Long ago before civilization, something revolutionary happened. With increasing group sizes, our ubersocial ancestors were finding it increasingly difficult to devote time to the universal monkey bonding ritual of grooming and delousing each other. Tired of the day’s share of hunting, gathering and running away from predators, one of these primate groups decided to enjoy their evening meal, and made light grunts while doing so in the safety of their shelters. Soon, the entire troop caught on to the idea of grunting at each other to bond and share a feeling of well-being, an exchange which was powerful and useful enough to sustain the rigid filters of evolution. It also seemed to speed up their bonding rituals because it was getting difficult to delouse dozens of relatives and still get any work done. Just like that, laughter was born, and it redefined the future of the human race.
Laughter is the quickest and surest way to establish a friendly atmosphere across cultures. Unsurprisingly, smiles and laughter are universally recognized by every single society on earth, and play an enormous role in the personal and social life of humans. In fact, research has shown that most of human laughter doesn’t come from listening to witty jokes or reading cutting edge satire, but it comes from ordinary day-to-day pleasantries where nothing particularly funny takes place. We laugh when we interact with people we love or like, when we’re making small talk with complete strangers, when we see puppies and kids be their goofy selves. Our laughter is our primary expression of joy, approval, friendliness and appreciation.
Laughter is a global asset, one that binds us all together, and it needs to be protected as one. Now what does that mean? That means protecting the things which make us laugh, and protecting the atmosphere which nurtures well-being. To make a bold claim, a lot can be inferred about a society by the way it protects the things that make us laugh. For the most part, people tend to agree on this. We strive for a safe community and minimize natural and human hazards. We teach our kids to be kind and value family and social relationships. But there is one area where human reaction is not so universal, and that is humor, specifically satire.
When you slip over ice and fall down, your friends and family have a hearty chuckle, but your dog will be worried and nuzzle up against you. The unexpected mundane is funny to us, whereas it makes most other animals just confused or worried. Jokes are funny because of the shock value they bring with them, the radical shift in the train of thoughts. This coupling of shock value with laughter is a very human trait. This ability of humor makes it a very potent tool, because what makes us laugh attracts us, and what attracts us has the power to inspire us. Throughout history, satire has been a powerful tool to voice dissent and bring about change, and has faced the scorn of the oppressor. From the ancient Greek stories of Diogenes’ mockery of Alexander the Great to the Islamic tales of the “wise idiot” Nasruddin, from Voltaire’s razor sharp opinions on freedom and authority to Kabir’s criticism of the prevailing Hindu-Muslim dogmas, we see satire being used as a tool to shake people out of prejudiced thought processes and consider the more intricate aspects of things. Many poets and religious figures have employed satire as a means of questioning social and religious norms. In fact, there is an entire lineage of religious traditions like Zen, that revolve around using satire and irony as a means of harshly pointing out paradoxes in the way humans and society work, leading us to ponder about our worldview and possibly bring about an inner awakening.
There are places in the world today where harmless religious parody and political satire can get you imprisoned. There are nations where constitutional ideals of liberty and equality are not fully actualized in practice because of a multitude of social factors, where the freedom of speech is quite restricted in an attempt to maintain social harmony. For many non-westerners, exposure to western culture brings with it a shocking experience of a whole new level of freedom of speech, and also exposes them to the challenges of tolerating the same.
A mature society is one where freedom of speech is protected irrespective of the fact that it can hamper those in power or make a section of the society uncomfortable. A society which protects humor creates a safe space for people to express ideas and learn to mingle with contrary and controversial opinions. Humor acts as an indicator, and the way a society deals with it gives us insights into deeper problems. In this era of internet memes and 4chan green text, we are actually seeing powerful messages shared through the medium of casually formatted light hearted snippets of text. So don’t be afraid to laugh at a silly joke or create a sillier one, because our humor is the one thing we all need to take seriously right now!
