Have you ever really thought about the content of some commedians’ scripts? Or even listened to the meanings of the words that you are laughing at? Often, the content really is funny, it may be a clever pun, or other play on words. It could be the punch line of an absurd story and your laughter is healthy. Other times, there is nothing intrinisicly funny at all. When this happens, you are experiencing Gallow Laughter.
Galows Laughter is one of the processes that are termed Discounts in Transactional Analysis (TA). These are occasions when you give an unrealistic value to yourself, another or a situation. The problem with a discount in any of the three modes is that each of the other modes is affected, too. For example, If you are a woman of five foot ten inches and you say “I’m not tall, I’m average” then what are you saying about the person who is only five foot six inches, or six foot? The average height of women in the UK and US is five foot four. So average is now short. What of the woman who is only five foot two?
In this case, it is the situation that is being Discounted, but it is difficult to pin this down, as you would be discounting how much above average you are and also the heights of other people relative to the average.
To get back to Gallows Laughter. In this case, again, it is usually the situation that is being discounted. For example, ‘I can’t pay my debts, ha ha!’ ‘He’s broken his leg, ha ha.’ ‘I lost my job, ha ha.’ These are not funny situations, and certainly not suitable for laughter. It’s not always easy to work out how the discounts, in this laughter, are working.
Some people, who joke about their misfortunes, can have a group in stitches, yet the laughter will be most unhealthy, both for the commedian and his audience.
I think that, in general, the laugh releases an internal tension. The trouble with releasing the tension in this way is that intensifies the problem that leads to the internal discomfort being released.
Becoming aware of the Gallows effect can be the first step in resolving the issue. When you notice that you have laughed at a ‘not funny’, you can say something like ‘I’m sorry I laughed, that’s not funny’ – even when it is yourself you laughed about. I think that this awareness makes it easier to find something helpful to say, when it is someone else wo laughs at his misfortunes.
