Hilarity-maker extraordinaire, Mel Brooks, somewhat famously said: “I cut my finger. That’s tragedy. A man walks into an open sewer and dies. That’s comedy.” But a new scientific study might turn that idea on its tail, if just a bit:
A good laugh may not only lift your mood, but can make you more cooperative and altruistic towards strangers.
Laughter, a universal human behavior, has been shown in previous studies to act as a “social lubricant” and promote group cohesiveness. In this new study, researchers tested whether this sense of closeness would promote altruistic behavior.
You can read the details of the study by clicking on this sentence. But in a nutshell (what kind of nutshell I’m not really sure, I mean, seriously, you really can’t fit much in a nutshell but a nut) the study involved an “investment game.” Participants were broken into small groups and each individual could either invest their “money” in either “a private fund or a group fund — they would get back whatever they put in the private fund, while whatever was contributed to the group fund would be doubled and split evenly among group members, regardless of how much each person put in.” The groups were shown either serious films or ridiculous films before the investing. What the researchers discovered was that giggles lead to lending to the group fund, demonstrating an increase in altruism and a decrease in selfishness.
So, in the spirit of that, here are three video clips we hope will make you chuckle, guffaw, and maybe even, as the kids say, “ROFL.” After each video is a link to a charity we give “big ups.” Maybe a little laughter will be good medicine for these organizations.
Mel Brooks first film, a short, titled “The Critic.”
Anne Bancroft, Mel Brooks’ wife, died of uterine cancer. Please consider donating to the Gynecological Cancer Foundation.
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Here’s a clip of one of our fave stand-ups at Progressive Wednesday, Kathleen Madigan, doing a bit from her DVD and CD In Other Words.
A charity we deeply admire is Operation Smile, an organization that helps provide surgery to children around the world born with facial deformities. Maybe give a small gift today.
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In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, a few days late, here’s a clip from the Simpsons.
A good friend of Progressive Wednesday works for Big Brothers Big Sisters. A little green goes a long way with this organization.
