I'm always mentioning the Hidden Brain podcast--it's about the brain science of human behavior and does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.
(Actually, that's beer, you know--(no, "malt"! (ale))--but neuroscience does peel back layers of what seems to be ineffable mystery, and says--a-ha! here's the (or, a) mechanism at work.)
This week's episode is maybe my favorite yet--it's on laughter.
To listen, click "play" arrow in blue circle to left on this page:
www.npr.org/2019/01/10/683966604/the-best-medicine-decoding-the-hidden-meanings-of-laughter
Laughter: "A pure example of contagious behavior", says Sophie Scott, who studies the neuroscience of laughter at University College London.
Can you to listen to the two BBC broadcasters––starts at 10:20––breaking up on the air and not laugh?
I was gasping.
Elaine May and Mike Nichols:
(Actually, that's beer, you know--(no, "malt"! (ale))--but neuroscience does peel back layers of what seems to be ineffable mystery, and says--a-ha! here's the (or, a) mechanism at work.)
This week's episode is maybe my favorite yet--it's on laughter.
To listen, click "play" arrow in blue circle to left on this page:
www.npr.org/2019/01/10/683966604/the-best-medicine-decoding-the-hidden-meanings-of-laughter
Laughter: "A pure example of contagious behavior", says Sophie Scott, who studies the neuroscience of laughter at University College London.
Can you to listen to the two BBC broadcasters––starts at 10:20––breaking up on the air and not laugh?
I was gasping.
Elaine May and Mike Nichols:
I was laughing with no idea of what was funny, save for the laughter.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t know the term “breaking.” With performers, that cracking up is (also?) called “corpsing.” Maybe it's called “breaking” there as well.
Definitely, the laughing is contagious even if what may be said is not funny.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching the Carol Burnett show where Tim Conway would be talking and Carol and Harvey Corman were cracking up and couldn't continue but there was Tim just continuing the scene. I didn't realize until later that they filmed the show live and each one tried to make the rest of the cast crack up.
Elaine and Mike were great together.
Kirsten
MICHAEL & KIRSTEN: Thanks for the reports back!
ReplyDeleteI'd laughed a lot on the first hearing of that BBC break-up, and it was only listening to it a 2nd time that I caught what the announcers were even laughing about:
one of the announcers has said, "He just couldn't get his leg over," Brit slang, you know, for having sex.
"Corpsing"--now there's an odd term!