What's So Friggin' Funny?

Tickling and the fact that laughter is contagious are two things that have perplexed scientists due to the simple fact that it seems to have no physiological purpose. What purpose laughing when we hear others laugh or when we are tickled seems elusive. When one scientist, Robert Provine, did a study of humor it was shown that laughter has little to do with humor at all. For instance, when normal conversations were recorded and analyzed, not only was it concluded that speakers were more likely to laugh than listeners, but also that the phrases people laughed at were seldom humorous. It seems, therefore, that laughing is more of a social connection than anything else. This is supported by the fact that people are thirty more times more likely to laugh in groups than alone, assuming that there are no "simulated social environments like laugh tracks." Laughing is not a reflex to humor, but rather an instinct for social bonding. WhenProvine conducted a experiment asking people to laugh for a video camera they would say they that they can't laugh on cue, then look at friends or family and begin laughing spontaneously.
More than this is the fact that we have little control over laughter. People whose faces have been half-paralyzed by a stroke may not be able to smile when asked, but when they begin to laugh, even the unresponsive half moves as it normally would. The neurological connections to laughter have been traced to the brain stem, which controls breathing, digestion, and heartbeat. This area of the brain does not process information that we understand humor, which is another indicative break between humor and laughter. This explains why it is difficult to stop laughing even if one makes a decided effort to do so.
Chimpanzees laugh as well, though this is said to "sound somewhat like panting." This most commonly occurs when the chimpanzees tickle each other, which is apparently not uncommon. The main difference between these primates and us is that chimps enjoy tickling regardless of age, whereas people tend to quit later in life. The studies of tickling lead to another point: that one cannot tickle oneself. This is because the sensorimotor system is not surprised when it has caused the nerves in other places of the body to fire, but it is when another causes this. Though the exact cause of such surprise and laughing is not known, this is what makes humor tend to cause laughter: expecting one thing and receiving another.
There also seem to be correlations between laughing and the suppression of stress hormones and the boosting immune-system antibodies. Moreover, it seems to also be connected to one of the brain's pleasure receptors.

I think that this article reveals important insights into why we laugh and how we connect as humans. It allows me to see and better understand what goes on around me by looking through the lens of this research. Beyond this it also has seems to prove the statement that laughter is good medicine, which is a bit surprising to me to see this scientifically verified.

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/laughter