BBC: Why laughter is the best medicine

Have ou heard this joke, Neil? Question: what's a rat's favorite game?

I don't know, Sam, what is a rat's favorite game?

Hide and squeak!

Ha-ha-ha! Very funny!

Well, I'm glad you're laughing because, as we'll be finding out in this programme, laughter is good for you! In fact, laughter is often called 'the best medicine'.

And it seems that's really true, medically speaking. laughing releases anti- stress endorphins into the body and there's evidence that people who laugh recover more quickly from illness, including Covid. 

Laughing who can hear a baby laugh without laughing themselves? Laughter is catching. 

But before we start ticking our funny bones, I have a quiz question for you. Neil, and it's no laughing matter. Laugher can be a serious business. In fact, there's a scientific field of study into laughter and its effects on the human body. But what is this study called? Is it:

a) gigglology  b) gelotology or c) guffology?

Did you make those words up, Sam? They sound a bit funny to me! I'll say the study of laughter is called b) gelotology. 

OK, Neil, but you'll be laughing on the other side of your face if you're wrong! Anyway, we'll find out the correct answer later in the programme. 

Someone who's an expert in the study of laughing - whatever it's called- is cognitive neuroscentist, Professor Sophie Scott. Here she explains to David Edmonds, Professor of BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea, exactly how a laugh is produced. 

Laughing is a variation of breathing. Like breathing, it involves the rib cage. 

When you laugh you get these very, very large, very fast contractions of the rib cage. And it's a very primitive way of making a sound, so you're really just squeezing air out in big bouts. Each of those individual squeezes gives you a 'ha!' sound. 

The 'ha-ha' sound you make when you laugh comes from your rib cage- a structure made of bones, called ribs, inside your chest which protects the heart and lungs. The rib cage works like a drum to amplify a laugh. 

It's the reason why jokes are sometimes called 'rib-ticklers'.

Professor Scott calls this a very promitive way of making sounds because it's simple, natural and essentially human. 

The word primitive can be used to describe anything relating to the basic way humans lived in their early stages of developemtn, before money, machines or writting were invented. 

Primitive human noises, like crying and laughing, link to a universal human experience, and this can be seen in the large number of words we use to talk about them. In English, 'chuckle', 'giggle', 'chortle', 'cackle' and 'guggaw' all describe different types of laughter. 

Right, so how would you describe a 'giggle', Sam?

I'd say a giggle is laughing in a quiet but uncontrolled way, like a child who finds something very funny or feels embarrassed. 

Unlike a guffaw which is when you blast out a very loud laugh, often at something stupid or rude someone has said. 

But humans aren't the only animals to laugh. We belong to the same family as other primates liek chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, alll of whom laugh. 

Even rats tickle each other and make squeaky noises like laughter when they play. Here's Professor Scott again to take up the story for BBC World Service programme, The Big Idea. 

Play is a very important behavior for mammals- all mammals play when they're juveniles and some mammals play their whole lives, and laughter is a sort of an invitation to play, it's a sign that you're playing. 

Professor Scott says that laughter is an important social tool for all mammals- animals, including humans, dogs, and whales, which give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs, and who feed their young with milk. 

By laughing, young mammals- sometimes called juveniles- signal that they want to play, and young rats who don't laugh back are more likely to get a bite than a giggle. And a rat bite is nothing to laugh about. 

What a lot of facts we've learned about laughter, Neil!

Yes, we could almost be experts on laughter...'Guffologists', isn't that what you called them, Sam?

Ah, yes, in my quiz question I asked you to name the scientific study of laughter and its effects on the body. 

I'm afraid certain it's not 'gigglology' or 'guffology'! So, the answer must be...

Gelotology! The correct answer! Well done, Neil, I knew you were good for a laugh!