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Marissa Backes
Ms. Splechter
ENGL 101-39
13 October 2021
Humor is the Best Coping Mechanism
“A merry heart doeth good like medicine” Proverbs 17:22. It’s in our God-given nature to
flourish when humor and comedy is involved. Laughter is the medicine that can’t be bottled,
can’t be faked, and can’t be industrialized. Even in dark times, when someone is struggling,
humor can be the force that pulls them out of the darkness. Not only is humor healthy and proven
to help one live longer, but it is also proven that it is indeed the best coping mechanism, as it is a
vital part of our everyday life, and in difficult times, it is the only thing that helps us through,
when all else fails.
The benefits of humor, start at the very beginning with infants, as it is their main form of
communication and interaction at such a young age. A lack of interaction such as lack of
affection or smiling is proven to not only stunt growth but also bring other health issues as
well, such as depression to developing infants. This is harmful to anyone but especially to an
infant as they only have five forms of communication with smiling and laughter being one of
them being one of them. These concepts help connect the baby to their mother, forming a
response and connection. Later in life, this will make a happy environment to good
communication. Rod Martin says, “Developmentally, laughter is one of the first social
vocalizations (after crying) emitted by human infants” (McGhee, 1979, 3). Laughter carries
infants into adulthood and increases overall physical and mental health for all ages. It is the
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best coping mechanism because it impacts all areas of every single person’s life, in the most
ways. Other coping mechanisms include,
Therefore, humor is proven to be beneficial to increase the overall health of the infant and is a
vital part of their maturing into adults. Humor impacts infants’ survival. Additionally, it has
been repeatedly demonstrated that the lack of affection, physical contact, and stimulation
provided by a caregiver lead to failure to thrive health-wise. Smiling is statistically proven to
increase the infant’s survival, once again supporting the claim that humor is key to survival for
infants. Statistically, without humor, infants would not get the required interaction and responses
to develop, showing how humor is essential.
Furthermore, humor is also vital to adolescents, as this is when the search for identity begins,
which is found through humor. Humor brings common ground to adolescents searching for
validation from their peers, and people around them. Finding a connection through comedy, is
what shapes children into adults, as humor is part of all experiences, and experiences shape
everyone’s personality and character. Lucille Nahemow concludes, “humor is both an index of
growth and a source of change during the adolescent years” (55). Thus, growing up depends on
humor which teaches an adolescent how to connect socially with the adult culture and then
impact the world through effective communication.
Humor also is proven to be the major release of stress. Laughter decreases levels of
cortisol, epinephrine, growth hormones, and releases dopamine all from the brain into the
blood which all reverse stress. These statistics show the affect humor has on physical and
mental health alone, because it healthy balances the brain’s chemicals. Supporting this
thought, laughter’s benefits are proved to boost immune functioning, increase tolerance for
pain, improve cardiovascular health, reduce anxiety, and improve mood, this all proves that
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humor is the body’s healthiest coping mechanism. Rod Martin says, “The perception of
humor invariably also evokes a pleasant emotional response” (7). The brain gets rewarded
from laughter, invoking a ‘pleasant emotional response’ and thus boosts people’s moods.
Because humor is proven to help bring about healthy thinking habits in the brain, since it
balances out the brain’s chemicals in a positive way, humor can also be said to reduce
depression and anxiety. When anyone laughs, they are distracted from thinking about their
personal life, whether that be hardships they are going through, or just thinking too much
about themselves. Humor limits this, which is why it is the most effective coping mechanism
and requirement to staying alive and flourishing. Funny enough, even animals play around
with each other, for example by teasing one another. This shows that humor is a something
God gave us to help cope with our situations around us, and flourish in life. It helps us get
our thoughts off ourselves and our problems and allows us to focus on those around us and
bring joy into others’ lives too who may be struggling. It is so beneficial and has helped so
many people get through hardships. Martin states in his book, Introduction to the
Psychology of Humor, that “Humor and laughter are a universal aspect of human experience”
(2). Furthermore, it is proven that laughter causes a person to relax, because of how the heart
and respiratory rates are changed in a short time, if someone is stressed-out laughter is
proven to calm them, because of the chemical changes it brings (also because of a change in
oxygen consumption, due to the laughter). Humor increases the duration of one’s life span.
For example, CHD (coronary heart disease) has an inverse relationship with laughter,
meaning the more laughter one experiences, the lower the person is at risk for heart attack.
Studies have even went as far as proving that funny movies, clowns, and laughter help
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children in hospitals, improve symptoms for people with Parkinson’s disease, and even
decreases inflammation in joints, such as arthritis.
Some argue that humor isn’t the best coping mechanism, as it is not the answer to
everything, such as global issues. This is because global issue, shedding light (humor) on a
subject does help, but doesn’t necessarily mean that humor is the answer to everything. To
further prove this point, some say that humor may not be taken well by certain cultures and thus
induces stress, because of confusion, instead of relieving stress. At the end of the day however,
humor has always brought shared experience. The characteristic of humor is a vital concept to all
age groups and helps cope with multiple stressors. Therefore, humor is overall the best
mechanism to deal with lives scenarios. Not only does it bring people together through a shared
moment, but it also helps people deal with change, because when one can not take oneself too
seriously, they can laugh it off, making the problem seem less than what it is. Others can also
feel freer to join in and make the situation humorous, which encourages one. Every culture
shares in laughter, it is generalizable to the whole world, so this statement and position of
thought is not necessarily true, because any cross-cultural interaction could be awkward, but
humor helps cross that bridge and connect people.
Coping mechanisms help control a wide variety of life’s struggles, but humor is the most
important as it physically makes one healthier and studies even prove that those who use humor
statistically live longer. Humor is a globally fundamental part of everyone’s day to day lives and
helps light up people’s personal lives, as well as those around them. This impacts society, as
knowing how to cope with issues and what works for you is the best way to be a well rounded
healthy individual, who can even be healthy enough to help others, which is essential in living
out the Christian life.
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Works Cited
Manasi, S. Coping Mechanisms for Climate Change in Peri-Urban Areas. Springer Nature,
2020.
Martin, Rod A., and Thomas Ford. The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach.
Academic Press, an Imprint of Elsevier, 2018.
Nahemow, Lucille, Humor and Aging. Academic Press, 1986.
Rindfleisch, J. Adam. “The Healing Benefits of Humor and Laughter- Whole Health Library.”
www.va.gov, 2018, www.va.gov/WHOLEHEALTHLIBRARY/tools/healing-benefits-humor-
laughter.asp.
