny to one person may be quite serious to another. When we practice laughing WITH folks and not AT what they say or do, we are not relying upon something to strike us as ‘funny’. A sense of humor is irrelevant.

2. We need to be Happy to Laugh – Babies and young children laugh easily because happiness is our true state of being. It has merely been covered with conditional behaviors that create feelings of fear and anxiety. Laughter can help release these feelings, and replace them with the joy we feel when relaxing and having fun.

3.  We need a reason to Laugh – Well now, no reason is necessary, but if you want a reason to laugh, there are dozens of great ones.

Another article I have read is The 5 Myths of laughter.. exploded! It is stated here that adults laugh for about 15-20 times a day while a child laugh for about 200. I don't know about it if it's psychologically proven or not. I think it's a hypothesis, and that's how mythology is defined. But in terms of the myths I showed, I think it's somehow true because it has sense although they do not have references. Its statement has a psychological effect to me and it's good. Having impact on a person is good, because people allow impacts to be true. By the way, I can call it an end.

In conclusion, myths are either true or not true, it's the person's decision to believe or not believe. But in this perspective I can see that the myths are halfway to authenticity It can show us evidences that they're real and they can also show us that a story is too good to be true because of mythical creatures and godly evidences. By this, it could probably change people's mindset of a certain situation, people's perspective about it. The reason of why we have myths is this; for us to get information we know in different ways and to share different opinions about it. I'm Amiel Baniqued, signing off.