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Laughter is a pleasant physical reaction and emotion consisting usually of rhythmical, usually audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter can rise from such activities as being tickled, [1] or from humorous stories, imagery, videos or ...
Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement.The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.
From the Oxford English Dictionary, "A fixed, grin-like expression resulting from spasm of facial muscles, esp. in tetanus." Also: [Convulsion of the] facial muscles may cause a characteristic expression called Risus sardonicus (from the Latin for scornful laughter) or Risus caninus (from the Latin for doglike laughter or grinning). This facial ...
Paradoxical laughter has been consistently identified as a recurring emotional-cognitive symptom in schizophrenia diagnosis. Closely linked to paradoxical laughter is the symptom; inappropriate affect, defined by the APA Dictionary of Psychology as "emotional responses that are not in keeping with the situation or are incompatible with expressed thoughts or wishes". [3]
Knismesis refers to the light, feather-like type of tickling. This type of tickling generally does not induce laughter and is often accompanied by an itching sensation. [2] Gargalesis refers to harder, laughter-inducing tickling, and involves the repeated application of high pressure to sensitive areas. [2]
To understand laughter in humans and other primates, the science of gelotology (from the Greek gelos, meaning laughter) has been established; it is the study of laughter and its effects on the body from both a psychological and physiological perspective. While jokes can provoke laughter, laughter cannot be used as a one-to-one marker of jokes ...
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From the American critical perspective, the British slang term can also carry a deeper secondary meaning: by breaking character, the actor has pulled the audience out of the dramatic work and back to reality, effectively killed the character they are attempting to portray, and figuratively turned the character into a corpse. [1]