Is all humor rooted in pain?

[Zion]

As I've slowly matured over the years through means of self-development & continue to do so, I have struggled to see what humor is & why it exists.

I understand the feeling that humor gives, though not its purpose(s). 

My current loosely-based hypothesis is that it is rooted in pain. It seems to me, if you go deep enough into your own emotions & overall ego, you'll find pain as the culprit. What I'm getting at, is that I haven't seen or understood humor to be anything other than something that puts something/someone down. At least, that's the way society teaches humor through sub-communication. Though you could say simply that a sound such as a fart could be funny without any reasoning for anything to be put down or degraded. So I'm left with the question still of; what is humor? Why does humor exist?

Is humor only what we want to be funny? If so, why do we crave things to be funny? For comfort? Is humor a phase of humanity's evolution? 

Values of humor:

- Alleves insecurities and emotional struggles temporarily.

- Laughing relieves stress in the body temporarily

- Entertainment

- A good common-ground for effective communication whilst building relationships

What's your perspective? What do you think humor is? Why do you think it exists?

[Leo Gura]

No

[Loba]

Most of it, yes.

But pain is not bad, and it can be funny.  It teaches you lessons and lessons can be humerous for sure.

[Kksd74628]

I would say all humor is baced on contradiction which most basic form is when they show kid picture of ape and then they play sound of cow.

Why does it exist? Why does sandbox exist for kids? ... ... ... To play and have fun
Why do we crave things to be fun? Why do we crave good tasting food or other pleasure? ... ... ... To feel good ... ... ... Why? ... ... ... simply because of ego remembers awesomeness of being limitless.

More day to day kind of way to see it is that humor is most likely used at topics that are hurtful to someone. Its like soft way to express what we want to say. That's why they use draw comics about politicians, because that way most likely that person will not get hurt that bad when seeing negative things presented about him.

People as they mature tend to become boring and too formal, because they think they need to be somehow grown-up which is just absolute stupidity, because whole purpose of life is to have fun while we are there.  Ease a little bit that's what they told you in yoga class.

Even God told joke and it's cosmic joke which is that people think life is important, but it's meaningless, but same time most important thing that is, because of it's everything that is.  

[Danioover9000]

@Zion

On 1/12/2022 at 3:11 AM, Zion said:

As I've slowly matured over the years through means of self-development & continue to do so, I have struggled to see what humor is & why it exists.

I understand the feeling that humor gives, though not its purpose(s). 

My current loosely-based hypothesis is that it is rooted in pain. It seems to me, if you go deep enough into your own emotions & overall ego, you'll find pain as the culprit. What I'm getting at, is that I haven't seen or understood humor to be anything other than something that puts something/someone down. At least, that's the way society teaches humor through sub-communication. Though you could say simply that a sound such as a fart could be funny without any reasoning for anything to be put down or degraded. So I'm left with the question still of; what is humor? Why does humor exist?

Is humor only what we want to be funny? If so, why do we crave things to be funny? For comfort? Is humor a phase of humanity's evolution? 

Values of humor:

- Alleves insecurities and emotional struggles temporarily.

- Laughing relieves stress in the body temporarily

- Entertainment

- A good common-ground for effective communication whilst building relationships

What's your perspective? What do you think humor is? Why do you think it exists?

   My perspective on humour, is that in the relative domain, it's a set of powerful manipulation tendencies to put the other person on their place if they step out of line, and/or a way of disarming and de-escalating a situation, this of course is mostly within how human beings treat each other and not so much with other creatures with some exceptions of monkeys, maybe other animals in social groups or lone types. I think, based on my cognitive development, that humour is mostly manipulative and comfort generating, sometimes for other people, but mostly for your benefit. The reason why humour exists, is because we are social in nature, and we have evolved many ways of communications, and be able to abstract at higher levels.

   What you listed about the values of humour are correct, and there's many more.

   I believe your hypothesis is close, because when I sometimes am in pain, or survived past a stressful situation, my mind tend to make fun of the people and the situation, even the pain, as a form of coping mechanism to handle the suffering. Sometimes I make fun of myself, to cheer myself up. I think you are close with your hypothesis. I sometimes try to resist laughing or chuckling when I see in my field of awareness, somebody slipping when the floor was wet or icy, or having some kind of strange accident, or when a person behaves in a silly way that's too weird to me.

   Because humour is mostly relativistic, it can depend on the value system, cognitive development, morality, personality types, other life experiences and social intelligence of the person and/or group and which culture they come from. I can definitely tell you, this is true, because from my life experiences in the USA when I was an adolescent, interactions with people from Washington, their communication styles and use of humour is different from my experiences in social interactions with people from Canada, which is different from my interactions with people from the UK where I reside in, which has vast differences with people from Asian cultures like Indonesia, China, Japan ect.

   At the absolute level, I'm not sure, it might be not true that all humour is rooted in pain, and Leo's reply was from his experiences with psychedelics and other mystical experiences he has had, so that's that from his perspective. But some types of humour stems from pain and suffering, like dark humour. What is dark humour but making fun of horrors, darkness and tragedies of humanity?

[Yarco]

No, most humor is subverted expectations. When you think one thing is going to be said or done, and they do another. No pain or putting down required.

[vizual]

I see humor as the little strings that keep us attached to the divine. Without it we will become lost in the material world, by taking it too seriously, and giving it too much weight.

[Danioover9000]

@vizual

16 hours ago, vizual said:

I see humor as the little strings that keep us attached to the divine. Without it we will become lost in the material world, by taking it too seriously, and giving it too much weight.

   You mean all types of humour? In this case, if you mean all humour, where does dark humour fit in with linking one to the divine?

[Danioover9000]

@Knowledge Hoarder

19 hours ago, Knowledge Hoarder said:

You are onto something. But I think it's not just about alleviation of pain, but good humor also has to have a tint of realism within it. So it's more about pointing out painfull truths, or at least what you/collective considers to be true, in a lighthearted and funny way. Notice how jokes that you cannot really relate with, are not that funny. And the reason you cannot relate with them, is that you don't consider the story to be true.

For example, for a anti-feminist right winger, feminist jokes that are bashing white men may not be funny, and vice versa what right winger considers to be funny, would never be funny to SJW types.

   The OP claims that all humour is rooted in pain. Now that I think about it more, that's not quite right, because pain is nervous system signals in the human body. It's probably more accurate to say all humour stems from mental suffering, from how one's mind interprets the situation and subverts the not ideal outcome, plus a disarming mechanism in social groups as part of survival.

16 hours ago, Yarco said:

No, most humor is subverted expectations. When you think one thing is going to be said or done, and they do another. No pain or putting down required.