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HUMOUR AS A COPING STRATEGY or
LAUGHTER, THE SECOND-BEST MEDICINE

In this presentation, Dr Buckman analyses with many examples the essential elements of what makes us laugh. He shows how humour is a deliberate diversion from an expected sequence or series, and that all humour shares this basic structure. Humour also has several functions. Many of us use humour to deal with events that are in themselves threatening or frightening (illness, airlines, sex and mothers-in-law to name the top four). These are not intrinsically funny in themselves, but the act of constructing something funny about them brings the threat into perspective... in other words, the act of making a joke is a coping strategy. Furthermore, if the joke is appreciated it reinforces the communal expectations of the joker and the audience and draws them closer to together. This presentation is very funny (and deliberately so) but also explains why laughter genuinely does matter and genuinely does us all good.