Why Do We Laugh When Glad?
We laugh when glad because the things which make us laugh combine together to rouse those parts of the body which are involved in a good laugh to act in a certain harmony, and when this combination is arranged in a certain way it produces a laugh. Certain things in the world, whether they are funny, ludicrous, or other things that produce the laughing effect, cause the brain to work certain muscles and nerves in a combination that produces a laugh. The impression which reaches the brain causes these muscles and nerves to act involuntarily and the laugh comes. It works just like the keys of the piano. Some combinations of notes produce sad sounds and other combinations produce glad sounds, but the combination when once touched will always produce the same sound. It is the impressions made on the brain which start the proper combination, and it does this instantly. Just as a pin prick in the arm will at once send a “hurt” message to the brain and cause the brain to jerk the arm away, so a laugh-producing combination of sounds, or things we see, or feel, sends an impression to the brain which at once sends out the “laugh” order. Some things make some people laugh while they do not affect others at all. That is because our brains are not always the same in regard to recording impressions. Some things impress some brains one way and others entirely in a different way or not at all. You do not laugh so heartily the second time you hear a funny story, because the impression the brain receives when the story is told the second time is not so vivid.