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as we wrap up the eighth week of social distancing and isolation, there’s not much to laugh about.after all, the stress of living basically the same day over and over, daily updates of new covid-19 cases, deaths, job losses and economic woes, is nothing to joke about. or is it?the answer is at least a little, in some indeterminate measurement, given that humour is the most subjective of sensibilities. it’s not that these things are literally funny, they’re tragic in infinite ways. the damage is here and it is immediate. and so finding the humour in any of this might just be necessary for both our individual, and collective, sanity.psychologist meghan reid points to the work of columbia university’s george bonanno and his loss, trauma and emotion lab, where he has conducted research on how humans cope with loss, potential trauma, and other forms of extreme life events for the past 25 years.“the biggest difference in people who demonstrate resilience and those who don’t is their perception — how they conceptualize a traumatic situation,” says reid. “one way to conceptualize something is in a humourous way. it’s all the little things that happen in your day to day life, how do you perceive them?”one of bonanno’s studies on laughter and bereavement focused on people who were six months post-loss, and was published back in 1997 in the journal of personality and social psychology with dacher keltner from the university of california. the authors state in the abstract that “laughter facilitates the adaptive response to stress by increasing the psychological distance from distress and by enhancing social relations.”the study found that duchenne laughter (laughing with the eyes, a wider smile) was related to more self-reports of reduced anger and increased enjoyment, the dissociation of distress, better social relations, and positive responses from strangers than non-duchenne laughter. in other words, the scale of your laughter is tied to what most people would consider to be general happiness.humour is the way we cope, and that recognition of similar humour can help our interpersonal relationships, which is probably all the more important depending on who you’re locked in the house with.one doesn’t have to look far on social media to find jokes. there’s plenty that mock our collective trudge through this decades-long year, for example.
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it’s also a good time for satire sites, like this mcsweeney’s article, “sure, the velociraptors are on the loose, but that’s no reason not to reopen jurassic park.” other jokes have poked fun at the fact that we all seem to have the same hobbies in quarantine.
according to jordan friesen, the national director for workplace mental health at the canadian mental health association (cmha), that humour arising from talking about negative emotions or taboo subjects can help to naturally relax us the part of the brain known as the limbic system, which regulates emotional reaction to stimulus. this is known as the release theory. the limbic system is in charge of regulating endocrine system, the collection of glands that are responsible for our mood, as well as our sexual function and sleep, among other things. the idea is that laughter lets us release stress, tension and pent-up emotion.not all humour is built equally towards strengthening resilience. humour related to putting others down, friesen says, as well as sarcasm and self-deprecation won’t do much for your mental well-being. the kinds that do help are the ones that are shared between people, like inside jokes and memes.“we know from research on disasters and crisis recovery that what helps communities and people bounce back fastest is social connection within that community,” says friesen. “so you can also think of humour as a way of building and enabling social connection.”parents struggling with taking care of their rowdy kids at home while still trying to clock in a nine to five can find the humour in the chaos from parents in a similar situation, even while simultaneously pulling their hair out. or millennials, who i can attest are already well-versed in cynical humour, might find some calm in each other recognizing just how messed up this all is.even healthcare workers have found time for a bit of comedy or celebration, in the briefest of minutes they have to themselves between care for patients.
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frontline healthcare workers in particular may utilize humour in order to deal with the daily exposure to trauma.“we can’t change the rules we’re supposed to follow, we can’t change that the pandemic is happening, but we can control the way we perceive it and the way we think about it,” says reid.which is true. part of coping means realizing you can’t change things and the realization that other people feel that way too. pre-pandemic, that might have taken shape in a couple of jokes and drinks at the wake of a relative. now, it might be remarking on the existential loneliness of quarantine or the ineptitude of governments around the world in dealing with this crisis. individually, in the moment, we can’t do anything about any of that, but we can have a laugh.“to say that [the shared experience of humour] is a population health intervention might be going too far but to say there’s the possibility for positive impact at a larger scale i think is fair,” says friesen. “i think it’s enhanced when it’s not just 150,000 people seeing the same joke, but sharing it and interacting around it that it becomes most helpful. it becomes something we all have in common.”at the same time, one can’t become too reliant on on just the one coping mechanism. “if it’s the only tool in your toolbox, you’re going to wear it out,” says friesen. like anything else, it’s good to have multiple strategies, whether that’s exercise or talking to your therapist.i asked reid if she herself took solace in any humour during this time. she said yes, but when pressed for an example, came up short: “off the top of my head? no… oh my gosh that’s not a good answer.”if any readers are fans of anti-humour, maybe they’ll appreciate that. if not, then you’ll have to turn to the myriad tweets and memes out there collectively lightening the weight of this entire ordeal.nsokic@postmedia.com | @sokic_nicholas sokic is a reporter at healthing.ca
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