Why Do We Laugh At Other People?

What makes us laugh? What is funny to you and what is funny to other people? Is your sense of humor clean and "politically correct" or is it crass or would you describe it in another way?

The things that make us laugh are countless. Comedies, books, cartoons, comedians and all of which can tell a joke or be funny in a completely different way.

Why do we laugh at other people? Under what circumstances do we laugh at other people? Is it when they make fools of themselves or suffer from a misfortune?

I think we have all seen the infamous Afro Ninja video on YouTube. Did you laugh? Most people did. And did you laugh because of his failure from a stunt of the fact he suffered a misfortune and hurt himself? Or is it a case of amusement when people make fools of themselves? Here are a couple of good examples of people making fools of themselves and the general public enjoying and laughing at it.

First example, a few years ago during a summit in Okinawa. Then Japanese Prime Minister Mori was to greet the American President Bill Clinton. Mori had no English skills so he was taught some Basic English conversation before Okinawa summit and meeting Bill Clinton...

Mori was told "When you shake hands with President Clinton, say 'how are you'.
Then Mr. Clinton should say," I'm fine, and you?"
Now you should say 'me too'. Afterwards we translators will take over"

Now here's the part where we get to laugh at him. When Mori met Clinton, he mistakenly said "Who are you?" instead of "How are you". Clinton was a surprised but still replied and did so with a sense of humor. Clintons reply was: "Well, I'm Hilary's husband,
ha-ha....". Mori replied "Me too, ha-ha.."

The other examples are quotes from famous people. They speak for themselves.

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign.

"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, "Thank God, I'm still alive." But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again."
- Barbara Boxer, Senator

"Reports are sketchy, but we have heard that in the first heart transplant operation in Belgium, both patient and donor are doing fine."
- Radio news announcer

"Facts are stupid things."
- Ronald Reagan, Former U.S. President

Granted these are just verbal blunders but why do we laugh when somebody takes a nasty fall or gets a bucket of paint on the head? The Germans have a word for it schadenfraude meaning to find enjoyment in the misfortune somebody else. A word we could use it in English.

But why do we laugh at other people? Because it reduces our stress.

Nick Jones is from Canada and currently living in Japan and has been there since early 1997. He also runs two web-pages Laugh At Other People (http://www.laughatotherpeople.com) and Dude wtf?? (http://dudewtf.org). Both are humor based.