What Makes us Laugh?

Voltaire proved that comedy can be the most serious form of social criticism. But I'm here to talk about laughter. Why do we laugh? I think laughter is the sole key to having an excellent relationship with anyone else. You can't laugh, then game over. Really if you've never laughed with someone are they really your friend?

Oh you might think to yourself: "I'm not a comedian, I'm not funny, so I just have to get by without jokes."

Wrong!

Humor is a skill. It can be learned. Who am I to talk? At least my brother thinks I'm funny, or so I hope. I guess I really can't talk because most of my friends, perhaps even ones reading this shake their heads because they know I don't have jokes. I applaud the people who are just naturally funny. I wish I had that skill because I think it's a sort of charisma, but you have to be careful in the approach. For one, talking like Zuckerberg and sounding like a robot is not it. It's more of just an innate behavior learned from social interaction. Funny videos and humor is literally just something that's unexpected with context. Gen Z humor is so broken that showing a random picture and bass boosting is good enough to elicit a laugh. I don't think anyone is able to be so sophisticated in witty banter anymore, but that's just my take.