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Funny… But My Frontal Lobe is working!
Posted 31st May 2009 at 06:09 AM by twinsmom
Updated 31st May 2009 at 06:11 AM by twinsmom (Font Size)
Updated 31st May 2009 at 06:11 AM by twinsmom (Font Size)
Humour is one genre I simply enjoy. I cherish my sense of humour and feel I owe it to my childhood of reading comics and my teenage years of reading P.G. Wodehouse , Richard Gordon, Henry Cecil and Art Buchwald at the insistence of my father… Even when I had my phase of addiction to Mills & Boon romances, I used to collect those issues where either the hero or the heroine had a good sense of humour … I still enjoy Tintins and Asterixes…and love the Americans for only one thing- their incredibly funny sitcoms. I can spend the entire day watching Everybody Loves Raymond or the latest on the cables like, According to Jim, Yes, Dear, Hope and Faith, Seinfeld… In the 80’s when we were in Iraq , the national TV used to air M.A.S.H and I would never miss an episode if I could help it…I fell for Alan Alda’s one-liners and his irrepressible wit. My dad had a collection of video cassettes of Mind Your Language, Different Strokes and That Webster Kid that honed our sense of Ha- Ha in our formative years. In fact, we can quote scenes from Mind Your Language in an easy flow of memories…
Reader’s Digest comes out with ‘ humour special’ issues. I had a great time. I normally pick up my copy of RD from the local Carrefour… but once, when we went to Deira City Centre, I could not resist browsing the shelves of a magazine corner there… There I hit paydirt when I found this issue and an additional Asian issue… Now who would buy two issues of the same magazine? I would and I did. Why would I do that? Because both were humour special issues and I wanted to know the difference.
The Asian Issue had a very interesting article on the scientific breakthroughs in the science of humour. ‘Scientists and humour!’ you may think! And who says psychologists have no sense of humour? Here’s Dr. Ed Dunkelblau who says, “No one takes humour seriously!” Anyone who can come out with a great pun like that knows his business and Dr. Dunkelblau is a humour consultant and the former president for the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humour. He and his colleagues are ‘probing minds and brains to locate our funny bones’.
No joke….they have found out that humour is a whole brain experience with our ‘humour muscles’ networking to send signals quickly to help us get the joke… get it?
It seems, we need very few of those muscles to understand simple slapstick… like laughing when someone slips on a banana peel and comes a cropper. But the brain needs to put in more effort to comprehend, jokes, cartoons and funny stories… Now I know why some people listen to a joke and look puzzled and worse… expectant… at the end of it! Idlers….who can’t be bothered to work their own brains to understand the levity!
Using tools of neuroscience like MRI and PET scans and psychological research, these scientists are getting deeper and deeper into human brain’s capacity to react to humour.Their studies show that humour ‘helps us learn and keep us mentally loose, limber and creative’. Research with patients with damage to their frontal lobes and other brain regions showed that those with damaged frontal lobes did not ‘get’ the humour, though they responded to the slapstick. This led to further research and the following conclusion has been drawn:
When we hear a joke, a language centre on the left side of our brain makes sense of words and send messages across to the right side of the brain. There the right frontal cortex delves into the regions that store emotions and social memories and shuffles the information till it clicks and we get the joke… Next a structure deep inside the brain pumps out a chemical called dopamine that makes us feel good and a primitive region near the base of our skull makes us laugh….***
The funnier or more complex, the joke, the more the frontal lobes have to work… These great scientists believe that working those muscles can improve our mental agility and keep us mentally healthy… So go and enjoy the lighter side of life and you can laugh away mental atrophy!
Now… a bonus for those of my ilk…Scientists have also made an unexpected discovery: That men and women process funny differently. The analytical region of women’s brains was more active than the men’s… which suggests that women think more about whether something is humourous and that they don’t expect to laugh and so they enjoy it more when a joke works! For men, apparently, it is
“ Hey … cartoon. Must be funny. Funny is good!” This apparently is the reason why comedians find women tougher audience…(information courtesy the American issue of RD).
Men and women bash each other up… Woman think men have the sense of humour of a nine year old boy… and men accuse that women do not have a sense of humour at all… But this according to Professor Regina Barecca this is a misconception… Women, according to Barecca, don’t like crude jokes, they don’t tell jokes (they tell stories) and women don’t enjoy humour that makes fun of others’ physical shortcomings. By contrast, men make fun of everything. Women generally laugh at themselves…
Now all these discoveries make me feel good… For the time being I need not worry about my frontal lobe….it is in shipshape… and like good wine, has improved with age…
Of course, I can control even that twitch at the corners of my lips when someone slips on a banana peel… but I definitely cannot control myself when I read…” What kind of fish performs brain operations? A neuro sturgeon !
Now that the technicalities of laughter is over, let me share some of the priceless gems I found in the two issues… I shall serve only the best… the one liners and the terse punchy ones… So get those frontal cortices of yours to work… and smile, grin, giggle, chortle, laugh and split a few stitches on your sides…!
What do the neurons in the brain use to talk to each other? Cellular phones!
Why don’t sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy!
Did you hear about the post office canceling its commemorative stamp honouring lawyers? It seems people were confused – they did not know which side to spit on. ( Marc galanter, Prof. Emeritus of Law at universityof Wisconsin- Madison)
Q: Give an example of stereotype. A: Sony.
LEGO has announced that they are shutting down their US factory and moving it to Mexico . LEGO employees say it is their fault because they made the factory too easy to take apart and rebuild somewhere else. ( Conan O’ Brian)
Have you ever noticed that anybody going slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? ( George Carlin)
In high school, my sister went out with the captain of the chess team. My parents loved him. They figured any guy that took hours to make a move was okay with them. ( Brian Kiley)
Women don’t want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think – in a deeper voice. ( Bill Cosby)
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self- help section?” She said, if she told me it would defeat the purpose. ( Brian Kiley)
When I was in London , I went to buy some chocolates. The cashier was like,” That will be ten pounds.” I’m like, “ Rub it in, why don’t you?” ( Carol Leifer)
As longer as there is algebra, there will be prayer in school. ( Larry Miller)
Dijon vu – the same mustard as yesterday.
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
Man who eats family photo is soon spitting image of his father.
Headlines news: Energizer Bunny in jail, charged with battery.
Did you hear about the dyslexic devil worshipper? He sold his soul to Santa.
*** These are from Reader's Digest
Reader’s Digest comes out with ‘ humour special’ issues. I had a great time. I normally pick up my copy of RD from the local Carrefour… but once, when we went to Deira City Centre, I could not resist browsing the shelves of a magazine corner there… There I hit paydirt when I found this issue and an additional Asian issue… Now who would buy two issues of the same magazine? I would and I did. Why would I do that? Because both were humour special issues and I wanted to know the difference.
The Asian Issue had a very interesting article on the scientific breakthroughs in the science of humour. ‘Scientists and humour!’ you may think! And who says psychologists have no sense of humour? Here’s Dr. Ed Dunkelblau who says, “No one takes humour seriously!” Anyone who can come out with a great pun like that knows his business and Dr. Dunkelblau is a humour consultant and the former president for the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humour. He and his colleagues are ‘probing minds and brains to locate our funny bones’.
No joke….they have found out that humour is a whole brain experience with our ‘humour muscles’ networking to send signals quickly to help us get the joke… get it?
It seems, we need very few of those muscles to understand simple slapstick… like laughing when someone slips on a banana peel and comes a cropper. But the brain needs to put in more effort to comprehend, jokes, cartoons and funny stories… Now I know why some people listen to a joke and look puzzled and worse… expectant… at the end of it! Idlers….who can’t be bothered to work their own brains to understand the levity!
Using tools of neuroscience like MRI and PET scans and psychological research, these scientists are getting deeper and deeper into human brain’s capacity to react to humour.Their studies show that humour ‘helps us learn and keep us mentally loose, limber and creative’. Research with patients with damage to their frontal lobes and other brain regions showed that those with damaged frontal lobes did not ‘get’ the humour, though they responded to the slapstick. This led to further research and the following conclusion has been drawn:
When we hear a joke, a language centre on the left side of our brain makes sense of words and send messages across to the right side of the brain. There the right frontal cortex delves into the regions that store emotions and social memories and shuffles the information till it clicks and we get the joke… Next a structure deep inside the brain pumps out a chemical called dopamine that makes us feel good and a primitive region near the base of our skull makes us laugh….***
The funnier or more complex, the joke, the more the frontal lobes have to work… These great scientists believe that working those muscles can improve our mental agility and keep us mentally healthy… So go and enjoy the lighter side of life and you can laugh away mental atrophy!
Now… a bonus for those of my ilk…Scientists have also made an unexpected discovery: That men and women process funny differently. The analytical region of women’s brains was more active than the men’s… which suggests that women think more about whether something is humourous and that they don’t expect to laugh and so they enjoy it more when a joke works! For men, apparently, it is
“ Hey … cartoon. Must be funny. Funny is good!” This apparently is the reason why comedians find women tougher audience…(information courtesy the American issue of RD).
Men and women bash each other up… Woman think men have the sense of humour of a nine year old boy… and men accuse that women do not have a sense of humour at all… But this according to Professor Regina Barecca this is a misconception… Women, according to Barecca, don’t like crude jokes, they don’t tell jokes (they tell stories) and women don’t enjoy humour that makes fun of others’ physical shortcomings. By contrast, men make fun of everything. Women generally laugh at themselves…
Now all these discoveries make me feel good… For the time being I need not worry about my frontal lobe….it is in shipshape… and like good wine, has improved with age…
Of course, I can control even that twitch at the corners of my lips when someone slips on a banana peel… but I definitely cannot control myself when I read…” What kind of fish performs brain operations? A neuro sturgeon !
Now that the technicalities of laughter is over, let me share some of the priceless gems I found in the two issues… I shall serve only the best… the one liners and the terse punchy ones… So get those frontal cortices of yours to work… and smile, grin, giggle, chortle, laugh and split a few stitches on your sides…!
What do the neurons in the brain use to talk to each other? Cellular phones!
Why don’t sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy!
Did you hear about the post office canceling its commemorative stamp honouring lawyers? It seems people were confused – they did not know which side to spit on. ( Marc galanter, Prof. Emeritus of Law at universityof Wisconsin- Madison)
Q: Give an example of stereotype. A: Sony.
LEGO has announced that they are shutting down their US factory and moving it to Mexico . LEGO employees say it is their fault because they made the factory too easy to take apart and rebuild somewhere else. ( Conan O’ Brian)
Have you ever noticed that anybody going slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? ( George Carlin)
In high school, my sister went out with the captain of the chess team. My parents loved him. They figured any guy that took hours to make a move was okay with them. ( Brian Kiley)
Women don’t want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think – in a deeper voice. ( Bill Cosby)
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self- help section?” She said, if she told me it would defeat the purpose. ( Brian Kiley)
When I was in London , I went to buy some chocolates. The cashier was like,” That will be ten pounds.” I’m like, “ Rub it in, why don’t you?” ( Carol Leifer)
As longer as there is algebra, there will be prayer in school. ( Larry Miller)
Dijon vu – the same mustard as yesterday.
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
Man who eats family photo is soon spitting image of his father.
Headlines news: Energizer Bunny in jail, charged with battery.
Did you hear about the dyslexic devil worshipper? He sold his soul to Santa.
*** These are from Reader's Digest
Total Comments 5
Comments
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You definitely have a great sense of humour. Your choice of onliners thoroughly worked out my frontal cortices....!Posted 3rd June 2009 at 12:23 PM by gayathriar
-
Well twinsmom,
Happy to realise my frontal lobe is in shipshape .I was in splits reading your oneliners here.
VIJJIPosted 4th June 2009 at 07:58 AM by Deaf woman -
Hi gayathri,
If you enjoyed the one liners....join the club. That means your frontal lobe means business too! Thank you.Posted 4th June 2009 at 11:12 PM by twinsmom - Hi Vijji,
It sure is great to have a sense of humour. When I was growing up, I was fully initiated into the cult... Found that sense of humour was kind of limited in in laws' place. Luckily, my twins got the genes from me, and love comics, comedies and are quick to get the oneliners !Posted 4th June 2009 at 11:16 PM by twinsmom -
Hey these were nice read before bed.. now i am completely relaxed...
Posted 6th June 2009 at 06:36 PM by divyaparu83
