Editing Laughter (section)

==Research and philosophy==
{{Main|Gelotology}}

[[File:AdvertYoungsTheHatterVictorianEraBridgeportCT.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Late 19th-century or early 20th-century depiction of different stages of laughter on advertising cards]]

Laughter in literature, although considered understudied by some,<ref>[[John Morreall|Morreall, John]]. ''Taking Laughter Seriously'' (1983) p.ix.</ref> is a subject that has received attention in the written word for millennia. The use of [[humor]] and laughter in literary works (for example the [[wikt:Homeric laughter|homeric laughter]]  (ἄσβεστος γέλως, ásbestos gélōs, “unceasing laughter”) in Greek epics like the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'') has been studied and analyzed by many thinkers and writers, from the [[Greek philosophy|Ancient Greek philosophers]] onward. [[Henri Bergson]]'s ''Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic'' (''Le rire'', 1901) is a notable 20th-century contribution.

===Ancient===

====Herodotus====
For [[Herodotus]], laughers can be distinguished into three types:<ref name="DL matter">[[Donald Lateiner|Lateiner, Donald]]. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/284034 ''No laughing matter: a literary tactic in Herodotus''], Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 107. (1977), pp. 173–182.</ref>
*Those who are innocent of wrongdoing, but ignorant of their own vulnerability
*Those who are [[insanity|mad]]
*Those who are overconfident
According to [[Donald Lateiner]], Herodotus reports about laughter for valid literary and historiological reasons. "Herodotus believes either that both nature (better, the gods' direction of it) and human nature coincide sufficiently, ''or'' that the latter is but an aspect or analogue of the former, so that to the recipient the outcome is suggested."<ref name="DL matter" /> When reporting laughter, Herodotus does so in the conviction that it tells the reader something about the future and/or the character of the person laughing. It is also in this sense that it is not coincidental that in about 80% of the times when Herodotus speaks about laughter it is followed by a retribution. "Men whose laughter deserves report are marked, because laughter connotes scornful disdain, disdain feeling of superiority, and this feeling and the actions which stem from it attract the wrath of the gods."<ref name="DL matter" />

===Modern===
{{see also|Theories of humor}}

[[File:Harold Lloyd Portrait in Who's Who on the Screen.jpg|thumb|Comedian [[Harold Lloyd]] laughing]]There is a wide range of experiences with laughter. A 1999 study by two humor researchers asked 80 people to keep a daily laughter record, and found they laughed an average of 18 times per day. However, their study also found a wide range, with some people laughing as many as 89 times per day, and others laughing as few as 0 times per day.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Martin|first1=Rod A|last2=Kuiper|first2=Nicholas A|date=1999|title=Daily occurrence of laughter: Relationships with age, gender, and Type A personality|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269621027|journal=Humor|volume=12|issue=4|pages=355–384|doi=10.1515/humr.1999.12.4.355|s2cid=144221387|via=ResearchGate}}</ref>

====Hobbes====
[[Thomas Hobbes]] wrote, "The passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own formerly."{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

====Schopenhauer====
Philosopher [[Arthur Schopenhauer]] devotes the 13th chapter of the first part of his major work, ''[[The World as Will and Representation]]'', to laughter.

====Nietzsche====
<!-- <ref>[[Paul E. Kirkland]] ''Nietzsche's Honest Masks: From Truth to Nobility "Beyond Good and Evil"'', The Review of Politics, Vol. 66, No. 4. (Autumn 2004), pp. 575–604.https://www.jstor.org/stable/4149163 </ref> --> 
[[Friedrich Nietzsche]] distinguishes two different purposes for the use of laughter. In a positive sense, "man uses the comical as a therapy against the restraining jacket of logic, morality and reason. He needs from time to time a harmless demotion from reason and hardship and in this sense laughter has a positive character for Nietzsche."<ref>[[Tarmo Kunnas|Kunnas, Tarmo]]. ''Nietzsches lachen: Eine studie über das Komische bei Nietzsche'', Edition Wissenschaft & literatur, 1982, p. 42</ref> Laughter can, however, also have a negative connotation when it is used for the expression of social conflict. This is expressed, for instance, in ''[[The Gay Science]]'': "Laughter – Laughter means to be [[schadenfroh]], but with clear conscience."<ref>Nietzsche, KSA 3, p. 506</ref>

"Possibly Nietzsche's works would have had a totally different effect, if the playful, ironical and joking in his writings would have been factored in better."<ref>Kunnas, Tarmo. ''Nietzsches lachen'', p.149.</ref>

====Bergson====
In ''[[Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic]]'', French philosopher [[Henri Bergson]], renowned for his philosophical studies on materiality, memory, life and [[consciousness]], tries to determine the laws of the comic and to understand the fundamental causes of comic situations.<ref>Henri Bergson, Le Rire, [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Rire._Essai_sur_la_signification_du_comique/Avant-propos ''Avant-Propos''] on Wikisource {{in lang|fr}}</ref> His method consists in determining the causes of the comic instead of analyzing its effects. He also deals with laughter in relation to human life, collective imagination and [[art]], to have a better knowledge of society.<ref>Bergson, Henri. ''Le Rire'', [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Rire._Essai_sur_la_signification_du_comique/Pr%C3%A9face "Préface"] on Wikisource {{in lang|fr}}</ref> One of the theories of the essay is that laughter, as a collective activity, has a social and moral role, in forcing people to eliminate their vices. It is a factor of uniformity of behaviours, as it condemns ludicrous and eccentric behaviours.<ref>Bergson, Henri. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4352/4352-h/4352-h.htm ''Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic''], Chapter I (II) – online version on [[Project Gutenberg]]</ref>

====Ludovici====
[[Anthony Ludovici]] developed the thoughts of Hobbes even further in ''[[The Secret of Laughter]]''. His conviction is that there's something sinister in laughter, and that the modern omnipresence of humour and the idolatry of it are signs of societal weakness, as instinctive resort to humour became a sort of escapism from responsibility and action. Ludovici considered laughter to be an evolutionary trait and he offered many examples of different triggers for laughter with their own distinct explanations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anthonymludovici.com/sl_pre.htm|title=The Secret Of Laughter Preface, Introduction|website=www.anthonymludovici.com}}</ref>

====Bellieni====
[[Carlo Bellieni]] examined laughter in an essay published in ''New Ideas in Psychology''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bellieni |first1=Carlo V. |title=Laughter: A signal of ceased alarm toward a perceived incongruity between life and stiffness |journal=New Ideas in Psychology |date=1 January 2023 |volume=68 |pages=100977 |doi=10.1016/j.newideapsych.2022.100977 |s2cid=251826870 }}</ref> He wrote we can strip back laughter to a three-step process. First, it needs a situation that seems odd and induces a sense of incongruity (bewilderment or panic). Second, the worry or stress the incongruous situation has provoked must be worked out and overcome (resolution). Third, the actual release of laughter acts as an all-clear siren to alert bystanders (relief) that they are safe.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bellieni |first1=Carlo Valerio |title=Why do we laugh? New study considers possible evolutionary reasons behind this very human behaviour |url=https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-laugh-new-study-considers-possible-evolutionary-reasons-behind-this-very-human-behaviour-190193 |work=The Conversation |date=22 September 2022 }}</ref>