Annotated Bibliography Of Laughing At Risk

Norman Cousins said, “Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions" (Moss 1). Humor is studied by many researchers in sociology, psychology, art, literature, and medicine. When people wonder whether humor aids in areas other than health, a treasure trove of possible benefits to the learning or educational community is opened up. Humor can be used as a tool to promote learning.Research speaks to the many benefits of humor in healing, to its benefits in the classroom or boardroom, from reducing stress of students or employees, to boosting self-esteem and feelings of camaraderie. Additionally, studies show that those who use humor to convey a message are often more favorably perceived. Humor helps deliver the presenter's message to

Laughter relates to positive thinking. The positive thinking helps us to improve our immune system and become healthier. It helps in removing the negative thoughts from our mind and not letting our immune system become worse further.

     Laughter relates a lot to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It is a representation of the ability to decide for your self. Billy Bibbit was always being bossed around by the nurse and his mother. Once he knew he could laugh and stop listening to what everyone demanded of him he started to loosen up. . "It's natural to all human beings to laugh. It's society which restricts us and tells us that we must settle down.'' (Murphy) The society that Billy was in, was putting to much pressure on him to settle down when he was just trying to be himself. That was the part that was making him crazy. The pressure the ward and his mother put on him to be restricted led him to his suicide. When Billy started laughing he actually started to seem normal. He actually slept with a prostitute, knowing that if his mother found out she would never see him the same way. ."It affects our psychoneuro-immunology.'' (Murphy) “In other words, medical research has established a link between emotions, the nervous system and endocrine

People always say that laughter alleviates tension. If this is the case, then it makes sense that the use of humor when discussing uncomfortable topics can make the conversation easier and more light-hearted. One of Mark Twain’s most frequently used devices in works such as “Advice to Youth”, “To the Person Sitting in Darkness”, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is satire, which can provide society a method to bond over uncomfortable topics, and facilitate the ability to sustain that bond through an easier way to create discussion.

To laugh is defined as: “to express certain emotions, especially mirth or delight, by a series of spontaneous, usually unarticulated sounds often accompanied by corresponding facial and bodily movements” (Dictionary, 2013). This simple act has been suggested to boost immunity, lower stress hormone, decrease pain, relax muscles, and prevent heart disease (Smith & Segal, 2012), and those are just the physical health benefits. Other studies have suggested that laughter is a great way to ease anxiety and fear, relieve stress, improve mood, and even enhance resilience (Bennett et al., 2003). Not to mention that sharing a good laugh with friends and family can bring these relationships closer (Bennett et al., 2003).

Laughter tends to spread effortlessly among people and chimps when we see it happening around us. So why do the people around us affect our behavior? When someone laughs it's almost impossible not to join in. There are laughing therapies that people attend because humans love to laugh. De Waals chimps laugh during games and he can’t help but expresses a laugh of his own. Chimps join each other into the same behavior as easily as humans do. Shared laughter is one example of primate sensitivity. The same thing happens when a person yawns, it's contagious. This is because our bodies can't resist the urge to yawn. It’s easy to catch on to someone else's behavior such as, synchronization: running when others run, crying when others cry or yawning

It is not unseasonable to believe that because stereotypes are appearing so commonly in comedy, they will reinforce those stereotypes rather than help society rid itself from them. Extinguishing stereotypes is impossible. Researchers have determined that the creation of stereotypes is a natural function of the brain (Paul, par. 2). In attempt to make light of a problematic issues, comedians use stereotypes to denounce stereotypes. The first thing that we should understand is that comedy is comedy. This does not mean that it should not be taken seriously as frequently advised. Comedy should be embraced and takes seriously but not in the

Between-subjects design will be used to determine the effects of humor types on audiences’ knowledge and attitudes. This study will divide subjects into two groups: treatment group will watch satire videos, the control group will watch non-satirical humor videos. After watching the video clips, both groups will answer the same questionnaires.

For this experiment, I went to McDonalds, because that restaurant is known for promoting laughter and happiness. They even have an item that is called a happy meal, and their slogan is "Para Pa Pa I'm Loving it!". Therefore, I was expecting that I would get plenty of laughs across the board. My hypothesis was disproven as there were more females than males laughing. The theme of laughter that I found to be most prevalent was humor that comes from cute child behavior. There were plenty of families with plenty of children, but one couple in particular caught my eye because the mom was not laughing like the father was, because she was the one dealing with adult issues. Customers were not the only ones laughing, the employees in the kitchen, behind the cash register and on break laugh almost as much. Therefore, I concluded from the employee's laughs that they really enjoy their job, as I counted 7 laughs from the employees and 11 laughs from the customers.

This piece analyzes the sitcom in comparison to stand-up comedy. In the chapter “What’s So Funny About America?” sitcoms are broken down into elements that contrast those of stand-up. Marc describes the two forms of comedy as very different. He states that sitcoms depend on “familiarity, identification, and redemption of popular beliefs” while stand-up normally relies on “the shocking violation of normative taboos.”

Television and other forms of media convey explicit or implicit messages, that have to ability to shape our views and contribute to our understanding of societal norms. In the science fiction cartoon, Rick and Morty, issues such as gender, race, sexuality, and more are brought to the service and used as a comedic reflection on our own society. Despite challenging most of what we know to be true about the physical universe the show appears to leave western societal norms completely intact. In “Raising a Gazorpazorp,” an episode centered on gender norms, the show creates humor by relying on viewers’ assumptions of gender stereotypes and compulsory heterosexuality in order to create humor.

Television News, Spoofs, Talk Shows, TV Documentaries, Soap Operas, Situational Comedies (Sitcoms), etc. are the types of genres telecasted on the television. Situational Comedies are one of the influential television genre for viewers throughout the world. Going back to 90’s in year 1994 first time American television channel NBC aired one of the Sitcom called ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’ The hit show lasted ten years, spanning two decades, creating a significant impact on American culture, which continuously be seen today through elements including language, music, and style. It is fascinating to explore how a simple TV sitcom can inspire such language in its audience lives by creating such phrases, bizarre songs, and iconic hairstyles. The

Television is a source of entertainment for millions of people. It has a wide range of applications including commercials, advertisement, news, and entertainment. Large amounts of people watch television makes it a good outlet to reach a broad audience. It can also serve an educational purpose. Modern family, winner of a Golden Globe, appeals to a wide audience by showcases the Pritchett, Dunphy and Tucker families.

Offensive language is a part of television that has increased dramatically over the past decades. Public television shows such as Family Guy, Southpark, The Office, Tosh.0 and countless others are riddled with offensive jokes that target nearly every group of people on the planet. With so much offensive language it is hard not to question whether or not this is completely changing how offensive media is perceived outside of the media. These shows have jokes that use negative stereotypes on almost all races. Often times they ridicule minority groups, by portraying them with this negative stereotypes. This research proposal is very important because with the extremely high popularity of some of these shows with offensive language, and how public they are, it could be affecting the younger generation into believing that this is acceptable. We know that this could be a problem because of theories in media such as the Cultivation Theory, Social Learning Theory, and Perceived Reality.

It follows from that that they make frequent use of stereotypes, which are a typical source of humor, and can commonly be found in another more or less distant ancestor of sitcoms, “commedia dell 'arte” (Picouly). However, in recent years stereotypes in the media have been heavily criticized due to using the humor in the wrong ways. Media and entertainment have to be mindful when poking jokes because there is a fine line that cannot be passed. (Picouly).