Hahaha

[serai]

.

I'm not much of a one for baby culture, but this damn clip is hilarious:


Laughing rugrat


This brings up some interesting questions for me. Is laughter a learned response? One might think so, but this chiclet seems to have mastered it rather thoroughly for one so very young. So if it isn't learned, is it then the intellectual connection that we make between the idea of "funny" and the act of laughing that's learned? How exactly is this little guy reacting to the sound that makes him laugh? He has no language as of yet, and his thinking processes are still rudimentary, so what is going on when he laughs? The repetitive, reactive nature of his response makes me wonder if there's any kind of intellectual component to it at all. Perhaps it's completely a reflex.

In any case, it's really freaking funny. Laughter is, as many have proven, definitely contagious. Watch it and you'll see.

Comments

[gloryunderhill.livejournal.com]

OMG! That was so cute! He's laughing so honestly and so hysterically. I don't know enough about early cognitive development to even take a guess at your ponderings, but the video sure did tickle me.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

It is interesting as well as cute. His laughter sounds so developed - apart from the high pitch of his voice, he sounds like any number of adults I know caught in a laughing fit. That's what got me really thinking about what I was watching.

But yeah, really freaking cute!

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

It turns out that mice and other animals laugh when you tickle them. They just do it at such a high pitch that we can't hear it without special equipment. Why nobody tried this ages ago, I have no idea. Given that, it seems to me logical that human babies would be born with the ability and propensity to laugh. However, I suspect (know) that one's sense of humor is largely dependent on nurture. How much is nature is beyond my ken, although I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of it were hard-wired, as is the innate love or hatred of certain types of music. That last has been shown in some study or other that I have, as usual, misplaced in my brain. Everyone has in-born preferences for music, and they vary from person to person. We can acquire the taste for other types of music as we go through life, but our birth preferences remain strong.

Humor strikes me as having a similar personal resonance. Might we be born with certain humorous leanings? Slapstick in some cases, for instance? It's a really interesting thing to consider, imho. Thanks for bringing it up! :)

Catherine