Humor

Humour (also spelled humor) is the ability or quality of people, objects, or situations to evoke feelings of amusement in other people. The term encompasses a form of entertainment or human communication which evokes such feelings, or which makes people laugh or feel happy.

The origin of the term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which stated that a mix of fluids known as humours controlled human health and emotion.

A sense of humor is the ability to experience humor, a quality which all people share, although the extent to which an individual will personally find something humorous depends on a host of absolute and relative variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, and context. For example, young children (of any background) particularly favour slapstick, such as Punch and Judy puppet shows. Satire may rely more on understanding the target of the humour, and thus tends to appeal to more mature audiences.¹

There is a widely held belief that humor is therapeutic, as an aid to healing and a stress reliever. However, strong scientific evidence for this belief has not yet emerged. Dr. Mary Payne Bennett from Indiana State University ² is in the process of publishing a four-part review of the therapeutic value of humor. At the end of the second article in the series she states:

While there are results to support a connection between sense of humor and self-reported physical health, it is difficult to determine how this may relate to any specific disease process. And while relationships between sense of humor and self-reported measures of physical well-being appear to be supported by the currently limited literature, more research is needed to determine whether this demonstrates the effect of sense of humor on physical well-being or the effect of physical well-being on sense of humor. Longitudinal, prospective research is required in order to help elicit the meaning of relationships between sense of humor and physical well-being.

Sources:
¹ Wikipedia.org. Accessed in February, 2007.
² Bennet, MP and Lengacher, C.(2006). Humor and laughter may influence health: II. From Complementary Therapies and Humor in a Clinical Population, Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 3(2):187-190.