The Relationship Between Health and Humor: Discerning Between Healthy Humor and Unhealthy Humor

Exploring the relationship between health and humor can be enlightening. If it is true that ‘laughter is the best medicine’, those who actively engage in humor should be the healthiest people in the world, but are they? Unfortunately, this is not necessarily true.

Understanding how health and humor are related is important.

What is humor?

The freedictionary.com suggests that humor is “the quality that makes something laughable or amusing” or has an aspect of “funniness”. It also refers to “that which is intended to induce laughter or amusement”, as well as “the ability to perceive, enjoy or express what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd”.    

What is health?

According to the World Health Organization, “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

One of the problems with humor has to do with the reality that that there can be humor that leads to health, as well as other kinds of humor that can lead to ill health.

In the article entitled, “20 types and forms of humor” by Mark Nichol, introduces different kinds of humor.  

“The ten different types of humor” by Lauren Ware, takes a different approach to humor, but this time in terms of potential mates. 

Humor itself is merely the quality of something.

While humor depends upon its intent to some extent, more importantly, the accurate perception of others and understanding their sense of humor is a major factor in terms of its degree of funniness. What humor does to others in terms of their health often varies.  

It is also true that people who are in a state of good health perceive humor differently than those who are unhealthy. A healthy state of mind is important when it comes to understanding humor.

Those who know how to use humor as a constructive tool for health know how powerful it can be in terms of addressing or even resolving different kinds of situations. It can effect positive changes and bring about conflict resolution with respect to human relationships.

Malicious humor or other kinds of humor that are adverse, negative and destructive can be hurtful to others, even those who have healthy minds.

Humor should be fun, but it can prove to be anything but fun, if people become the objects of cruel humor. While these kinds of humor may seem funny to some, others may not see it as funny at all and are aware of how it may affect their health or that of others, in a negative way.  

Understanding that humor is for the amusement of others, intended to make them laugh, keeps humor in its proper perspective.

Enjoying different kinds of good humor can be a healthy pastime for you, too. Discerning good humor from bad humor often requires good insight and discernment, but a regular dose of good humor can be healthy for everyone.