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The Anatomy of Laughter
DESCRIPTION
What happens in our brains when we think something is funny? Is laughter a form of self-defense? Can a joke be scientifically analyzed? This program studies the human response to humor from a physiological and psychological standpoint. Highlighting the importance of vocal cords in producing laughter, the program contrasts human and simian forms of humor and gives viewers an evolutionary perspective on laughter’s role in cooperation and adaptation. Also featured are interviews with comedians—one teenaged, the other 92 years old—who demonstrate basic joke mechanics, while doctors and patients express varying degrees of skepticism about laughter’s healing power. (49 minutes)
Beyond a Joke
Humans have always regarded the ability to laugh and appreciate humor as one of the factors that sets them apart from other species. But investigations into the causes of laughter have led researchers to question this exclusivity, as they have discovered the ape’s equivalent of human laughter and even observed that rats can express their own sense of humor. This program reveals that neurologists have traced people’s instinct to laugh to a highly evolved part of the brain that controls language—and how the study of the role of laughter, particularly in child development and relaxation, is leading to a controversial theory about the treatment of hyperactivity.
Creating Comedy
This program provides strategies and ideas for creating comedy for devised and scripted performances. Using interviews, workshops and performance footage from leading international comedy practitioners, this resource will guide students through the entire process, from the initial stages of researching, exploring and testing ideas through to rehearsal and final performance. Specific comedy generating strategies, like games and play, thythm, timing and surprises, crossed objectives, double acts, major/minor and creating comedy characters are all explained, with performed examples.
Laughology
The first ever feature documentary about the subject, Laughology is a "screamingly funny" groundbreaking odyssey into why we laugh and those who would stop us.
Science of Laughter
Right from the start of our lives, we all laugh. But why? Is our sense of humor what sets us apart from the rest of the animal world? Horizon meets the gorillas who bond through shared laughter, and travels to Washington State University to find out how tickling rats might help us treat depression. This is a global quest to discover the positive power of laughter—with some surprising results.
Staging Classical Comedy
For thousands of years, people have enjoyed comedy. This film uses Plautus’ Miles Gloriosus (The Braggart Warrior) to test the stageability of a classical Roman comedy as authentically as possible, combining a full-scale reconstruction of the lost stage, the ancient text, and a still-vital comic style.
