Why We Laugh

This is part of a chapter from the Book Comedy Writing Secrets by Mel Helitzer. I do find it amusing and I have so much respects for comedians ( actors,stand up comedians, my dad and brother in their own ways ). So let me share what the intro on what makes us laugh...

The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.—Dorothy Parker

Aristotle studied it, and Socrates debated it. Such famous historical figures as Charles Darwin, Thomas Hobbes, and Henri Bergson wrote papers on their humor theories. In the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud, Max Eastman, and even Woody Allen tried to formulate clear explanations of the purpose of humor.
In fact, there's been more research on humor in the last decade than in all previous centuries combined. Humor has played an important part in our lives for thousands of years, but scientists and philosophers
are still working to understand what laughter means, why we tell jokes, and why we do or don't appreciate other people's humor.
Despite the prowess of the minds that have considered the subject, answers are far from definitive. Like rabbis in the eternal debate over the meaning of the Talmud, every scholar of comedy interprets its subjective
phenomena in terms of his own discipline. Today, there is more diversity of opinion than ever.

So much remains to be done that the student of humor has a real opportunity to make a significant contribution to the field.—Jeffrey Goldstein and Paul McGhee

The only common denominator among the theories is an agreement that humor is so subjective that no one theory can possibly fit in all instances. For those interested in creating humor, there is good news and bad
news. The good news is that if humor has so many tangents, it may have an unlimited variety of benefits. Most of them have yet to be discovered.The bad news is that those who create comedy are not sure they know
exactly what they're doing. "I work strictly on instinct," Woody Allen admitted. Humor writers therefore have to live with the fear that they won't be able to continue producing humor consistently.
After being an established writer for fifteen years, I remember staring at the typewriter every morning with a desperate, random groping for something funny, that familiar fear that I couldn't do it, that I had been getting away with it all this time and I would at last be found out.

[It was] a painful blundering most of us went through. —Sol Saks

There are few artists more insecure than humorists. They are traditionally suspicious of any attempt to analyze their creative techniques.That's because they develop their formulas through trial and error.
They discover comedy batting averages; some techniques work more often than others.

I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.—Steve Martin

....reason for laughter on next post. =)