午夜剧场

Laughter is a familiar expression of emotion, but it is difficult to define when asked what it actually is. Many philosophers and psychologists have struggled to unravel its mysteries. They have described laughter as a sense of superiority, mechanical inelasticity, the release of pent-up psychic energy, or the incongruity between expectation and reality. While each explains one aspect of laughter, none are complete. Riddles do not look down on anyone and are not mechanical. Puns are not as grand as a release of energy, and motion sickness arises from a discrepancy between expectation and reality but is not funny.

I have always liked rakugo and comedy, so I wanted to research laughter someday. The catalyst was my appearance alongside Naoki Matayoshi on the NHK E-Tele program "Oikonomia." Hearing directly from him about the world of comedy inspired me to step into this unknown territory.

The source of laughter lies in the unnaturalness of the world. Laughter is the act of neither ignoring, nor trying to solve, nor getting angry at that unnaturalness. It involves accepting it with the mind, processing it, and finally releasing the heart. However, not everyone can laugh at any time. There must be certain conditions to reach that point. After receiving many hints from professors of psychology, brain science, and clinical psychology and reflecting on them, I arrived at two conditions: "familiarity with the subject that caused the unnaturalness" and "non-involvement in the unnaturalness." Because there is familiarity, one accepts it, but because of non-involvement, one can release the heart without becoming deeply entangled. Thus, the "Four-Stage Theory"—from the discovery/creation of unnaturalness to the release of the heart—was completed.

The hurdles to clearing these four stages rise or fall depending on our environment and the state of our own brains. This is the diversity of laughter. The comedy business can be interpreted as a competition to develop techniques that efficiently lower these hurdles.

It makes sense that the function of laughter did not atrophy. As humans evolved their brain functions and acquired high levels of sociality, they simultaneously had to confront stress unique to human beings. Laughter, which releases the heart from unnaturalness, became indispensable for such a species. We who live in the modern age should make more use of laughter.

NAKAJIMA Takanobu

午夜剧场 Press

212 pages, 1,800 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.