“The secret source of humor itself is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.” That sentiment, offered by no less an authority on humor than Mark Twain, is just one of many that link the funny bone to unhappiness. “Comedy equals tragedy plus time” is another.
On the other hand, laughter is the best medicine, right? Author and journalist Norman Cousins claimed that humor, delivered by funny movies and TV shows, helped him overcome a debilitating disease, according to his book “Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient.”
So which is it? Does humor come from and stand with misery? Or is comedy an antidote to depression?
Funny you should ask.
[Read: Go On, Laugh Your Heart Out. It’s Good for You.]
The Research Is “Complicated and Equivocal”
Another funny writer, E.B. White, famously said that analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog: You may learn something, but you end up with a dead frog. Research into the relationship between humor and mental illness is limited.
One study, out of Oxford University and published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, compared 523 comedians, 364 actors and 831 noncreative professionals. It concluded, “The creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis — both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,” the study’s author, Gordon Claridge, told the BBC. Specifically, comedians were less able to feel social and physical pleasure and had a darker overall view of humanity. But Claridge also admitted that these tendencies, along with the mania of bipolar disorder, might actually help funny people make new and humorous connections and in fact “underpin a creative cognitive style.”
Peter McGraw, an associate professor of marketing and psychology and director of the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado–Boulder, says that what we know about the connection between humor and depression is “complicated and equivocal.” People tend to believe that mental illness facilitates comedy, he says, mainly because of high-profile examples — most recently Robin Williams — of supposedly happy, funny people succumbing to depression and suicide. “Any time something [like Williams’ death] happens , I get phone calls,” says McGraw, who is also co-author of the “The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny.” “I can only say I am skeptical of the current narrative in academia and the press. For every Robin Williams, we ignore the Jimmy Fallons and Tina Feys of the world, who seem to be quite well-adjusted, happy, successful people.”
[See: Am I Just Sad — or Actually Depressed?]
The lack of convincing scientific evidence increases McGraw’s skepticism. “First, it is not clear [depression] is a comedy effect,” he says. “For example, the mortality of comedians is no different than other entertainers, which suggests the difference is not between normal people and comedians but between normal people and abnormal people. But that messes up the story that having a screwed-up childhood or some mental illness leads you to comedic genius.”
But McGraw sees other flaws with the theory. “The other problem is that none of the research has looked at the full range of mental illness,” he says. If comedy and depression are directly related, then increased levels of depression, from none to profound, should correlate with increased levels of humor. “Do you think the funny would improve if people became more depressed? Everything we know about depression suggests not,” he says. “Who are the least funny people in the world? Those with profound depression who have so little joy in their life.”
Is Laughter Healthful?
What about the other side — humor as therapy? That argument is stronger. Dr. John Denninger, director of research for the Benson-Henry Institute of Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, studies how people interact with the world and how that can influence physical and mental health. He directs a program that includes a session devoted to using humor as a positive coping strategy to stress because the effects are noteworthy –and, he says, “because I just like humor .”
“The most important thing about using humor as a coping mechanism is that you are consciously adopting it,” Denninger says. “You don’t use it as a way of being blind to what else is going on. Rather, you are choosing to use humor to deal with something consciously.”
[Read: Can Instagram Photos Suggest Who Might Have Depression?]
Can people be taught to be funny? Absolutely, he says. “Some people are more comfortable telling jokes, some are less natural, but you can definitely teach people that. I am not suggesting people take joke-telling classes, though there is nothing wrong with that. It is learning that you can view a terrible event as, ‘I am so miserable, why is the world punishing me,’ or you can choose to approach it from a humorous perspective. It is in the same vein as people who are naturally pessimistic can learn to take more optimistic stances.”
There is plenty of research showing that laughter has actual health benefits, including relieving stress, releasing mood-elevating endorphins, boosting immune system function and even protecting against cardiovascular disease. “A question intriguing me is: Can humor be used as some kind of therapy? ” Denninger says. “We teach people meditation and other mind-body practices to buffer stress. Could humor be used the same way?”
It’s not so funny to think that it could.
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What Does Comedy Tell Us About Depression? originally appeared on usnews.com
