Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ames!amdahl!pyramid!uccba!uceng!dmocsny
From: dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Artificial intelligence and laughter
Summary: The best medicine
Keywords: laughter
Message-ID: <347@uceng.UC.EDU>
Date: 28 Oct 88 05:19:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: uceng.347
References: <448@soleil.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati, College of Engg.
Lines: 25

In article <448@soleil.UUCP>, peru@soleil.UUCP (Dave Peru) writes:
> I am serious.  Many people say to me "you must be joking".  I believe
> humor is the brain's way of unknotting itself.  There are some thoughts
> that will cause your brain to go into an "infinite loop".

Amateur psychologist that I am, too stupid to know better than to
reveal my idiocy before this distinguished audience, I offer the
following tidbit dredged from the rancid backwaters of my incomplete
knowledge base:

I have heard that laughter may be a way for the brain to react to
thoughts it cannot rationalize, as a way of avoiding having to
confront hopelessness. For example, the following Woody Allen 
vignette is initially funny

``Two women are talking about a restaurant they don't like. 
First woman: `The food is horrible.'
Second woman: `And such small portions.' ''

but when Woody tells us it sums up his attitude toward life, too
 horrible and absurdly short, what we are laughing at is not
pretty. So sometimes laughter is a way to avoid really facing
something awful. Like the quality of this article.

Dan Mocsny
``Can I go home now? Oh yeah, I am home.''