Neuroscientists are engaging in the deadly serious activity of why humor is so dangerous.
It turns out, it all has to do with whether the joke is funny or not. Funny = laugh. Not funny = no laugh and/or brain explosion. (The incidence of brain explosion due to un-funny jokes is very low, especially since the death of vaudeville — most theatres in the vaudeville era were fitted with sluices to help with the clean-up of grey matter after a performance, but with the advent of the moving picture, the “brain drain” has been unnecessary in most theatres, except in France, where they worship Jerry Lewis .)
Now, it may seem a bit risky to listen to jokes, given the small chance that your brain may explode. But it is a very small chance, especially since we’ve started studying what makes people laugh with functional MRI machines and sitcoms.
But the payoff to listening to a funny joke is big. According to the New Scientist:
Further research, conducted by Dean Mobbs, then at Stanford University in California, uncovered a second spike of activity in the brain’s limbic system – associated with dopamine release and reward processing – which may explain the pleasure felt once you “get” the joke (Neuron, vol 40, p 1041).
Moobs has done further research into the differences between how the sexes process jokes, and found that while men may laugh more quickly at a joke, women get a much bigger dopamine hit, once their brains process the humor and decide if it’s funny or not. This explains why women are willing to date men who are clearly beneath them in the looks department.
However, this puts women at greater risk of the second danger in humor — addiction. If you’re dating a balding, be-spectacled science dude for his humor, you’re probably addicted to all those good feelings induced by your brain. But it’s just a drug. A naturally occurring, evolutionarily brilliant drug.
But I may be biased.
OMG, *I* have been dating a balding bespectacled geek, but not for her sense of humour – I date her because she looks funny. When we make love I keep my eyes closed (since baldy chicks can taint the mood if you see them prematurely) until just the right moment, then I open them, see how silly she looks, and immediately spew dopamine all over the place.
G’ahead and try it – it’s quite the rush.