Can Laughter Make the World a Better Place?

Can Laughter Make the World a Better Place? PDF Author: Shawn R. Tucker
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666732990
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
On one side is snide, arrogant, dismissive, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise abusive laughter. On the other side is laughter that is warm and supportive, compassionate and forgiving, encouraging, lifting, and healing. And there is so much in between. Such great differences in laughter lead to the question—can laughter make the world a better place? This book uses television shows like M*A*S*H and Malcolm in the Middle, movies like Zombieland and Life Is Beautiful, novels like A Confederacy of Dunces and The Sellout, insights by neuroscientists, philosophers, painters, social and political scientists, and an undocumented man and his daughter, as well as ideas from people like C. S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud, Brené Brown, Tiffany Haddish, and Hannah Gadsby to answer that question.

Can Laughter Make the World a Better Place?

Can Laughter Make the World a Better Place? PDF Author: Shawn R. Tucker
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666732990
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 146

Get Book Here

Book Description
On one side is snide, arrogant, dismissive, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise abusive laughter. On the other side is laughter that is warm and supportive, compassionate and forgiving, encouraging, lifting, and healing. And there is so much in between. Such great differences in laughter lead to the question—can laughter make the world a better place? This book uses television shows like M*A*S*H and Malcolm in the Middle, movies like Zombieland and Life Is Beautiful, novels like A Confederacy of Dunces and The Sellout, insights by neuroscientists, philosophers, painters, social and political scientists, and an undocumented man and his daughter, as well as ideas from people like C. S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud, Brené Brown, Tiffany Haddish, and Hannah Gadsby to answer that question.

Can Laughter Make the World a Better Place?

Can Laughter Make the World a Better Place? PDF Author: Shawn R. Tucker
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666727210
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 137

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Book Description
On one side is snide, arrogant, dismissive, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise abusive laughter. On the other side is laughter that is warm and supportive, compassionate and forgiving, encouraging, lifting, and healing. And there is so much in between. Such great differences in laughter lead to the question--can laughter make the world a better place? This book uses television shows like M*A*S*H and Malcolm in the Middle, movies like Zombieland and Life Is Beautiful, novels like A Confederacy of Dunces and The Sellout, insights by neuroscientists, philosophers, painters, social and political scientists, and an undocumented man and his daughter, as well as ideas from people like C. S. Lewis, Sigmund Freud, Brene Brown, Tiffany Haddish, and Hannah Gadsby to answer that question.

The Age-Well Project

The Age-Well Project PDF Author: Annabel Streets
Publisher: Piatkus Books
ISBN: 9780349419695
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Diseases of older age take root decades before symptoms appear. For a longer, happier life, we need to plan ahead - but what exactly should we do? For five years, Annabel Streets and Susan Saunders immersed themselves in the latest science of longevity, radically overhauling their lives and documenting their findings on their popular blog. After reading hundreds of studies and talking to numerous experts, Annabel and Susan have compiled almost 100 short cuts to health in mid and later life, including: how, when and what to eat; the supplements worth taking; when, where and how to exercise; the most useful medical tests; how to avoid health-threatening chemicals; the best methods for keeping the brain sharp; and how to sleep better.

Inside Jokes

Inside Jokes PDF Author: Matthew M. Hurley
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262518694
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
An evolutionary and cognitive account of the science behind why we crack up—“one of the most complex and sophisticated humor theories ever presented” (Evolutionary Psychology). Some things are funny—jokes, puns, sitcoms, Charlie Chaplin, The Far Side, Malvolio with his yellow garters crossed—but why? Why does humor exist in the first place? Why do we spend so much of our time passing on amusing anecdotes, making wisecracks, watching The Simpsons? In Inside Jokes, Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett, and Reginald Adams offer an evolutionary and cognitive perspective. Humor, they propose, evolved out of a computational problem that arose when our long-ago ancestors were furnished with open-ended thinking. Mother Nature—aka natural selection—cannot just order the brain to find and fix all our time-pressured misleaps and near-misses. She has to bribe the brain with pleasure. So we find them funny. This wired-in source of pleasure has been tickled relentlessly by humorists over the centuries, and we have become addicted to the endogenous mind candy that is humor.

Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage

Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage PDF Author: Mark Gungor
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416558799
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
By using his unique blend of humor and tell-it-like-it-is honesty, he helps couples get along and have fun doing it.

A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar

A Comedian and an Activist Walk into a Bar PDF Author: Caty Borum Chattoo
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520299760
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
Comedy is a powerful contemporary source of influence and information. In the still-evolving digital era, the opportunity to consume and share comedy has never been as available. And yet, despite its vast cultural imprint, comedy is a little-understood vehicle for serious public engagement in urgent social justice issues – even though humor offers frames of hope and optimism that can encourage participation in social problems. Moreover, in the midst of a merger of entertainment and news in the contemporary information ecology, and a decline in perceptions of trust in government and traditional media institutions, comedy may be a unique force for change in pressing social justice challenges. Comedians who say something serious about the world while they make us laugh are capable of mobilizing the masses, focusing a critical lens on injustices, and injecting hope and optimism into seemingly hopeless problems. By combining communication and social justice frameworks with contemporary comedy examples, authors Caty Borum Chattoo and Lauren Feldman show us how comedy can help to serve as a vehicle of change. Through rich case studies, audience research, and interviews with comedians and social justice leaders and strategists, A Comedian and an Activist Walk Into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice explains how comedy – both in the entertainment marketplace and as cultural strategy – can engage audiences with issues such as global poverty, climate change, immigration, and sexual assault, and how activists work with comedy to reach and empower publics in the networked, participatory digital media age.

Laughter

Laughter PDF Author: Robert R. Provine
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101659254
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Do men and women laugh at the same things? Is laughter contagious? Has anyone ever really died laughing? Is laughing good for your health? Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject.

Crying Laughing

Crying Laughing PDF Author: Lance Rubin
Publisher: Ember
ISBN: 0525644709
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
A tragicomic story of bad dates, bad news, bad performances, and one girl's determination to find the funny in high school from the author of Denton Little's Deathdate. Winnie Friedman has been waiting for the world to catch on to what she already knows: she's hilarious. It might be a long wait, though. After bombing a stand-up set at her own bat mitzvah, Winnie has kept her jokes to herself. Well, to herself and her dad, a former comedian and her inspiration. Then, on the second day of tenth grade, the funniest guy in school actually laughs at a comment she makes in the lunch line and asks her to join the improv troupe. Maybe he's even . . . flirting? Just when Winnie's ready to say yes to comedy again, her father reveals that he's been diagnosed with ALS. That is . . . not funny. Her dad's still making jokes, though, which feels like a good thing. And Winnie's prepared to be his straight man if that's what he wants. But is it what he needs? Caught up in a spiral of epically bad dates, bad news, and bad performances, Winnie's struggling to see the humor in it all. But finding a way to laugh is exactly what will see her through. **A Junior Library Guild Selection**

Inside Comedy

Inside Comedy PDF Author: David Steinberg
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813197570
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
David Steinberg's name has been synonymous with comedy for decades. The Canadian-born comedian, producer, writer, director, and author has been called "a comic institution himself" by the New York Times. He appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 140 times (second only to Bob Hope), and directed episodes of popular television sitcoms, including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, Friends, Mad About You, The Golden Girls, and Designing Women. From 2012–2015, Steinberg hosted the comedy documentary series Inside Comedy, which featured such comedy greats as Billy Crystal, Chris Rock, and Gary Shandling. In this entertaining history of comedy, Steinberg shares insightful memories of his journey through his career and takes the reader behind the curtain of the comedy scene of the last half-century. Steinberg shares amusing and often hilarious stories and anecdotes from some of the most legendary comedians in the industry—from Groucho Marx, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, and Richard Pryor to Lily Tomlin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Tina Fey. Inside Comedy presents in-depth portraits of some of the most talented and revered comedians in the world of comedy today.

The Laughter Effect

The Laughter Effect PDF Author: Ros Ben-Moshe
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
ISBN: 163910576X
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Laughter really can be the best medicine, and in this transformative body-mind guide, acclaimed wellness expert Ros Ben-Moshe shares the prescription. In The Laughter Effect, Ros Ben-Moshe provides a roadmap to tap into the lighter side of life with laughter therapy. Ben-Moshe shares tips and tools to achieve an intentional state of being she calls the Laughter Effect–a way to elevate mindfulness, gratitude, and self-compassion. When used regularly, it enhances resilience to stress, enabling you to respond to adversity and bounce forward with humor, levity, and grace. Drawing on research from around the world, practice and wisdom from humor and laughter therapy, and positive psychology and neuroscience, Ben-Moshe shows you how to use the energy of laughter and joy to counter stress hormones and stimulate a daily dose of positive wellbeing with “happy hormones.” The techniques, strategies and practices you’ll learn can transform your physical, mental, social and emotional landscape. Viewing life through a laughter lens will awaken a positive change in yourself, how you respond to the world and, in turn, how the world responds to you.