Narendra Raghunath: Fwd: From the Desk of Bob Mankoff

Dear Laughter Lovers,

Groucho Marx said laughing is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I think he was wrong, because, let's face it, you can have sex with your clothes on—most of them anyway. But I take his point, and I think the woman below would as well.

The ecstatic facial expressions caused by laughter have long been compared to the faces you make during that other pleasurable activity. Here is what the eminent sixteenth-century French physician and sleazebag Laurent Joubert had to say on the topic:

The fore-head expands itself, the eye-brows are depressed, the eye-lids narrow. The lips are drawn backwards and lengthened; the teeth are displaced; the cheeks are elevated, and tending to over stretch their muscles…

During this outrageous crisis, the whole body is bent, twisted in a manner as it were crumpled together; the hands throw themselves upon the sides, and there closely fasten: the face is soon dewed over with sweat; the voice is converted into groans, and breathing into smoothed sighs.

After that, no wonder he needed a cigarette.

Joubert's description suggests one hypothesis about why men like making women laugh. (That said, laughter during sex would be neither an aphrodisiac nor a compliment.) In any case, a recent survey showed that one out of eight personals seek a partner with a G.S.O.H. (a good sense of humor) The other seven don't mention it, but no one is asking for someone with N.S.O.H. Even a B.S.O.H. would be better than that.

For both sexes, obviously, humor is pleasurable. Is it more pleasurable than sex? Well, that might depend on the sex you're having.

Brain scans show that certain areas light up when people experience humor, although men and women have different pleasure centers, as indicated by the green arrows.

If you're confused about the differences, ask your nearest neuroscientist—or remove the green arrows.

While both men and women think humor is very important for a relationship, it's no guarantee of compatibility. It turns out that the sexes have somewhat different ideas of what a G.S.O.H. means. To oversimplify, or maybe undercomplicate, for men it means women who laugh at their jokes, and for women it's men who make them laugh—more than once.

While you are pondering all this humor pontification, please take time out to attend a Cartoon Kit Cocktail Party, where you'll have the opportunity to make everyone laugh more than once.

Cheers,