Talking about Laughter
Talking about Laughter

Author: Alan H. Sommerstein

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2009-03-05

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 0191569682

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This book brings together fourteen studies by Alan Sommerstein on Aristophanes and his fellow comic dramatists, some of which have not previously appeared in print. The studies cover almost all the major topics of Sommerstein's work - the nature and functions of comedy in Aristophanes' time, its connections with the society and politics of its day, the question of Aristophanes' own political stances, the light comedy can throw on classical Athenians' perception of basic social divisions (age, gender, citizen/alien, free/slave), comedy's exploitation of the expressive resources of the Greek language, the composition and production history of individual plays, and the history of the genre as a whole.

Laughter
Laughter

Author: Fred Goodwin

Publisher: Lichtenstein Creative Media

Published: 2002-08

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 1888064684

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Laugh Your Way to Happiness
Laugh Your Way to Happiness

Author: Lesley Lyle

Publisher: Watkins Media Limited

Published: 2014-06-17

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1780286740

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Lesley Lyle presents the surprising scientific evidence that reveals the importance of laughter for our mental and physical health, our prosperity, our relationships, our careers – in fact, every aspect of our lives. Drawing inspiration from Laughter Yoga, a movement founded in India by Dr Madan Kataria that uses laughter and breathing exercises to bring about amazing changes in the health and well-being of thousands of individuals, Lesley reveals: The scientific evidence of laughter's beneficial effects on our health, including lowering blood pressure and improving concentration The emotional aspects of laughter and how it can alleviate anxiety, stress and depression The spiritual aspects of laughter and how it can help provide a sense of connection and wholeness Throughout Lesley reveals how to bring more laughter into your daily life, including practising simple but fun exercises that will help you see opportunities for laughter in the most unexpected places. Laughter can be simulated as an exercise in a group; with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter. This is a book that will delight, as well as inform – most importantly, it will positively change your life.

The Linguistics of Laughter
The Linguistics of Laughter

Author: Alan Partington

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-10-16

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1134178115

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The Linguistics of Laughter examines what speakers try to achieve by producing ‘laughter-talk’ (the talk preceding and eliciting an episode of laughter) and, by using abundant examples from language corpora, what hearers are signalling when they produce laughter. In particular, Alan Partington focuses on the tactical use of laughter-talk to achieve specific rhetorical, and strategic, ends: for example, to construct an identity, to make an argumentative point, to threaten someone else’s face or save one's own. Although laughter and humour are by no means always related, the book also considers the implications these corpus-based observations may have about humour theory in general. As one of the first works to have recourse to such a sizeable databank of examples of laughter in spontaneous running talk, this impressive volume is an essential point of reference and an inspiration for scholars with an interest in corpus linguistics, discourse, humour, wordplay, irony and laughter-talk as a social phenomenon.

Laughter
Laughter

Author: Robert R. Provine

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2001-12-01

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1101659254

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Do men and women laugh at the same things? Is laughter contagious? Has anyone ever really died laughing? Is laughing good for your health? Drawing upon ten years of research into this most common-yet complex and often puzzling-human phenomenon, Dr. Robert Provine, the world's leading scientific expert on laughter, investigates such aspects of his subject as its evolution, its role in social relationships, its contagiousness, its neural mechanisms, and its health benefits. This is an erudite, wide-ranging, witty, and long-overdue exploration of a frequently surprising subject.

Laughter in Interaction
Laughter in Interaction

Author: Phillip Glenn

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-09-18

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1139437372

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Laughter in Interaction is an illuminating and lively account of how and why people laugh during conversation. Bringing together twenty-five years of research on the sequential organisation of laughter in everyday talk, Glenn analyses recordings and transcripts to show the finely detailed co-ordination of human laughter. He demonstrates that its production and placement, relative to talk and other activities, reveal much about its emergent meaning and accomplishments. The book shows how the participants in a conversation move from a single laugh to laughing together, how the matter of 'who laughs first' implicates orientation to social activities and how interactants work out whether laughs are more affiliative or hostile. The final chapter examines the contribution of laughter to sequences of conversational intimacy and play and to the invocation of gender. Engaging and original, the book shows how this seemingly insignificant part of human communication turns out to play a highly significant role in how people display, respond to and revise identities and relationships.

The Laugh-a-Day Book of Bloopers, Quotes & Good Clean Jokes
The Laugh-a-Day Book of Bloopers, Quotes & Good Clean Jokes

Author: Jim Kraus

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1441236112

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Laughter is powerful medicine--and it's just plain fun. The Laugh-a-Day Book of Bloopers, Quotes & Good Clean Jokes brings together hundreds of the funniest bits of wit and humor to brighten anyone's day. From blunders like "For sale: Electric hospital bed, hardly used. No one died in it," to truisms like "The only thing worse than hearing the alarm clock in the morning is not hearing it," there's something to tickle everyone's funny bone. Teachers, speakers, pastors, writers, and anyone who loves to laugh will enjoy this impressive collection of jokes, bulletin bloopers, and amusing quotes--enough for a whole year of laughter!

The Last Laugh
The Last Laugh

Author: Phil Berger

Publisher: Cooper Square Press

Published: 2000-11-14

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 1461731992

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The Last Laugh is the first and only book to take readers deep into the bizarre universe of the standup comic, from the classic years of Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Shecky Greene, to today's comedy superstars. Phil Berger shows how styles and trends in standup have changed over the past fifty years, but how taking the stage in a comedy club is as tough as it's always been. Performers profiled in the book include Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Elaine Boosler, Robert Klein, Bill Cosby, Billy Crystal, Dick Gregory, Andy Kaufman, Steve Martin, Cheech and Chong, Eddie Murphy, and a host of others. Filled with comics' hilarious routines and anecdotes, this substantially updated edition also chronicles the lives and careers of more recent artists, including Richard Lewis and Jay Leno.

Humor and Laughter
Humor and Laughter

Author: Hugh Foot

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13: 1351514202

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Humor and laughter play a vital part in our everyday social encounters. This book is concerned with the exploration of the psychology of humor and laughter by the foremost professional researchers in these areas. It examines the major theoretical perspectives underlying current approaches and it draws together for the first time the main empirical work done over the course of this century. Peter Berks brings this story up to the moment.The two major parts of the book deal with perception of and responses to humor, and its uses in society at large. The chapters themselves range from cognitive aspects of humor development, through the functions of humor and laughter in social interaction, to the use of humor by comedians and by the mass media. One of the general features of the volume is the concern with the variety of techniques and research methods which are used in studies aimed at understanding our responsiveness to humor and the contexts in which we create it.Humor and Laughter contains chapters by psychologists with longstanding research interests in humor and laughter, including Thomas R. Shultz, Mary K. Rothbart, Goran Nerhardt, Michael Godkewitsch, Walter E. O'Connell, and Harvey Mindess. Humor and Laughter presents wide-ranging theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspectives on an important area of human behavior and social interaction. This book should interest many behavioral scientists and practitioners, particularly those in social and clinical psychology, psychiatry, child psychology and education, sociology, and related disciplines.