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THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER
BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE CHILD'S ATTITUDE TO LIFE

CHILDREN'S DREAMS

THE CHILD IN THE CHANGING HOME

THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL WELFARE
OF THE CHILD
THE SPRINGS OF
LAUGHTER

BY

C. W. KIMMINS

M.A., D.Sc.

 

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
Fiyst Published tn 1928

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE

HE subject of laughter is an intensely interesting
study. It has attracted the attention of dis-

tinguished philosophers, psychologists, physiologists,
l'ducational journalists and various types of social reformers.
[he result is that the literature of laughter, in its extra-
rdinary variety, represents an abnormally well-worked
lield by expert explorers. To enter such a field needs,
{herefore, something in the nature of an apology. My
'xcuse must be that, from a series of investigations of the
ctivities of young children, I have been much impressed
y the fact that in many theories of laughter insufficient
mportance has been attached to the following points :
I) the child’s contribution to the subject ; (2) the need of
reater emphasis of the play-attitude ; (3) the changes in
he appreciation of the type of humorous experiences at
ifferent ages and (4) the social attitude towards elements
thich find expression in laughter at different epochs of
evelopment in the history of the race.
The fact that the ‘sudden glory’ theory of Hobbes
Jiould have maintained such a supremacy among the
1eories of laughter for so long a period affords ample
vidence that insufficient thought had been given to the
lrlier stages of child life in the framing of the theory.
lany writers in discussing humour and laughter have
voided coming to any conclusion as to the exact nature of
1e subject, and when a philosopher of the standing of
\lobbes embodied his views in a clear-cut definition of
ughter there was a natural tendency for those who
lowed him to take shelter under this authoritative con-
ete statement as a starting point. This theory thus
v
|

 

230
vi THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

attained a position which it never deserved, and it rota
the development of more catholic views on laughter'e:
many years.

Further points in the consideration of laughter wie
also require more emphasis are the physical and emotiu
condition of the laugher and the nature of the environnps
in which the humorous situation arises. The compara
success of that modern terror, the professional humoris i
largely due to his power of gauging adequately the ate
sphere in which he finds himself and the nature of Bo
wares in his stock of jokes and funny stories which are nt
suitable for the particular occasion.

With such a rich literature as that of laughter it weld
not be possible to enumerate the various sources to wii
any writer on the subject must necessarily be mh
Some of the more important of these will be referred td
different sections of this book. Of the more recent boki
on humour and laughter I should, however, acknowless
my special appreciation of one by Mr. Max Eastruz
(published in 1921) on The Sense of Humour, and thast
Mr. J. Y. T. Greig (published in 1923) on The Psychologss
Laughter and Comedy, in which is given a very valuable, i 3
fairly exhaustive, historical summary of the various the
of laughter. 4

In the numerous stories recorded by the children reacst
will come across many old friends, but my object has bi
simply to indicate by them the appeal made to the senst
humour of the child in different stages of development

Again, I must express my sincere thanks to very me!
teachers in England and America, and to a small n
in France and Germany, for the generous assistance tly
have given to me in carrying out my studies of children

I must also thank my friend, Mr. A. J. Mundella, for 1 3
help he has given to me in the tiresome task of prof
correction. 8

  

    
  

C.W.Ki
March 1928 §
CONTENTS

APTER
PREFACE ; 3 : . ; . ;
I. INTRODUCTION

I. THEORIES OF LAUGHTER neh
(Laughter in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries)
[I, THEORIES OF LAUGHTER
(Laughter in the nineteenth century)
‘V. THEORIES OF LAUGHTER
(Laughter in the twentieth century)
. LAUGHTER AND DREAMS

a

 

LAUGHTER AND TEARS

+ THE SPIRIT OF THE CHILD

THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT
(Five to twelve years of age)

THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN
(Twelve to eighteen years of age)

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR

 

[. THE LAUGHTER OF COLOURED CHILDREN

 

PAGE

34

53
59
67
76
88

105,

126
169
TO

MY WIFE
ome
SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

I is interesting to notice how, in the literature of

laughter, the more ambitious contributors have vainly
attempted to bring the varieties of forms of humorous
experiences under some definite laughter-causing principle.
Surprise, followed by a relief from restraint; derision,
| accompanied by a feeling of superiority ; amusement at
. the misfortunes of others ; the incongruous ; the economy
of psychic expenditure; the machine-like behaviour of
living things ; the joy of the release of energy for no useful
. purpose, and so on, all have their votaries. In order to
. bring causes of laughter into the desired category attempts
| are made which are, in themselves, frequently humorous.
| Much of the literature consists of the criticism of the work
of other labourers in the field, by giving illustrations which .
\ cannot be reconciled with the theory under review. It
“1s a hopeless task, especially in children’s laughter, to
1 secure anything approaching a common principle. More-
Lover, the humorous elements which provoke laughter most
1 readily vary from age to age.

The types mentioned above are undoubtedly all available
| for the purpose of mirth-production, but they are simply
) conditions which, in suitable circumstances, may give the
i response of laughter. In many cases more than one factor
‘may be present in the same humorous situation. In fact,
< as has been pointed out elsewhere ! the life of a good story

1 Kimmins, The Child's Attitude to Life.
I I

\

 
= aT

rm

2 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

is prolonged if it contains more than one constituent of o
humorous appeal.

The difficulties of classification of the causes of laughter 2
disappear when its instinctive nature is fully grasped. Not a
only is laughter an instinct, but its close association with
the play-attitude is manifest to every intelligent observer 3
of children. It is unfortunate that much of the most'2
highly skilled observation of children has been concerned
with the neurotic flotsam and jetsam of the consulting
room, rather than with healthy normal material. The}:
joyous natural laughter of happy children is rarely heard
in the clinics for pathological treatment. This has not @
been without its effect upon the theories of laughter.

The connexion of the smile with the laugh is conceded of
by most authorities. The appearance of the laugh about &
two months later is, in virtue of its more complex muscular &
basis, what might well be expected. Professor Sully’s:}
account of the development of the laugh from the smile, ass
described in his Essay on Laughter is reasonable, ands
nothing can be gained by attempting to divorce them. a
The laugh of the child is characteristic and when fully gl
developed undergoes comparatively little change. In as
group of children in the nursery, if one laughs the nurse %
outside has no difficulty in identifying the laugher though *
no word is spoken. In adults the laugh is frequently more
readily recognized than the voice. A Cambridge graduate »
on revisiting Trinity after an interval of five years was
surprised that his bed-maker, hearing him laugh with some 3
friends near to his old rooms, at once recognized him, &
though she had not seen him and his visit was unexpected. ]
His friends did not share his surprise. 1

The change in the social attitude from period to period f
has undoubtedly materially affected the kind of humorous #
experience which causes laughter, and this naturally in- %
creases the difficulty of comparing, with any advantage, the 3
definitions of laughter at different epochs in the development #

I

 
AAR co vrai

 

INTRODUCTION 3

of a cultured outlook on life. The type of material
which causes amusement must necessarily vary with the
stage of civilization, and more especially with the attitude
of class to class in the structure of society. From the
descriptions of laughter of the seventeenth century, it is

clear that physical deformities were the subject of laughter

to a far greater extent than is common in the present
century. The sight of a crippled child has ceased to be
an appropriate subject of merriment, and the laughter of
the onlooker would be severely condemned. Practically
the only subject of deformity which can still be considered
a legitimate source of laughter is the abnormally fat man
or woman—if obesity can be considered a deformity.
In the description of humorous incidents by young children
of minor accidents in the streets, the story is certain of a
much more generous reception if the sufferer was a fat
man.

The humorous appeal which results in laughter must also
depend upon the background of knowledge of the person
or group affected. The story which never fails to secure

. a satisfactory response in a cultured audience would
probably be received in chilling silence in the bar-room of

a country inn; whereas, one of the more primitive type
with local colouring would be sure of uproarious approval.
Similarly, in the revival of an early English farce or comedy,

in which some of the humorous situations are of a simple
character, no enthusiasm is aroused in the cultured adult,

but the merry laughter of young children in the audience

leaves no doubt as to its appeal to them. The springs of

laughter can thus be stimulated in a variety of ways, and
to a much wider extent than is consistent with grouping
them into a class bearing the hall-mark of a particular
variety of humorous situation in order to make them
function.

Freedom of thought has a powerful effect in extending

the field of observation in appreciating the real nature of
TE AE spa,

iors

_ welcomed by the physiologist as well as the psychologist.

4 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

phenomena. A sense of humour, in this connexion, is 0:
extraordinary value, not only in the wider outlook it:
gives on life, but also in the added happiness which results li
in being able to view a trying situation from many angles, 3
A man with no sense of humour is limited in his view. Hel
is, as it were, wearing blinkers, and has less capacity for?
solving difficulties, for he can only look in one direction
Psychiatrists have the highest opinion of the value of the
sense of humour, and their difficulties experienced in‘
bringing about a solution of difficult mental problems are!
frequently associated with the absence of a sense of humours
in the unfortunate subjects under their treatment. |
From the physiological point of view there can be Jol

 
 
 

{ doubt as to the yalue of laughter. It deepens the inspira-

tions, quickens the circulation, and there is a large mass of
evidence available to show that it improves the digestion. +
Moreover, the joyous condition of which laughter is as a:
rule the expression is naturally favourable to the general &
well- -being of the individual. As will be seen, in WE
the various theories of laughter, a remarkable change has

taken place in the definitions and associations of the subject. §
The extreme emphasis in the earlier accounts of laughter 8
as the expression of derision, scorn and ridicule has been
toned down. Laughter, no longer associated with its
ugly sister, vulgarity, has become quite respectable, and)
joyous laughter, as the expression of happiness, is heartily

   
  
  
    
    
 

In the literature of laughter, however, there appears so %
many distinguished authorities who have contributed to % :
it—many of whom have written remarkably well—that it fi
is difficult to imagine that they failed to give a fairly §
accurate description of the laughter of the particular &
period represented. If so, we are forced to the conclusion
that people in earlier times laughed at situations different |
from those at which we laugh in the twentieth century.

This is not an unreasonable supposition. The quality of k
INTRODUCTION 5

laughter has probably improved with a higher and more
general standard of education. We have become more
refined and find amusement at a higher level of culture.
As we have pointed out, we have ceased to laugh at deformi-
ties, and many of the humorous elements in early English
plays appeal almost exclusively to the younger members of
the audience. Moreover, in the study of the sense of
humour in children we can trace a marked advance of the
type of material which causes laughter as we pass from age
to age. It is, thus, natural that there should be a corre-
sponding advance in the history of the race. Laughter

appears to vary with the social attitude of the period.

A

fd ARTA AT Px ”

The early-Victorian child probably laughed less heartily
than the modern child, and, with greater liberty, the range

of laughter-provoking elements appears to have increased.

In comparing the sense of humour of children of different
countries, with a similar standard of civilization, in the
present day, we find only minor differences. The favourite
funny stories of French, German, American and English
children of the same age have much in common. Some
stories, undoubtedly of the same origin, stress particular
points in the land of their adoption ; others are transplanted
unchanged. As a result of an investigation of the sense
of humour of coloured children it appears that the humour
of the coloured differs widely from that of the white child.
Stories which find great favour with the coloured child of
twelve years of age are most popular with the white child

“# of about the age of nine, and the ratio holds good, approxi-

i

1
+

W

Cad

mately, throughout the school period.
The appreciation of humorous situations is conditioned

' to a very large extent by the atmosphere, joyous or other-
¢ Wise, in which the appeal is made. To a man suffering
"| from seasickness a funny story, which under normal

conditions would undoubtedly have provoked laughter,
meets with no suitable response. The same is true of
children suffering from any physical disability, and the
:
6 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER |

return to health is not infrequently heralded by a renewed | b:
interest in playful humorous activities. On the other 3
hand, the occasion of any release from close attention to 5
an uninteresting task, or the sudden freedom from irksome
discipline, is associated with a great sensibility to humorous =
appeal. The laughter of children as they come out of a
school is a common experience.

Much has been written on the origin of laughter. Claims i.
have been made for a sense of humour in the more highly ¢
organized animals, and some writers have attempted top
trace a correspondence between the muscular movements
expressive of pleasure in monkeys and dogs with those of i
the laugh of the young child. With the dog the wagging 4
of the tail is the more obvious manifestation of j joy ; ; as als
child aptly remarked, ‘a dog laughs with his tail’. But i
many dogs, in addition, express pleasure by facial contor- =
tions, in which the teeth are bared, resembling a broad §
grin, or possibly an incipient laugh. That the young of 1
various species play definite games, which they thoroughly §
enjoy, there can be no possible doubt, and in the play- =
attitude the existence of a primitive sense of humour can &
readily be imagined. In some of Kohler’s experiments on &
anthropoid apes, the similarity of emotional response to &
that of young children faced with problems of the same 3
type, is very marked. Yerkes’ experiments on chimpan- 2
zees, and his more recent experiments on a gorilla, also i
point in the same direction. i

The universality of laughter, even among primitive
peoples, supports the theory of its instinctive nature. }
Here, the incidents which cause laughter correspond |
closely with those which cause boisterous amusement among |
our young children. Strange dresses; odd sounds; the
rough and tumble of incongruous movements; new
sensations, represented in the nursery by such experiences |
as the appearance of the father wearing the baby’s bonnet, |
or the baby with father’s hat on his head, are occasions |

 
INTRODUCTION 7

of great merriment. Tickling has received what appears
to be an undue amount of attention by the experts, probably
in consequence of its possible connexion with the origin of
laughter, and, in these latter days, as a favourite stimulus
in the development of a sense of humour in children. That
it is a welcome method of bringing about a joyous playful

atmosphere is unquestionable. The child laughs at himself

which, in itself, is a useful attitude to cultivate. He laughs
because so much fuss is being made over an incident which

' causes him so little inconvenience.

There is a considerable body of evidence to show that a
sense of humour correlates very highly with intelligence.
This is recognized by authorities interested in the construc-

tion of intelligence tests, which are playing an important

role in this country, and still more in America, in educational
procedure. In the Report of the Consultative Committee
of the Board of Education on ‘ Psychological Tests of
Educable Capacity ’, much attention is drawn to the
importance of tests based upon the child’s power of recog-
nizing absurdities in given statements. The most extrava-

. gant example quoted in the Report is the following :

‘ The child is required to read this passage and to discover

| as many absurdities as he can :

re

A SUNDAY IN FRANCE

Ten years ago on a pleasant summer’s afternoon in the
middle of January, 1916, the twelve o'clock express from
Scotland was rushing past the busy terminus of the Great
Western Railway at twelve miles an hour.

A clean-shaven young Englishman, of about fifty years
of age, stepped lightly from one of the first-class carriages

and hurried slowly down the platform, with both hands in

. his pockets, carrying a heavy bag, and gaily curling the

tips of his moustache.
There was not a cloud in the sky; and as the rain was
|
8 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

|
still falling heavily, he took off his mackintosh and strolled

out into the crowded streets of the city. The ripening a
fields of corn through which he passed were turning golden
as the sun set in the south.’ ie

The recognized value of a sense of humour leads naturally
to the question whether it can be cultivated, and, if so, i
what conditions are most favourable for its development. |.
As a result of many investigations of the playful activities
of children, the author has come to a very definite con- -
clusion as to the possibility of such development. The 4
natural difference of inherited bias, such as the tendency
of one child to take from the start a joyous interest in life,
and another, from the same stock, a more serious outlook, |,
is as common as the difference in native ability to be :
observed in members of the same family. This need not |
concern us here. The important question is whether the

I

conditions of childhood, the nature of the environment, |.
the opportunities offered for freedom of expression, the &
frequent contact with other children of a similar age, and
so on, are calculated to encourage or discourage the
development of a sense of humour.

Anything in the nature of rigid discipline, imposed by
authority, in which the young child follows out a definite
routine is, without doubt, subversive of the development of |
humour. The result may be a docile, well-behaved product,
but unless the child is endowed with an abnormal bias
towards the appreciation of humorous situations, he must
inevitably suffer from this type of control. The close |
association of playful activities with humour and laughter |
points clearly to the necessity and value of a happy and
joyous childhood. Periods of great naughtiness, however,
should be welcomed on occasions. The child who has |
never been really naughty has missed something which is
essential to free, natural development, and will probably
suffer from this important omission in later life. The

 

§
§

 
INTRODUCTION 9

{excessively good child who, according to their statements,
i has never given his parents a moment’s anxiety, is generally
ifound to be sadly lacking i in a sense of humour.
It is a common experience that absence of freedom, and

of opportunities for the child to express frankly his own
{point of view, have a serious effect on the cultivation of
thumour. The difference between children of the same
1social standing, who have attended a school notorious for
ithe severity of its discipline on the one hand, and those,
“om the other hand, from one where freedom is given to
i2xpression within the limits of appropriate discipline, is
/hbvious to the most casual observer. Not only is there in
‘he latter group an entirely different standard of humour,
‘out also, what is so frequently associated with it, there is
1 much saner outlook on life. The atmosphere of the
ichool has an extraordinary influence on the development

‘Hf humour.
id Many of the points which have been lightly touched upon
vnere will be dealt with in some detail in later chapters.

|
 

CHAPTER II
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER

(LAUGHTER IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES) !

T is not necessary, in discussing theories of laughter,
I to go further back than the seventeenth century. In
the treatment of the subject, Thomas Hobbes, in &
his remarkably detailed account of laughter, embraces, to 0
a certain extent, the views of Plato and Aristotle, especially
as regards the derision theory ; and many other authorities =
refer to them. His contemporary, Descartes, apart from &
an interesting, but absolutely unconvincing, physiological i
description of the act of laughing, is in fairly general accord &
with Hobbes in his opinion as to the situations which cause 3
laughter.

There is a definiteness in the Hobbes statement which i
is most refreshing, and makes it of great value for purposes =
of comparison. In this respect it compares very favourably
with earlier attempts to explain laughter. The theory of H
Hobbes created so much attention, and gave rise to so much in
discussion, that it must be quoted in full. He evidently +
attached great importance to it, and after the more
exhaustive description in the Human Nature section
of his work he gave, a year later, a synopsis of it in #
Leviathan.

The first account is as follows (the italics being retained i
as in the original )

‘ There is a passion that hath no name ; but the sign of 4
it is that distortion of the countenance which we call
laughter, which is always joy ; but what joy, what we think,

10
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 11

and wherein we triumph when we laugh, is not hitherto
declared by any. That it consisteth in wit, or, as they call
| it, in the jest, experience confuteth : for men laugh at mis-
chances and indecencies, wherein there lieth no wit or
jest at all. And forasmuch as the same thing is no more

ridiculous when it groweth stale or usual, whatsoever it be ¥

that moveth laughter, it must be new and unexpected. Men
laugh often, especially such as are greedy of applause from
every thing they do well, at their own actions performed
never so little beyond their own expectations ; as also at
their own fests : and in this case it is manifest, that the
passion of laughter proceedeth from a sudden conception of
some ability in himself that laugheth. Also men laugh at
the infirmities of others, by comparison wherewith their
own abilities are set off and illustrated. Also men laugh
at jests, the wit whereof always consisteth in the elegant
discovering and conveying to our minds some absurdity of
another’: and in this case also the passion of laughter
proceedeth from the sudden imagination of our own
eminency : for what is else the recommending of ourselves
to our own good opinion, by comparison with another
man’s infirmity or absurdity ? For when a jest is broken
upon ourselves, or friends of whose dishonour we participate

we never laugh thereat. I may therefore conclude, that.

the passion of laughter is nothing else but sudden glory
arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in
ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or
‘with our own formerly: for men laugh at the follies of
themselves past, when they come suddenly to remembrance,
except they bring with them any present dishonour. It
is no wonder therefore that men take heinously to be
laughed at or derided, that is, triumphed over. Laughter
without offence, must be at absurdities and infirmities
abstracted from persons, and when all the company may
~ laugh together : for laughing to one’s self putteth all the
rest into jealousy and examination of themselves. Besides,

 
+
12 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

/

it is vain glory, and an argument of little worth, to think Ia
the infirmity of another, sufficient matter for hig
triumph.’?

The second account gives greater emphasis to special
points in the theory and is less argumentative :

‘ Sudden glory, is the passion which maketh those
grimaces called LAUGHTER ; and is caused either by some 1
sudden act of their own, that pleaseth them; or by thes
apprehension of some deformed thing in another, by coms
/parison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves. And»:
it is incident most to them, that are conscious of the fewest i=
abilities in themselves; who are forced to keep themselves +3
in their own favour, by observing the imperfections of 0
other men. And therefore much laughter at the defects:
of others, is a sign of pusillanimity. For of great minds, =
one of the proper works is, to help and free others from 1
scorn; and compare themselves only with the most 2
able.’?

In tracing the extraordinary changes which have taken
place, through the centuries, in the attitude to laughter 2
it is a great advantage to have the standard of the seven-
teenth century so explicitly demonstrated in the ‘ Sudden &
Glory’ theory of such a distinguished philosopher as
Hobbes. Moreover, it held the field against all opponents
for a long time and was supported, on different grounds, =
by many well-known observers, whose opinions naturally /
carried great weight. The critics, on the other hand, ©
generally satisfied themselves with singling out certain i
points for attack without weakening the general thesis to
any considerable extent. We must therefore regard the:
theory of Hobbes as representating the verdict of the Be
seventeenth century on the springs of laughter.

The most remarkable feature in the ‘Sudden Glory 1

1 Hobbes, Human Nature. (The English works of Thomas's
Hobbes, edited by Sir William Molesworth.)
2 Hobbes, Leviathan.
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 13

theory is that no reference whatever is made to the laughter
of children. It deals exclusively with the laughter of
grown-up people. Surely, children laughed in the seven-
teenth century! The child’s laughter is the real thing,
and if only the learned philosophers had given careful
attention to it, instead of concentrating on that of compara-
tively uninteresting adults, the theory would have had a
very short life. The different elements in humour run a
natural course through the life of the individual, and to
reach satisfactory conclusions it is of the utmost importance
that they should be studied in the early stages of their

- development.

A feeling of superiority is, undoubtedly, a potent stimulus
to laughter in children. They are amused, first at the
- mistakes of younger children and, later on, at the mistakes
i of other people. This is the nearest approach to the sudden
| glory element in the Hobbes theory ; the ‘ passion’ being
‘ related to a sense of humour. At the age of seven years
~ this element of superiority, as a cause of laughter, is well
i marked. At the age of eight it appears in the front rank,
© to the partial exclusion of other springs of laughter. This
© 18, par excellence, the time of April-fool jokes, for the making
ran April fool of someone else ministers to this feeling of
superiority. This corresponds to ‘ that sudden conception
of eminency in ourselves ’ referred to in the earlier state-
“ment of the theory. It is, of course, true that something
| closely connected with this element of superiority may be
“used, in abnormal cases, as a weapon in the production of
“scorn and derision ; but it is a long cry from the joyous
“laughter-provoking activities of childhood to the occasional,
“unhealthy products of later years.

In other portions of the statement of the theory, the
- consideration of the child’s response in laughter to the
‘I different situations referred to, would throw an entirely
| different light upon many of the points raised. For
‘ example, the type of joy which finds an outlet in laughter
 

14 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER i

as mentioned in Hobbes’ description, is far removed from:
that which gives pleasure to the normal child; and ths
stimulus of the new and unexpected is generally of a healthy
and wholesome nature. In fact, the ultimate downfall o
the ‘ Sudden Glory ’ theory was largely brought about b;
applying the acid test of the child’s point of view.

In the eighteenth century the most exhaustive, andl
probably the most important, contribution to the theory 1
of laughter, was An Essay on Laughter and Ludicyroui
Composition, written by Dr. James Beattie, Professor i

  

Moral Philosophy and Logic in the University of Aberdeen
He was a very severe critic of the position taken up by
Hobbes. He goes so far as to say ‘ The theory of Mr &
Hobbes would hardly have deserved notice if Addison had
not spoken of it with approbation in the Spectator.’ Aftel
quoting a portion of the early statement of the theory 3
Addison had observed that ‘according to this account &
when we hear a man laugh excessively, instead of sayings
that he is very merry, we ought to tell him, that he is very
proud’. Commenting on this Beattie says ‘ It is strange 3
that the elegant author should be aware of this consequence a
and yet admit the theory ; for so good a judge of humat
nature could not be ignorant, that laughter is not com: i¢
sidered as a sign of pride ; persons of singular gravity beings
often suspected of that vice, but great laughers seldom 01»
never. When we see a man attentive to the innocentit
humours of a merry company, and yet maintain a fixecs
solemnity of countenance, is it natural for us to think, that: ;

 
  

he is the humblest, and the only humble person, in the
circle ?’ Similarly, Beattie analyses and severely criticizes |
other elements in the Hobbes theory of laughter. 0
In the introduction to his essay Beattie says : i
‘ Of man, it is observed by Homer, that he is the moll
wretched, and, by Addison and others, that he is the
merriest animal in the whole creation ; and both opinions;
are plausible, and both perhaps may be true. If, from the ©

 
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 15

“acuteness and delicacy of his perceptive powers, from his
remembrance of the past, and his anticipation of what is

to come, from his restless and creative fancy, and from the
. various sensibilities of his moral nature, man be exposed to
: many evils, both imaginary and real, from which the brutes
‘are exempted, he does also from the same sources derive
i innumerable delights, that are far beyond the reach of
‘2very other animal.’

He refers to the laughter of children and distinguishes
“between animal pleasures, such as tickling, and sentimental
pleasures, such as ideas, and states that the object of his
»3ssay is to consider ‘that species of laughter which is at
ionce natural and innocent, and to determine what is
‘peculiar to those things which provoke laughter; or,
| rather, which raise in the mind that pleasing sentiment or
2motion whereof laughter is the external sign.’

In searching for the springs of laughter Beattie naturally
rlays very great stress on the incongruous, as he is dealing
‘particularly with laughter and ‘ludicrous composition ’;
- Laughter seems to arise from the view of things incon-
r gruous united in the same assemblage ; (1) by juxta-position
(2) as cause and effect; (3) by comparison founded on
ssimilitude ; or, (4) united so as to exhibit an opposition

of meanness and dignity.’

He gives illustrations, at considerable length, of the
ruse made by distinguished writers of the different categories
in describing humorous situations. In many of the
examples quoted more than one element appears as, for
example, ‘ We read in the Spectator of a number of men with
‘long chins, whom a wag at Bath invited to dine with him ;
and are told, that a great deal of mirth passed on the
yoccasion. Here was the collection of incongruities related
(10t only by mutual similitude, but also by juxta-position ;
Ja circumstance that would naturally heighten the ludicrous
isffect’ And again: ‘Incongruous ideas, related by
‘tontiguity, do sometimes acquire a closer connexion, and
16 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER |

may become more laughable, when their names being made!
equally dependent upon one and the same verb, confer on;
it two or more incongruous significations. It is observ:
able (says Pope of Prince Eugene), that this General is a
great taker of snuff, as well as of towns.” In recent times"
Freud in his Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious)
develops a similar line of thought, using words with:
different meanings, as in the example which he quotes |:
‘one swallow does not make a summer, nor quench the:
thirst.’

In the cause and effect section, Beattie gives as a good:
illustration of an extremely inadequate combination, in the:
case of the tailor of Laputa (Gulliver's Travels), who took
the measure for a suit of clothes by means of a quadrant. |

/ In discussing similitude, which he deals with in some detail
fh he says: ‘Laughter often arises from the discovery of»
V ! [empectsd likeness between objects apparently dissimilar

Y/ and the greater the apparent dissimilitude, and new-#

discovered resemblance, the greater will be the surprise:

attending the discovery, the more striking the opposition ¢

of contrariety and relation, and the more lively the risiblel:

emotion. All men, and all children have a tendency tc:

mark resemblances; hence the allegories, similes, and:

metaphors, so frequent in common discourse : but readily |

to find out similitudes that are not obvious, and were:

+ never found out before, is no ordinary talent. The persono

“& possessed of it is called a man of wit ; especially if at thes!

~_ same time he possess that other talent of conveying hisic

/" meaning in concise, perspicuous, and natural language

~* For I agree with Locke, that “ wit consists chiefly in the!

assemblage of ideas, and putting those together with quick=:-

ness and variety wherein can be found any resemblance oro

congruity, thereby to make up pleasant pictures andi:
agreeable visions in the fancy ”.’

He points out that many authors in attempting to alter:
or improve well-known existing formulas may produce:
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 17

absurdities which cause laughter. As, for example, ‘ It is
‘not uncommon to say of a person who is old, or has long
been in danger from a disease supposed mortal, that “ he
has one foot in the grave and the other following”. A

certain author, speaking of a pious old woman, is willing

to adopt this proverbial amplification, but by his efforts to
improve it, presents a very laughable idea to his reader
when he says, ““ that she had one foot in the grave and the
‘other—among the stars ”.’

Dr. Beattie gives a very scholarly account of the limita-
tions of the incongruous as a source of laughter. He
insists that it must not be customary and common,
and must not excite any powerful emotion such as
moral disapprobation, indignation or disgust, pity or
fear. He says: ‘May we not, then, set it down as a
character of ludicrous absurdity, that it is in some degree
new and surprising ? Witticisms that appear to be studied
give offence, instead of entertaining ; and nothing sets off
a merry tale to so great advantage as an unpromising
simplicity of style and manner. By virtue of this negative
accomplishment men of moderate talents have been known
to contribute more to the mirth of the company, than those
will ever do, who, with superior powers of genius were more
artful in their language and more animated in their pronun-
ciation. Conciseness, too, when we intend a laughable
conclusion, is an essential requisite in telling a story;
nor should any man attempt to be diffuse in humorous
narrative, but he whose wit and eloquence are very great.’
A joke is always the worse for being expected ; the longer
it is withheld after we are made too look for it, the more
will its volatile spirit lose by evaporation’. And further :
‘Good breeding lays many restraints upon laughter, and
upon all other emotions that display themselves externally.
And this leads me to refer to those refinements in wit and
humour, which take place in society, according as mankind
improves in polite behaviour.’

2

(
\

\
18 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

In criticizing the opinion expressed by several authors ©»
that laughter has a close association with vulgarity he
states : ‘ that all men are not equally inclined to laughter ;
and that some may be found, who rarely indulge in it |
themselves, and actually dislike it in others, cannot be |
denied. But they are greatly mistaken, who suppose this
character to be the effect of good-breeding, or peculiar to
high life. In the cottage you will find it, as well as in the |:
drawing-room.’ :

In concluding this section of his essay he sums up the |
position as follows: ‘If, then, it be asked, what is that |
quality in things, which makes them provoke that pleasing
emotion or sentiment whereof laughter is the external
sign ? I answer, it is an uncommon mixture of relation
and contrariety, exhibited, or supposed to be united, in
the same assemblage. If again it be asked, whether such
a mixture will always produce laughter ? My answer is,
it will always, or for the most part, excite the risible
emotion, unless when the perception of it is attended with
some other emotion of greater authority.’

The variation of the sense of humour with changes in |
the social outlook is a matter of great interest, and a special |
reference is made to it by the author of the essay, On |
Laughter and Ludicrous Composition. He makes an
attempt to account for ‘ the superiority of the moderns in
ludicrous writing,” and suggests the reasons for it: ‘It
seems to be generally acknowledged that the moderns are
superior to the ancient Greeks and Romans in every sort
of ludicrous writing. If this be indeed the case, it is a
fact that deserves the attention of those authors who make
wit, or humour, the subject of their enquiry; since the
same reasonings that account for this fact must throw light
on the philosophy of laughter.’

After discussing the preference of different peoples for
their own standard of humour as, for example, that
¢ Shakespeare’s humour will never be adequately relished
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 19

in France, nor that of Moliére in England’, he goes on to
say that ‘ ludicrous writing in general is extremely subject
to the injuries of time ; and that, therefore, the wit and
humour of the ancient Greeks and Romans might have been
far more exquisite than we at present have any positive
reason to believe.” It is clear, however, that he firmly
believes the general opinion to be correct, and gives
different reasons to account for, our superiority. Of these
the following will suffice :

‘ Religious controversy is in modern times a never-failing
source of wit and humour. But in the days of Greece and
Rome there was no such thing; the Pagan superstitions
being too absurd to admit of controversy. From this
source we derive many witty passages in the writings of
Chaucer, Erasmus, Pascal, and others; and it is to this
we are indebted for Hudibras and the Tale of a Tub, two
of the most laughable (I wish I could say the most salutary)
pieces of ridicule that ever were written.’

‘ Gallantry (by which I here understand those generous
and respectful attentions we pay to the Fair Sex) contri-
butes in many ways both to the copiousness and to the
refinement of wit and humour. Nor is there evidence, that
this mode of politeness at all subsisted in Greece or Rome,
at least in its present form.’

After treating of this at considerable length he remarks :
‘In a word, the superiority, vested by law in the male sex,
is now amply compensated to the female, by that tender
complaisance, with which they are treated in all polite
nations ; and which, from the use they make of it in
improving society, and enlivening conversation, it appears
that they so justly deserve. Is it not obvious, that this
gallantry tends to enlarge the sphere of comic writing ?
‘Neither Aristotle, nor any other ancient, can vie with the
moderns, in knowledge of the female character.’

Another cause for our greater variety of humorous
experiences, he ascribes to the fact that our customs in

-
“20 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

regard to dress change more frequently than the Greek or |

Roman did. Finally, after dealing with the effect on |
‘ ludicrous writing’ of political institutions, he observes:

‘ And now, notwithstanding the levity of many of these

remarks, may we not be permitted to observe in conclusion,
that the meek and benevolent spirit of our religion has had
a powerful influence in sweetening and refining all the
comforts of human society, and conversation among the
rest.’

Dr. Beattie’s essay marks a very great advance in the

eighteenth century in the sense of humour, as compared |
with that of the seventeenth century as represented by

Hobbes’s ‘ Sudden Glory’ theory. The encouragement
given to laughter by this author was not, however, sup-
ported by some of the other distinguished writers of the
eighteenth century. Thus, the Earl of Chesterfield in his
Letters to His Som expressed himself (Letter 144) very
forcibly in his condemnation of laughter :

‘ Having mentioned laughing, I must particularly warn
you against it : and I could heartily wish, that you may
often be seen to smile, but never heard to laugh while you
live. Frequent and loud laughter is the characteristic of
folly and ill-manners ; it is the manner in which the mob
express their silly joy at silly things ; and they call it being
merry. In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so
ill-bred, as audible laughter. True wit, or sense, never yet
made anybody laugh ; they are above it : they please the
mind, and give a cheerfulness to the countenance. . . . I
am neither of a melancholy nor a cynical disposition, and
am as willing and as apt to be pleased as anybody ; but
I am sure that since I have had the full use of my reason,
nobody has ever heard me laugh.’

In an earlier letter (129), however, he gives a very useful
warning to his son with regard to the evil habit of story
telling : ‘ Do not tell stories in company ; there is nothing
more tedious and disagreeable ; if by chance you know
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 21

a very short story, and exceedingly applicable to the present
subject of conversation, tell it in as few words as possible ;
and even then, throw out that you do not love to tell
stories, but that the shortness of it tempted you ’.

On the other hand, the Earl of Shaftesbury in his essay
on The Freedom of Wit and Humour attacks the Hobbes’s
theory, and deals with the subject of laughter in an
admirably scientific and catholic spirit.

Lord Kames, also, in his Elements of Criticism,
discusses, at some length, the characteristics and limita-
tions of the different elements which cause laughter, and
gives an excellent account of its function :

‘ Such is the nature of man, that his powers and faculties
are soon blunted by exercise. The returns of sleep,
suspending all activity, are not alone sufficient to preserve
him in vigour ; during his waking hours, amusement by
intervals is requisite to unbend his mind from serious
occupation. To that end, nature hath kindly made a
provision of many objects which may be distinguished by
the epithet of 7isible, because they raise in us a peculiar
emotion expressed externally by laughter : that emotion is
* pleasant; and, being also mirthful, it most successfully
unbends the mind and recruits the spirits. Imagination
contributes a part by multiplying such objects without
end.’

It would thus appear from the authors quoted, and also
from the statements of most of their contemporaries, that
laughter in the eighteenth century had become much more
respectable than it was in the seventeenth century. The
springs of laughter had become less turbid, and a further
improvement occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, with which we shall deal in the next two chapters.
CHAPTER III
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER

(LAUGHTER IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY)

that attachment to any particular view held by

previous authoritative writers on the subject, which
was so characteristic of the theories of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. The effort to establish anything
approaching continuity in the development of a consistent
theory of laughter was doomed to failure, because of the
continual changes in the social outlook, and the nature of
the environment, which really conditioned the type of
humorous situation which acted as the appropriate stimulus
for laughter. There is no longer any necessity for writers
in the laughter warfare to declare themselves as disciples
of particular schools of thought. The bitter controversies
of those fighting under the banners of the Hobbes or the
anti-Hobbes factions of the seventeenth century find no
similar rivalries, or system of loyalties, to-day. The
statement of the view of any special exponent of modern
conceptions with regard to laughter is criticised on its
merits, and not because of the allegiance of the author to
any previous theory.

The general discussion of the springs of laughter in the
nineteenth century is well illustrated by the contributions
of Hazlitt (1819), from the literary point of view, Herbert
Spencer (1863), from the physiological side, and Charles
Darwin (1872), from that of the most acute observer of
natural phenomena the world has ever seen. The con-
sideration of opinions expressed by distinguished writers,

22

I the modern theories of laughter there is no longer
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 23

. viewing the subject of laughter from such widely different
standpoints, provides an admirable preparation for the
appreciation of theories of a more technical and detailed
character which will come under review later on.

William Hazlitt, in the introduction to his course of
lectures on The Comic Writers, etc., of Great Britain, in
dealing with the subject of Wit and Humour says :

‘ Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps ; for he
is the only animal that is struck with the difference between
what things are, and what they ought to be. We weep at
what thwarts or exceeds our desires in serious matters :
we laugh at what only disappoints our expectations in
trifles. We shed tears from sympathy with real and
necessary distress ; as we burst into laughter from want
of sympathy with that which is unreasonable and unneces-
sary, the absurdity of which provokes our spleen or mirth,
rather than any serious reflections on it. . . . We turn
with an incredulous smile from a story that staggers our
belief : and we are ready to split our sides with laughing
at an extravagance that sets all common sense and serious
concern at defiance.’

In speaking of the normal stress which the serious lays
on a given order of events, he defines certain elements of
the laughable :

‘ The ludicrous, or comic, is the unexpected loosening or
relaxing this stress below its usual pitch of intensity, by

‘such an abrupt transposition of the order of our ideas,
as taking the mind unawares, throws it off its guard,
startles it into a lively sense of pleasure, and leaves no time
nor inclination for painful reflections. The essence of the
laughable then is the incongruous, the disconnecting one
idea from another, or the jostling of one feeling against
another. . . . Humour is the describing the ludicrous as
it is in itself; wit is the exposing it, by comparing or
contrasting it with something else. Humour is, as it were,
the growth of nature and accident ; wit is the product of
24 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

art and fancy. ... The devotion to nonsense, and
enthusiasm about trifles is highly affecting as a moral
lesson : it is one of the striking weaknesses and greatest
happinesses of our nature. That which excites so lively
and lasting an interest in itself, even though it should not
be wisdom, is not despicable in the sight of reason and
humanity.’

As an example of the play upon words, which is such a
fertile source of laughter, he gives an account of the author
of a periodical called the World, who, looking very worried
in church, was asked by a lady what he was thinking about,
to which he replied, ‘ the next World.’

He refers to the well-known tendency to laugh in circum-

- stances of great gravity :

V

‘ It is not an easy matter to preserve decorum in courts
of justice. The smallest circumstance that interferes with
the solemnity of the proceedings, throws the whole place
into an uproar of laughter. People at the point of death
often say smart things. Sir Thomas More jested with his
executioner. Rabelais and Wycherley both died with a
bon-mot in their mouths.’

In common with many writers on laughter, Hazlitt

‘protests against the professional humorist :

‘ An affectation of wit by degrees hardens the heart, and
spoils good company and good manners. A perpetual
succession of good things puts an end to common conversa-
tion. There is no answer to a jest, but another ; and even
where the ball can be kept up in this way without ceasing,
it tires the patience of the bystanders, and runs the speakers
out of breath. Wit is the salt of conversation, not the
food.’

Hazlitt’s contribution to the subject of laughter is of
great value for the critical exposition, from his great store
of material, of the humorous elements in English literature
both in his introduction on Wit and Humour and his
subsequent lectures. Some of the definitions he gives may
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 25

be called in question, but in his generous outlook on
laughter, and by his frank and popular statement of its
claims, he cleared away many of the false conceptions of
earlier times. X

Herbert Spencer, in his comparatively short essay On
the Physiology of Laughter successfully demonstrated that
a remarkably good case may be made for an explanation of
laughter on a physiological basis. Descartes, in his similar
attempt to give a physiological account of the laugh,
naturally failed in consequence of the somewhat rudi-
mentary knowledge of the science of physiology in the
seventeenth century.

Spencer’s remarkable and scholarly essay marks a great
advance in our knowledge of laughter. His singularly
lucid statement, with so many definite and clear-cut
conclusions, has stood the test of time, and has exerted a
great influence on the opinions of many of the writers on
laughter since his day. The ambitious problem he
proposes to solve in his essay is clearly shown at the
beginning :

‘ Why do we smile when a child puts on a man’s hat ?
Or what induces us to laugh on reading that the corpulent
Gibbon was unable to rise from his knees after making a
tender declaration ? The usual reply to such questions is,
that laughter results from a perception of incongruity.
Even were there not on this reply the obvious criticism that
laughter often occurs from extreme pleasure or from mere
vivacity, there would still remain the real problem—How
comes a sense of the incongruous to be followed by these
peculiar bodily actions ? Some have alleged that laughter
is due to the pleasure of a relative self-elevation, which we
feel on seeing the humiliation of others. But this theory,
whatever portion of truth it may contain, is, in the first
place, open to the fatal objection, that there are various:
humiliations to others which produce in us anything but
laughter ; and, in the second place, it does not apply to
26 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

/the many instances in which no one’s dignity is implicated :
as when we laugh at a good pun. Moreover, like the other,
it is merely a generalization of certain conditions to
laughter ; and not an explanation of the odd movements
which occur under these conditions. Why, when greatly
delighted, or impressed with certain unexpected contrasts
of ideas, should there be a contraction of particular facial
muscles, and particular muscles of the chest and abdomen ?
Such answer to this question as may be possible can be
rendered only by physiology.’

Starting with the assumption that nervous excitation
always tends to beget muscular motion, he says :

‘If a man receives good news with neither change of
feature nor bodily motion, it is inferred that he is not much
pleased, or that he has extraordinary self-control—either
inference implying that joy almost universally produces
contraction of the muscles ; and so, alters the expression
or attitude, or both. . . . That laughter is a display of
muscular excitement, and so illustrates the general law
that feeling passing a certain pitch habitually vents itself,
in bodily action, scarcely needs pointing out. It perhaps
needs pointing out, however, that strong feeling of almost
any kind produces this result. It is not a sense of the
ludicrous, only, which does it ; nor are the various forms
of joyous emotion the sole additional causes. We have,
besides, the sardonic laughter and the hysterical laughter
which result from mental distress.’

The part of his essay which has, deservedly, received so
much attention, and which stands alone in the literature
of laughter, as a satisfactory rational explanation of the
act of laughing, is as follows :

‘ It is through the organs of speech that feeling passes
into movement with the greatest frequency. The jaws,
tongue, and lips are used not only to express strong irrita-
tion or gratification ; but that very moderate flow of mental
energy which accompanies ordinary conversation, finds

a
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 27

its chief vent through this channel. Hence it happens
~ that certain muscles round the mouth, small and easy to
move, are the first to contract under pleasurable emotion.
The class of muscles which, next after those of articulation
are most constantly set in action by feelings of all kinds,
are those of respiration. Under pleasurable or painful
sensations we breathe more rapidly : possibly as a conse-
quence of the increased demand for oxygenated blood.
The sensations that accompany exertion also bring on
hard-breathing ; which here more evidently responds to
the physiological needs. And emotions, too, agreeable
and disagreeable, both, at first, excite respiration ; though
the last subsequently depress it. That is to say, of the
bodily muscles, the respiratory are more constantly
implicated than any others in those various acts which our
feelings impel us to; and, hence, when there occurs an
undirected discharge of nervous energy into the muscular
system, it happens that, if the quantity be considerable, it
convulses not only certain of the articulatory and vocal
muscles, but also those which expel air from the lungs. . . .
Thus, then, without contending that the phenomena of
laughter in all their details are to be so accounted for we
see that in their ensemble they conform to these general
principles : that feeling excites to muscular action ; that
when the muscular action is unguided by a purpose, the
muscles first affected are those which feeling most habitu-
ally stimulates; and that as the feeling to be expended
increases in quantity, it excites an increasing number of
muscles, in a succession determined by the relative
frequency with which they respond to the regulated
dictates of feeling.’

In developing his fascinating theory of laughter being

caused by what he terms descending incongruity, Spencer |

2

bases it on the surplus energy released when a given ~ *

situation on the large scale is suddenly replaced by one on

a very small scale. The matter appears to be largely

i
28 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

mechanical, and the whole is portrayed as in a balance-
sheet of income and expenditure. The energy stored to |
meet an important event being in excess of that required
for the resulting small event, the surplus energy requires |
some avenue for its discharge, and the most suitable, and
easily available, channel is that which produces the
muscular excitation which we know as laughter. As he |
describes it : !

“=“Laughter naturally results only when consciousness is |
unawares transferred from great things to small—only when |
there is what we call a descending incongruity.’

When, however, the final is on a larger scale than the |
initial event the balance of income and expenditure is
on the wrong side, and there is a shortage of energy to meet
the occasion. In this case—ascending incongruity—there
is no laughter, and the emotion we call wonder results.

In cases of great nervousness far too much energy is
stored for simple tasks, and it is a very great relief to be
able to work off some of the surplus by muscular movements. |
The nervous lecturer who continually changes his position, |
unconsciously plays with his watch-chain, cannot keep his |
hands in any normal position, and thus releases some of
his surplus energy, is a case in point. In this connexion
Spencer tells the story narrated by Sir Walter Scott of his
school-fellow, who could not say his lesson after the removal |
of the waistcoat-button which he was accustomed to
finger while in class.

Reference is made in the essay to the health-giving
function of laughter, in deepening the inspirations and
quickening the circulation. Further, for example :

‘ The sudden overflow of an arrested mental excitement,
which, as we have seen, results from a descending incon-
gruity, must doubtless stimulate not only the muscular
system, as we see it does, but also the internal organs ; the
heart and stomach must come in for a share of the dis- -
charge. And thus there seems to be a good physiological |
F

THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 29

basis for the popular notion that mirth-creating excitement
facilitates digestion.’ .

The final blow to the Hobbes theory is given by this
essay on the physiology of laughter. It had a far-reaching
effect, and a desire to deal with the psychology of laughter
on similar lines found expression in Theodor Lipps’
Komik and Humor.

Charles Darwin, in The Expression of the Emotions in
Man and Animals, makes very significant references to the
subject of laughter, and places on a sure foundation many
points which are essential to a full understanding of the
matter. Some of them have received inadequate, and
rather scant, attention by other authorities, though they
are of vital importance. It is very interesting to consider
the views of Spencer and Darwin together. They do not
overlap but they adjust the balance, and give a clearer
picture of the whole. With such distinguished and careful
researchers, it is natural that particular aspects should
receive special attention, and this gives the investigations
greater value.

Darwin refers to the surplus-energy theory of Spencer
with approval and without criticism. In fact, he gives
the impression of being of the opinion that, Spencer having
come to a definite conclusion on a matter, there is nothing
more to be said. In assessing the value of Darwin’s
contribution to the origin and characteristics of the act of
laughing, it should be borne in mind that the opinions
expressed are the result of long investigation and of careful
scrutiny of opposing views. An opinion based on actual
personal research is in an altogether different category from
the opinion of a person, who, with no first-hand knowledge
of the subject, satisfies himself with reporting, and possibly
criticizing, the results of research.

There is much discussion in the present day as to whether
laughter is, or is not, of an instinctive nature. Here, of

© course, the opinion of Darwin is of supreme importance.
80 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

In referring to the expression of pleasure or joy by monkeys
he states :

‘ If a young chimpanzee be tickled—and the armpits are
particularly sensitive to tickling, as in the case of our
children—a decided chuckling or laughing sound is uttered :
though the laughter is sometimes noiseless. Young orangs,
when tickled, likewise grin and make a chuckling sound ;
and Mr. Martin says that their eyes grow brighter. As soon
as their laughter ceases, an expression may be detected
passing over their faces, which, as Mr. Wallace remarked
to me, may be called a smile.’

And, further:

‘The imagination is sometimes said to be tickled by a
ludicrous idea ; and this so-called tickling of the mind is
curiously analogous with that of the body. Every one
knows how immoderately children laugh, and how their
whole bodies are convulsed when they are tickled. The
anthropoid apes, as we have seen, likewise utter a reiterated |
sound, corresponding with our laughter, when they are
tickled, especially under the armpits. |

Other vexed questions, such as the nature of laughter
and the relation of the smile to the laugh, are admirably |
dealt with by Darwin. First as to the sound :

‘ To return to the sounds produced during laughter. We
can see in a vague manner how the utterance of sounds of
some kind would naturally become associated with a
pleasurable state of mind ; for throughout a large part of
the animal kingdom vocal or instrumental sounds are
employed either as a call or as a charm by one sex for the
other. They are also employed as the means for a joyful |
meeting between the parents and their offspring, and
between the attached members of the same social
community.’ ;

Then, the relation of the smile to the laugh :

‘ Excessive laughter graduates into moderate laughter.
In this latter case the muscles round the eyes are much less

s
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 31

contracted, and there is little or no frowning. Between a
gentle laugh and a broad smile there is hardly any difference,
except that in smiling no reiterated sound is uttered,
though a single rather strong expiration, or slight noise—a
rudiment of a laugh—may often be heard at the commence-
ment of a smile. A smile, therefore, may be said to be the
first stage in the development of a laugh. But a different
and more probable view may be suggested ; namely, that
the habit of uttering loud reiterated sounds from a sense
of pleasure, first led to the retraction of the corners of the
mouth and of the upper lip, and to the contraction of the
orbicular muscles ; and that now, through association and
long-continued habit, the same muscles are brought into
slight play whenever any cause excites in us a feeling
which, if stronger, would have led to laughter ; and the
result is a smile.’

In Darwin's observations he clearly traced the develop-

ment of the laugh from the smile in his own children ; the
laugh being heralded by * a little bleating noise.’
Darwin attaches great importance to the fact that in all
parts of the world excessive laughter is accompanied by
the production of tears :
‘ With respect to joy, its natural and universal expression
is laughter ; and with all the races of man loud laughter
leads to the secretion of tears more freely than does any
other cause excepting distress. . . . The aborigines of
Australia express their emotions freely, and they are
described by my correspondents as jumping about and
clapping their hands for joy, and as often roaring with
laughter. No less than four observers have seen their
eyes freely watering on such occasions ; and in one instance
| the tears rolled down their cheeks. Mr. Bulmer, a mis-

sionary in a remote part of Victoria, remarks, ‘‘ that they
. have a keen sense of the ridiculous ; they are excellent
{ mimics, and when one of them is able to imitate the
' peculiarities of some absent member of the tribe, it is very
32 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

common to hear all in the camp convulsed with laughter.”
With Europeans hardly anything excites laughter so easily |
as mimicry ; and it is rather curious to find the same fact
with the aborigines of Australia, who constitute one of
the most distinct races in the world.’

That laughter may be produced by imitation is con-
tested :

‘Laura Bridgman, from her blindness and deafness, |
could not have acquired any expression through imitation, |
yet when a letter from a beloved friend was communicated |
to her by gesture-language, she “laughed and clapped her |
hands and the colour mounted to her cheeks ”. On other
occasions she has been seen to stamp for joy.’

He lays great emphasis on the increased brightness of
the eyes during laughter :

“A bright and sparkling eye is as characteristic of a
pleased or amused state of mind, as is the retraction of the
corners of the mouth and upper lip with the wrinkles thus
produced.’

On the subject of derision Darwin makes the interesting |
comment :

‘In the case of derision, a real or pretended smile or |
laugh is often blended with the expression proper to
contempt, and this may pass into angry contempt or scorn. |
In such cases the meaning of the laugh or smile is to show
the offending person that he excites only amusement.’

In summing up the points raised by Darwin the most
important are: (1) That laughter is primarily the expres- -
sion of joy; (2) that the act of laughing i is accompanied
by increased brightness of the eyes, in both monkeys and
man ; (3) that there is in monkeys something approaching :
laughter, and that it may be caused, as in tickling, by the
same means as in the case of children; (4) that, as with ¢
Laura Bridgman, laughter may occur without any possi- -
bility of imitation; (5) that there is a common origin of
the laugh and the smile ; (6) that laughter, as an expression ¢
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 33

of joy, is to be found in all peoples ; and (7) that excessive
laughter is always accompanied by the secretion of tears.

The marvel is that, with such trustworthy evidence, the
instinctive nature of laughter should, for so long, have

failed to be recognized.
CHAPTER IV
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER

(LAUGHTER IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY)

great debt of gratitude to James Sully, who, in his |

Essay on Laughter, in addition to his own valuable
investigations on the subject, gives an admirable summary
of the views held, with regard to laughter, at the beginning |
of the century. In this essay the evidence of the child, at !
long last, receives full recognition. If this had been done
earlier, as we have already pointed out, many pitfalls in

Qe ce of the history of laughter are under a

previous theories might have been avoided. Another

welcome departure, in Sully’s survey of the field of laughter,

> is the numerous references to the close association of the

play-impulse with the appreciation of mirth-provoking
activities.

He states that the object of his essay is not only to
discover the values to be assigned to laughter, but also
the appropriate limits to be set to its indulgence. Sully
confirms Darwin’s conclusion that there is a series of
gradations from the smile to the laugh, that the laugh, in
fact, is a grown-up smile. He makes no reference, however,
to Darwin's interesting suggestion of the possible priority
of the laugh in the course of evolution.

In regard to the physiological value of laughter, he is
in full agreement with Spencer. The act of laughing is
described as a violent interruption of the rhythmic flow
of the expiratory movements, and he indicates that the
appearance of tears should be regarded as a danger signal,
as it is a sign of exhaustion, and shows that the limit has

34
ENE ey Lo

ape

THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 85

been reached at which laughter is of value hygienically.
Relaxation of strain is the universal element in laughter.
It results from the collapse of attention, the inhibition
energy for attention being set free and resulting in
laughter.

In the development of laughter, it is interesting to notice
the very early age at which natural can be distinguished
from artificial laughter. ‘ Preyer tells us he was able to
distinguish, in the third year of his boy’s utterances, the

genuine laugh of hilarity from that of imitation, which

was probably rather more forced.’

Sully, like Darwin, attaches great importance to tickling,

in the early stages of development: ‘The experience of

being tickled is best described in its entirety as a sensational
reflex ; that is to say, a motor reaction on a process of
sensory stimulation which produces a well-marked variety
of sensation.” The laughter reaction to tickling starts
when the child is about two months old if he is mentally
alert, but in the case of a less intelligent child it may be
a month later. There is an element of the unknown in
tickling—you cannot tickle yourself—and the ticklish areas
are, as a rule, the parts of the body which are rarely
touched. The dressed child is more ticklish than the
undressed, and this supports the unknown-element theory.
The child’s mind must also be in a pleasurable condition.
‘In order to call forth the glad response of laughter, we
must secure a certain adjustment of stimulus to mental
attitude. The tickling must fit in with a particular mood,
the state of mind which makes enjoyment of fun not only
possible but welcome.’

In discussing the varieties of the laughable, Sully gives
a comprehensive list of the springs of laughter and deals,
in some detail, with the different categories. The ludicrous
he defines as that which is a universal cause of laughter.
Some of the more important elements which make things
laughable, in his opinion, are the following :
36 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

“/ (x) Novelty, out-of-the-way-ness, oddity. The odd is
always relative to the custom of a locality or class.
(2) Physical deformities. The big nose, the absent chin,
obesity, long ears. Additions are more laughable than
reductions ; you laugh at the fat man but not at the lean
one.
+ (3) Moral deformities and vices. Drunkenness, violence
of temper, vanity, unmasked hypocrisy, stupidity. The
amusement varies with the moral standard of the onlooker,
the nation or class to which he belongs.

(4) Breaches of order and rule. Soldiers marching out
of step, tall and short men walking together, and ragging.

(5) Small misfortunes. The loss of one’s hat, a fall or
slip, sea-sickness, loss of dignity of a vain person.

(6) Indecency or obscenity. The coarse-minded person
revels in this ‘ muddy spring of laughter’. Unveiling of
that which is ordinarily hidden. The coarse joke, however,
must have a humorous element or it would not be
tolerated.

(7) Pretence or make-believe. The unmasking of the
imposter or hypocrite.

(8) Want of knowledge or skill. Learning to skate or
to ride a bicycle. Ignorance or incompetency unmasked
in self-assertive people. The naiveté of the child.

(9) Riddles, verbal play, and amusing witticisms. The
‘bull ’ is always mirth-provoking, as, for example, ‘ Every

, man ought to be ready to give his last guinea to protect
"the remainder’. Children’s word-play, puns. Inversion :
‘A mother said to her child, who had been complaining
of the heat, “the more you think of it the worse it will
be”. Upon which the child remarked, “I should say the

worse it is the more I shall think of it.””’
« Most laughter represents the relief from the restraints of
ordinary life, and this includes laughter at what is lawless

4 or obscene.

In discussing the ludicrous and the relative merits of
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 37

the moral theory or theory of degradation, and the intellec-
tual theory or theory of incongruity, Sully, like Spencer,
has a parting shot at Hobbes :

‘Is it possible to regard all laughable exhibitions of
incongruities as degradations ? Is the charming unsuita-
bility of the grown-up’s coat and hat to the childish form
viewed by the laughing spectator as a degradation when
he ‘lets himself go’ ? Are we laughing at the clothes as
degraded by being thus transformed, or at the child’s
naiveté as a degradation of human intelligence ? I confess
that such a way of interpreting the spectacle strikes me as
grotesquely forced.” Whereas, with regard to the alterna-

~ tive he says: ‘The laughter, according to this second

en

theory, results from a peculiar effect on our intellectual
mechanism, such as the nullification of a process of expecta-
tion or of an expectant tendency. It is this perfectly
disinterested intellectual process which brings about the
feeling of the ludicrous and its expression in laughter.’
Sully, however, contends that the main cause of laughter
is the novelty of the unexpected. Contrariety to what we
are accustomed is a determining element in producing
laughter. In many cases there is a combination of the
degradation and incongruity theories, and unsuccessful
attempts have been made to bring all cases under this
combination. In dealing with earlier theories of laughter,
the futility of attempting to bring all types of humorous
experience into a single category was pointed out. 7
Surprise, followed by a relief from restraint, is responsible
for much laughter f from the Bo-peep of infancy through
fhe whole school life. Whether laughter has a personal
aim, or whether degradation is involved, the superiority
element is frequently an important factor. If my friend’s
hat blows off I laugh, if my own blows off I donot. There
is a great kinship between play and-laughter. In neither
is their activity controlled by external ends which have a
practical or other serious value. Intellectual laughter may
>

88 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

be regarded as mind play. It is of importance to consider
primitive and childish laughter in framing theories, if
sound conclusions are to be reached.

In further discussion of the origin of the laugh, after a
full account of Darwin's work, Sully estimates the first
appearance of the smile at about the end of the third week
and that of the laugh at the end of the third month. As
regards the transition from the smile to the laugh, he
describes the valuable observations of Millicent Shinn, in
The Biography of a Baby, who noticed the wide open mouth
five days before the first laugh, which is an open-mouth
sound, and which, by reiteration, develops into that of
the laugh. The tickling laugh appears at about the same
time as the gaiety laugh.

As evidence of the dog’s merry ‘ make-believe’, Sully
refers to a very interesting account of Professor Lloyd
Morgan’s example of this :

‘ The writer tells us that he used at one time to take an
intelligent retriever to a sandy shore, where the dog
engaged spontaneously in the following pastime. He
buried a number of small crabs in the sand, and then stood
waiting till a leg or claw appeared, upon which he would
run backwards and forwards giving short barks of keen
enjoyment.’

Savages delight in teasing and in practical jokes. They
laugh much at the acts and customs of the white man,
and show great skill in mimicry. The funny man is
greatly in request, and there are many savage clowns
and jesters. The gaiety is generally of an infantile
order.

Laughter performs many important functions. It has
a great social influence in castigating vices and follies
and thus lowering their vitality. It promotes feelings of
comradeship and produces an atmosphere of good temper
in difficult situations. By ridiculing extremes in social
behaviour it has a conservative function. Laughter is a
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 39

. powerful weapon in attacking physical and mental
eccentricities and reducing them to the natural order. |
Extravagances in dress are also corrected by laughter ;
it is a great leveller. Reference has already been made
to the variations in the causes of laughter with the mental
condition of the particular type of civilization. One test
of the stability of progress in social order is, can it with-
stand laughter ? A sense of humour is a great solace in /
times of stress and strain. ¥
Sully has the great courage to define humour, which he
regards as ‘the quieter enjoyment of things laughable’,
though he adds, ‘it is difficult to define it scientifically ’.
In discussing the difference between wit and humour he
states: ‘ Perhaps nowhere do we find the human mind to
be more strangely misled by the fact of the existence of two
words than in this case. Wit, as essentially a manner of
deportment of the intelligence can stand in no simple and
direct relation to an emotional mood like humour.’
Sully fears that with an increase of materialism there
may be a weakening of the spirit of play, and thus a
decline of laughter and mirth. Laughter, he says, ‘is one
of the possessions of men to which they should jealously
cling. It brings gaiety into what is always tending to
grow a dull world. . . . It supplies diversion in youth
and still more in age, and it may with a few, as it did with
Heine and R. L. Stevenson, remain a bright comrade on
the sick-bed. It is the manna on which good fellowship
loves to feed. . . . Pure and honest laughter, like mercy,
blesses him that gives, and him that takes.’

In his contribution to theories of laughter, Sin
Freud confines himself, as indicated by the title of his i
book, to ‘ Wit and its relation to the Unconscious ’, and
~ thus covers much less ground than Sully. As one would
naturally expect, from such a writer of outstanding |
eminence, there are many brilliant suggestions in his work,
40 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

which, from start to finish, is intensely interesting. It is
a book, however, which has probably aroused more adverse
criticism than any other contribution to the subject of
wit and humour. There is much over-elaboration of the
obvious, as there is also much under-elaboration of many
of the difficult points raised. In some cases it is abnormally
difficult to understand exactly what the author means,
and, moreover, how some of his conclusions are reached.

The stories illustrating the various sections Freud deals
with are, on the whole, excellent. Some are very old

friends that we are glad to meet again. He prepares us
for this in his introduction: ‘We need not shirk the
responsibility of analysing the same examples which have
already served the classical authors, but we contemplate
new material besides to lay a broader foundation for our
deductions. It is quite natural that we should select such
examples of wit as objects for our investigation as have
produced the deepest impression upon our own lives and
which have caused us the greatest amount of laughter.’
As a rule, we much prefer the old friends to the new, and
there are many of the latter.

It adds to the difficulty of following a line of argument
if it is over-illustrated ; we cannot see the wood for the
trees. Too much analysis of a story should also be avoided.
We get very tired, for example, of Heine's amusing ‘ famil-
lionaire ’ story, which is ridden to death by over-explana-
tion. Whereas, ‘kleptorumania,” ‘anecdotage,’ and
‘ alcoholidays,’” equally good types of condensation, are
treated quite naturally.

Starting with ‘economy of psychic expenditure '—a
‘modern variant of ‘ brevity is the soul of wit ‘—as the
' all-important cause of laughter is discussed very fully, and

illustrated with excellent examples in support of the
| thesis.
Freud's theory is very closely related to that of Spencer's
descending incongruity. Here we meet again the surplus
Be

THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 41

energy on the credit side of the balance sheet, with its
discharge in laughter. In the analysis of the different
stories, the material is classified into :

Condensation, with mixed word-formation and with
modification.

The application of the same material, with change of 7
order, slight modification and the same words used in their
full or colourless sense. :

Double meaning, with name and verbal significance, 7
metaphorical and verbal meaning, true double meaning
(play on words), ambiguous meaning and double meaning
with allusion. The analyses all pointing in the same
direction, namely, that the universal character of wit is to
economize. Wit work, according to Freud, must not be
confused with understanding work. Nonsense has a
technical importance: ° Sense in nonsense transforms.
nonsense into wit.’

xcellent examples are given of the play upon words,
such as: ‘An undertaker is one who always carries out,
what he undertakes ’ and ‘ One swallow does not make a
summer, nor quench the thirst’. Some of the conclusions
with regard to the inner meaning of stories, however, appear
to be far-fetched. For example: ‘A physician, leaving
the sick-bed of a wife, whose husband accompanied him,
exclaimed doubtfully: “I do not like her looks.” “I
have not liked her looks for a long time,” was the quick
rejoinder of the husband.” To conclude from this that a
state of marital infelicity existed between the man and his
wife is absurd ; it might bear a very different construction.
The great similarity between wit technique and dream
technique is dealt with at some length, but, though very
. interesting, the argument does not carry conviction.

Freud, in dealing with the tendencies of wit, contributes
much of real value. He distinguishes between the purpose-
less and purposive : ‘ Sometimes wit is wit for its own sake
and serves no other particular purpose ; then, again, it

/
42 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

places itself at the service of such a purpose, i.e. it becomes
purposive.” As a good example of harmless thought-
witticism he quotes: ‘ One man begets the thought, the
second acts as its godfather, the third begets children by
it, the fourth visits it on its death-bed, and the fifth buries
it.” ¥Wit, he defines as ‘ an activity whose purpose is to
derive pleasure from the psychic processes’. All pleasures
of harmless wit centre round the technique, but it is other-
wise with tendency wit. ‘ By belittling and ridiculing our
enemy, we obtain the pleasure of his defeat by the laughter
of the onlooker.’

The pleasure derived from tendency wit is due to the

' removal of any inhibitions, external or internal, and results
| in an economy of psychic expenditure. In harmless wit
there is a short circuit of association of words without

mental effort, and this also results in a similar economy.
Thus, there is an economy pleasure in ‘ the re-discovery of
the familiar’. ‘The pleasure in nonsense,” as we may call
it for short, ‘ is, in the seriousness of our life, crowded back
almost to the vanishing point.” Word pleasure and
pleasure in nonsense are, in fact, a relief from critical
reasoning.

Playing with words and thoughts is, unquestionably, a
great pleasure to the child until the age of reason partially
stops it. Wit may be senseful or senseless. Reason,
critical judgment, and suppression are forces which
tendency wit combats in turn. ‘ The psychogenesis of wit
has taught us that the pleasure of wit arises from word
play or from the liberation of nonsense, and that the sense
of wit is meant only to guard this pleasure against its

suppression through reasoning.’

1

Freud agrees with other authorities that laughter,
especially with children, is frequently caused by surprise
followed by relief from restraint. In referring to laughter
as a discharge of energy he says: ‘ Thus, according to our
| assumption, the conditions for laughter are such that a sum
- THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 48

of psychic energy hitherto employed in the occupation of
some paths may experience free discharge. And since not i
all laughter (but surely the laughter of wit), is a sign of
pleasure, we shall be inclined to refer this pleasure to the
release of previously existing static energy.’

One of the most arresting parts of Freud’s contribution
to the springs of laughter is that describing the unconscious
and the infantile ; witticisms being the result of the action
of the unconscious on thought. ‘ The thought which sinks
into the unconscious for the purpose of wit-formation only
revisits there the old homestead of the former playing with
words. The thought is put back for the moment into the
infantile state, in order to regain in this way childish
pleasure-sources.’

In view of the important part played—according to this
thesis—of childish activities in the production of adult wit,
it is simply bewildering to read Freud’s reference to child:(_
hood in his concluding summary : ‘It has seemed to us
that the pleasure of wit originates from an economy of
expenditure in inhibition, of the comic from an economy of
expenditure in thought, and of humour from an economy
of expenditure in feeling. All three activities of our
psychic apparatus derive pleasure from economy. They
all strive to bring back from the psychic activity a pleasure
which has really been lost in the development of this
activity. For the euphoria which we are thus striving to
obtain is nothing but a state of a by-gone time in which
we were wont to defray our psychic work with slight
expenditure. It is the state of our childhood in which we
did not know the comic, were incapable of wit, and did not
need humour to make us happy.’

In this very imperfect sketch of Freud’s contribution to
the theory of laughter an effort has been made to confine
it, as far as possible, to his theory of wit-formation. Many
of the side-issues raised, however, are very interesting and
illuminating. Some of the points on which he is more or

A e——— a OS Be
\

\
}

\

\

44 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

less in accord with writers, to whom reference has already
been made, have simply been noted without discussion.

Another very distinguished contributor to our knowledge
of laughter also specializes on one department of the subject.
- Thus, Henri Bergson, in his book on Laughter, concen-
trates on ‘ The meaning of the Comic’. The remarkable
variety of opinion expressed by writers on laughter is made
more difficult of comparison by the fact that such widely
different meanings are attached by them to such words as
wit, humour, comic, ludicrous, and so on. If only there
were agreed standard definitions of such terms the task
would be considerably simplified. Bergson lays special
stress on the disciplinary purpose of laughter in correcting
extravagant social attitudes. ‘Laughter is a corrective ’,
runs through the whole of his interesting essay.

His main thesis is that when a living organism behaves,
or tends to behave like a machine, laughter is the result.
He goes so far as to contend that ‘ the attitude, gestures,
and movements of the human body are laughable in exact
proportion as that body reminds us of a mere machine’.
Thus, when a man falls down in the mud in running for
a bus, the reason for our laughter is that he exhibits
mechanical inelasticity and clumsiness. The general
formula is ‘ something mechanical encrusted on the living
causes laughter’.

Absent-mindedness, according to Bergson, is one of the
great mirth-provoking elements : ‘ It is situated, so to say,
on one of the great natural watersheds of laughter.” Absent-
mindedness represents a type of mental rigidity, and one
of the more important functions of laughter is to prevent
it, because people do not like being laughed at. Certain
types of deformity tend to cause laughter, but Bergson
suggests a limitation: ‘A deformity that may become
comic is a deformity that a normally built person could
successfully imitate.’
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 45

Automatism, especially in a ceremonial officer, who
performs his duty like a mere machine, is also a fertile
source of laughter. Of this Bergson gives two excellent
examples : ‘ Twenty years ago, a large steamer was
wrecked off the coast at Dieppe. With considerable
difficulty some of the passengers were rescued in a boat.
A few custom-house officers, who had courageously rushed
to their assistance, began by asking them ‘If they had
anything to declare.”’ We find something similar, though
the idea is a more subtle one, in the remark of an M.P.
when questioning the Home Secretary on the morrow of a
terrible murder which took place in a railway carriage:
‘The assassin, after despatching his victim, must have
got out the wrong side of the train, thereby infringing the
Company’s rules.’

Automatism, in fact, represents mental inelasticity and
directly mechanization comes in laughter results.

Bergson deals admirably with another cause of laughter,
which involves the relation of physical to spiritual values ;
‘Any incident is comic that calls our attention to the
physical in a person, when it is the moral side that is
concerned.” Whenever the transition of characters associa-
ted with those of the body to those of the soul, or vice
versa, is clumsily and rapidly effected it causes great merri-
ment, as, for example, when a man sneezes during a
pathetic oration, or when a man sits down during an
eloquent peroration, and thus draws attention from the
soul to the body. Bergson quotes a case in which, at a
funeral oration, the deceased was referred to as ‘ virtuous
and plump ’.

Whenever a man is embarrassed by his body it tends to
cause amusement. This is suggested as the reason why the
fat man or woman nearly always appears in funny stories
told by children. Probably, however, the deformity
element also enters into it. To summarize the evidence
‘of the theory of laughter being caused by something
46 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

mechanical being encrusted on the living, Bergson says :
‘ We laugh every time a person gives us the impression
of being a thing.’

Whenever a clever arrangement is constructed, by which
inanimate objects are made to behave as if they were alive,
laughter is caused. Marionnettes are a continual source
of joy to the child, and the same is true of the Jack-in-the-
box and the Punch and Judy show. The adult also
delights in these things if he has retained an appropriate
measure of the spirit of the child. This largely determines
the appreciation of the comic by the grown-up. We do
not sufficiently recognize the importance of the childish
element in most of our joyful emotions. In passing from
these inanimate representations of life to the comedy we
simply replace material things by ideas.

Bergson deals in some detail with repetition and inversion
—as when the prisoner lectures the judge and the child
teaches his mother—as fertile sources of laughter. In
speaking of the amusement caused by fitting an absurd idea
into a well-established formula, the case is quoted of the
lazy man who said ‘I don’t like working between meals’
in place of ‘ I don’t like eating between meals’. Similarly,
‘A comic effect is obtained whenever we pretend to take
literally an expression which was used figuratively.’
Thus, when a mother speaks to her son of the evils of
gambling and says, ‘ It is very risky; you win one day
and lose the next’, and the boy replies, * Well then, I will
gamble only every other day’, it causes amusement,
because the boy has taken a remark literally which was used
figuratively. Many interesting examples of childish naiveté
are due to the inability of the child to distinguish between
the literal and the figurative.

Bergson cannot free himself from the overruling concep-
tion that the great function of laughter is that of stern
discipline. At one point in describing the comic character
he goes so far as to say : ‘ Here, too, our first impulse is to
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 47

accept the invitation to take it easy. For a short time, at
all events, we join in the game. And that relieves us from
the strain of living.” Then comes the depressing addition :
‘ But we rest only for a short time. The sympathy that is
capable of entering into the impression of the comic is a
very fleeting one. It also comes from a lapse in attention.
In other words, it is a form of absent-mindedness, and must
be condemned.’

His conclusion would have rejoiced the heart of Hobbes :
‘ Laughter is, above all, a corrective. Being intended to
humiliate, it must make a painful impression on the person
against whom it is directed. By laughter, society avenges
itself for the liberties taken with it. It would fail in its
object if it bore the stamp of sympathy or kindness.’

With so much that is delightful and entertaining in
this charming essay, we can only regret that more attention
has not been given to the joyous laughter of children, and
the generally accepted opinion of other modern contributors
that laughter, quite apart from its use for the correction
of social extravagances, is of priceless value in other far
more important directions. In this connexion, it is
interesting to compare Sully’s estimate of the function of
laughter with that of Bergson. They are as far apart as
the poles.

Boris Sidis; in The Psychology of Laughter, like Sully, |.
deals with the whole subject of laughter and, incidentally,
criticizes very vigorously the conclusions of Freud and!
Bergson. Economy in psychic expenditure as a cause of 3
laughter is, to this authority, anathema. To him, the =}
great stores of energy, in process of release, produce that/ *
feeling of relief which finds expression in laughter. W
laugh from strength not from weakness. ° Laughter comes
not out of economy, but out of abundance. . . . Conscious:
ness of reserve energy gives rise to joy and merriment with

~ their concomitant manifestations of smiling and laughing,
v
48 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

Whenever and wherever a stimulus can tap a source of
reserve energy which is mentally experienced as an abun-
dance, joy and laughter come to life. There is no economy
and no niggardliness in the source of laughter. Laughter
is born of lavishness and dies with thriftiness.’

Some of the ‘criticisms of Freud go too far in concentra-
ting, here and there, on unfortunate expressions in Wit and
its Relation to the Unconscious, without fully appreciating
the evidence on which the statements are based. Thus,
the Freudian economy frequently results, as we have seen,
in the discharge of the energy stored for inhibition purposes
in both the conscious and the unconscious. The formula
“brevity is the soul of wit’, which should not be unduly
emphasized, assumes an importance which is almost of
the nature of an obsession, and this has led to much
confusion. To take shelter behind a formula which is
only a general expression, and which does not rest upon a
scientific basis, is inimical to clear thinking. Wit he
defines as ‘ that form of thought and expression which give
rise to the free, spontaneous, mental activity, due to the
arousal of subconscious reserve energy.’

Perhaps the most valuable element in the contribution
of Sidis to the theories of laughter is his insistence on the
close association of laughter with the play impulse. ‘The
play instinct must remain dominant. We laugh in play.
. . . The energy spent in laughter should be felt as not
tending to any useful purpose. It must be spent for its
own sake, for the love of it. . . . The laughter of triumph
runs through all the stages of life.” He goes so far as to
contend that the source of all laughter is the release of
reserve energy. ‘ If we remember that play is a manifesta-
tion of spontaneous, unrestrained activity we can begin to
understand the nature of laughter, which is one of the
manifestations of the play instinct, present, not only in
man, but in the whole animal world.’

In common with other observers, Sidis notes that the
: THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 49

act of being relieved from any great strain generally results
in laughter, and also that what is not customary is laughed
at. He also stresses the delight we take in discovering
the mistakes made by people in high official positions :
‘ Whatever reveals weakness in an object of superior
standing and releases in the audienee subconscious sources
of hidden reserve energy is a fit subject for laughter and
ridicule.” Sidis, like Sully, summarizes the variety of
humorous experiences which cause laughter by a series of
comparisons : ‘ The significant and the insignificant, the
- noble and the ignoble, the grave and the gay, the heroic and
the grotesque, the unusual and the usual, the superior
and the inferior, when juxtaposed, raise laughter.’

In dealing with the ludicrous, Sidis starts with the
assumption that it has its origin in stupidity of one kind or
another, and that, whereas crime and sin are punished
by law and religion, stupidity is chastened by laughter.
‘To laugh at the infirmities of human nature, to prick
social, moral, religious, and family bubbles and see them
explode will ever remain the joy and the essence of the
ludicrous.’

In a very large number of illustrations, chiefly of Irish
descent, Sidis shows what an extraordinary interest is
taken in smart repartee in accounts of humorous
experiences. It certainly is the predominant laughter-
provoking element in a vast number of good stories. It
brings pleasure to the successful wag and to the onlooker.
In the cases quoted there is a notable absence of derision,
though the superiority of the triumphing opponent is

manifest. Throughout the book the release of energy is
the mainspring of laughter. Anything in the nature of
malice or cruelty tends to fall into disuse, and is eventually
completely eliminated, with a more cultured outlook in
social intercourse. Thus, ‘ If we come to analyse the comic
we find that its object is the awakening of the subconscious
surplus energy of man, bringing to the foreground the play
4
50 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

of free, unimpeded activity, giving rise to pure joy, resulting
in laughter’.

The function of laughter, as described by Sidis, is not
unlike that of Sully, and is in striking contrast to that of
Bergson. ‘In the darkness of man’s life laughter is the
light of the spirit. . . . The highest point reached by
laughter is intimately related with the highest intellectual
aesthetic, and moral development.’

Sidis does not reach the point of declaring laughter to

be an instinct, but he comes very near to it in linking it up
so definitely with the play impulse, which he assumes to be.
an instinct. He again comes very near when he compares |

it with the fighting instinct : ‘ Laughter and the fighting
instinct are akin only in so far as both of them are mani-
festations of superabundant energy.’ Although he fails
to arrive at this conclusion, the whole of his detailed survey
of laughter would fit in admirably with the instinct theory.

William McDougall, in An Outline of Psychology, gives a
very interesting account of a new theory of laughter.

He is of opinion that the smile and the laugh are not|

definitely connected in origin, as suggested by Darwin,

~ Sully and other writers. He does not regard the laugh as
a grown-up smile. In treating of laughter caused by the
minor misfortunes of others, he concludes that as a safe-
guard to what he terms ‘ primitive passive sympathy ’, 1ti
is necessary to have some alternative to sympathy in cases
of this kind. Laughter is that alternative. In other:
words, ‘ we laugh that we may not weep’. ‘ We are saved
from this multitude of small sympathetic pains and depres-:
sions by laughter, which, as we have seen, breaks up out
train of mental activity, prevents our dwelling upon the
distressing situation, and provides an antidote to the
depressing influence in the form of physiological stimulatior:
that raises the blood pressure and promotes the circulation:
of the blood. This, then, is the biological function oi
THEORIES OF LAUGHTER 51

laughter, one of the most delicate and beautiful of all
Nature’s adjustments.” In fact, he sums up the position
by saying : ‘ The true theory of laughter may be stated in
one sentence—laughter is the antidote to sympathy.’

McDougall “attaches considerable importance to the
subject of tickling in the history of laughter, and suggests
that ‘ laughter on being tickled is the crudest and earliest
- form of humour’. In admitting laughter to the group of
minor instincts he says: ‘We must recognize that it
differs from all other instincts in that its impulse seeks no
goal beyond itself, but secures its own satisfaction by means
of bodily processes which effect nothing in the outer
world.’ :

Max Eastman, in his admirable book on The Sense of
Humour, deals in a scholarly and very lucid manner with
the important question of the instinctive nature of laughter,
in support of which he is an excellent and convincing
exponent. After discussing the tests for instinct as
elaborated by McDougall, and the important addition by
James Drever—‘so early and so spontaneously '—and
showing how laughter fulfils all the necessary requirements,
he makes out a case for its instinctive nature which is
unanswerable. Among the many good arguments he
adduces in discussing the history of laughter, in favour of
its instinctive basis, Eastman makes an important point
which does not appear to have received sufficient attention
from other observers : ‘ I have been very careful to observe
that when I hear or see a group of people laughing heartily
at some funny tale or incident, although I have not heard
or seen the thing at which they laugh, my own response is
not only laughter but humorous emotion. And this fact
completely refutes the theory of Lipps and Spencer,
that humorous laughter is a mechanical result of a passage
of attention over a defined series of objects or ideas. It
refutes also the theory that such laughter is a mere sign
52 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

of release, for no matter what one’s own condition when he
notices that others are enjoying a joke—whether he is
tense with enterprise or some attempt at propriety, or
whether he is relaxed and perhaps half asleep in a railroad
berth—that subtle and incomparable enjoyment steals
through him just the same. Humorous laughter is infec-
tious—and that alone is sufficient to establish it among the

other instinctive adjustments of mankind to his environ-
ment.’
CHAPTER V

LAUGHTER AND DREAMS

it is interesting to observe how many authorities
trace a very definite resemblance between the arrange-
ment of the material in humorous situations and that which
can be noticed in the records of dreams. The conditions
of the dream, with the complete absence of anything in the
nature of critical reasoning, are obviously favourable to
freedom for an extended use of absurd combinations in the
bringing together of a great variety of previous experiences,
not in their original connexions but in a new orientation, to
meet the purposes of the dream. Many of these amusing
combinations found in the dream would have been impos-
sible in the waking condition without the very rare gift of
an imagination capable of freeing itself entirely from the
chains of conventional methods of grouping experiences.
Bergson only touches lightly on the subject of laughter
and dreams. He does not attach so much importance to
the dream as Freud, but it helps to illuminate his ideas of
the comic. He regards the state of dreams as a sane
condition of mind which resembles madness, and with the
same association of ideas as is to be found in lunacy, and
he concludes that, ‘ comic absurdity is of the same nature
as dreams’. He points out that in the dream we can analyse
sense impressions received from the outside world, and
use those elements necessary to satisfy the mood of the
dreamer, and the idea that fills his imagination at the time.
Thus, “ a gust of wind blowing down the chimney becomes
the howl of a wild beast or a tuneful melody’.
There are certain situations in the dream which, due

53

I the literature associated with the springs of laughter
54 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

to the relaxation of reasoning, would not occur anywhere
but in dreamland, and this gives the dreamer a distinct
advantage over the humorist. Bergson emphasizes this
interesting point: ‘But above all, there is a special
madness that is peculiar to dreams. There are certain
special contradictions so natural to the imagination of a
dreamer, and so absurd to the reason of a man wide-awake,
that it would be impossible to give a full and correct idea
of their nature to any one who has not experienced them.’
In this clear summary we have a vivid comparison of the
relation of the dream to the normal development of
humorous situations.

Children derive great pleasure from the recollection of
incidents of dreams, and the impossible events which arouse
fairyland elements of special interest. Thus, the young
child who dreams that she is married to an officer and puts
her children in a place of safety during an exciting
experience, delights in remembering events which cause
no amusement in the dream but produce hearty laughter
in the waking state. The spirit of wild adventure in the
performance of heroic deeds finds full expression in the
dream, and the comparison of such joyous experiences with
the uninteresting events of normal life appeals” to the
sense of humour of the child. The sense of time and
distance is obliterated ; the dreamer suddenly finds him-
self in a different part of the world and as suddenly finds
himself at home. All this adds to the wonder and charm
of the dream.

Freud deals somewhat exhaustively with the connexion
of wit-work with dream-work, and is, at times, somewhat
difficult to follow. He attempts to apply the dream-
technique with its condensation, displacement, and indirect
expression to wit-technique. In this he is only partially
successful and he appears to recognize it. There are, of
course, similar elements, as is generally recognized, in the
development of the dream and of wit. He says, however,
- LAUGHTER AND DREAMS 55

quite frankly : ‘I really do not trust myself to make the
assertion that I have succeeded in explaining all the current
witticisms with reference to their techniques, and I there-
fore admit the possibility that my enumeration of wit-
techniques may show many gaps.’ We have already
discussed his references to the unconscious and the infantile
in wit-formation. In witticisms that serve unconscious
tendencies he appears to be on comparatively safe ground.
Freud admits, however, that ‘in the case of tendency-wit
of other varieties, namely, harmless wit and the jest, this
power seems to fall away, and the relation of the wit to
the unconscious is an open question’. In summihg up
the whole question he says: ‘I earnestly wish that it were
possible for me on the one hand to present one decisive
point in my conception of wit more clearly, and on the other
hand to fortify it with compelling arguments. But as a
matter of fact it is not a question here of two failures, but
of one and the same failure. I can give no clearer exposi-
tion because I have no further testimony on behalf of my
conception.” There is so much of interest in his work on
wit and the dream that it is hoped he may, later on, develop
important points which, he is the first to admit, need
further elaboration.

Boris Sidis only refers incidentally to the relation of
laughter to the dream, but the reference is interesting : We
can compare the comic and laughter with rest. In fact,
we may go further and compare laughter with sleep ; not
with the sleep in which the senses and consciousness are
inactive, but with the sleep state in which mental activities
are present. May we not compare the ludicrous with the
dream ? The dream occurs during the rest state, during
sleep. And what is sleep but a release from all the troubles
and trammels of waking life 7° Laughter is so dependent
on a satisfactory environment for its expression that the
dream or rest, which relaxes the strain of serious attention,
and is foreign to a conventional attitude of mind, gives an
56 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

opportunity for the development of situations the remem-
brance of which causes laughter.

Normal healthy children are very rarely seen to laugh
in their dreams, though they frequently smile, probably as
a result of the pleasure derived from wish-fulfilment rather
than the appreciation of any humorous element, which is
recognized as humorous, in the dream state. The recogni-
tion of the absurd combination of selected material needs
the reasoning power of the waking state to enjoy the
incongruity of the juxtaposition of the factors employed
in the construction of the dream. In dreaming, the rapid
switching off of one line of thought to another plays an
important part, and gives rise to many ridiculous situations.
Thus, a child describing a dream involving a harrowing
account of the funeral of her brother interposes, in the
middle of the narrative, a school experience in which her
sums are being marked by her teacher.

From an investigation of a very large number of child-
ren’s dreams the author has rarely come across a case
in which the dreamer recognizes anything absurd in the
most incongruous grouping of material. The accounts of
dreams give no record of laughter at comical incidents,
though there may be a wealth of suitable material for the
purpose. This is in keeping with the observation of sleeping
children referred to above. In other words, the child does
not see jokes nor recognize funny incidents as such in his
dreams. Any evidence to the contrary is probably due
to a confusion of the hypnagogic, or half-waking state with
that of true sleep. In this connexion the records of dreams
are more reliable than the observation of sleepers.

The following examples from a collection of children’s
dreams ! are sufficient for the purpose of showing the non-
recognition by the dreamers of the absurdity of glaring
incongruities :

(a) A boy of 5 years of age: ‘A burglar came into my

! Kimmins, Children's Dreams.
LAUGHTER AND DREAMS 57

house and stole mother’s money. He stuck a knife into
me, and I dreamt that he had shot another boy after he had
killed me.’

(6) A boy of 8 years: ‘I dreamt that I was going to be
washed. And then I was being put in the bath to be
washed. After I was washed, I was rung out in the mangle.
Then I was hung on the line. I was hanging on the line
when it started to rain. My mother took me in and ironed
me. The iron was hot. And then I woke up.’

(c) A girl of 15 years: ‘I was seated in a boot-shop,
which somehow seemed something like our kitchen, and
yet it had all the fittings of a shop where new boots were
sold, and others mended. My father and mother were
both there, and I was asking to see some fancy indoor
shoes. The first pair the man brought me were of black
glacé kid, with patent leather toe-caps and high heels.
They were similar to what are called court shoes, having
no straps. I put them on and they fitted me perfectly,
so I asked the price of them, and was very much astonished
to hear that they were five pounds four and sixpence. I
told the shopkeeper that they were too much and enquired
if he had something a little cheaper. He then brought a
pair of rather shabby black brocaded ones, also with high
heels. These also fitted me, and again I asked the price,
which went to the opposite extreme, for they were only
twopence-halfpenny. I do not know whether I had these
or not, for my dream suddenly ended.’

There is no indication in these records of amusement at
any of the incidents of the dreams, and the only trace of
reasoning is the surprise of the girl at the price of the
shoes.

There is the same absence of amusement and laughter in
the dreams of American children. Here is an example of
an incongruous fear dream: ‘Once I dreamt that I was
captured by cannon bals [evidently cannibals]. They all
began to jump and yell. I was surprised to see myself in
58 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

my own parlour. There was a fire, and a kettle was over
it full of boiling water. They threw me into it and once
in a while the cook used to come over and stick a fork into
me to see if I was cooked. Then he took me out and gave
me to the chief, who was just going to bite me when I
woke up.’

Although, as we have seen, there is practically no
impression of incongruity, and its expression in laughter,
in the dream, we find in the dreams of early adolescence
that sorrow does find expression in tears. Thus, in dreams
in which there is a well-marked sad element, it is not
unusual to find at the end of the record some such expres-
sion as ‘ and when I woke up I found that my pillow was
wet with tears’.

The dream with its great range of variety of grouping of
experiences is in itself a relaxation from the normal routine
of daily life, and gives the pleasure which we associate with
the fairy story. The relation of cause to effect does not
_ trouble the dreamer, and he accepts, without question,
the arrangement of the visual and auditory material
presented to him, however incongruous it may be,
CHAPTER VI

LAUGHTER AND TEARS

loved without recognizing each other, and there

was born to them a son, who was Humour.” The
remarkable alliance between laughter and tears is well
known. It manifests itself in very early life. The crying
baby, if the cry is not due to actual pain, can easily have
~ his attention diverted and the transfer from tears to
laughter effected. Sunshine and showers alternate rapidly
in the world of the child of unstable type. As a rule, the
neurotic child laughs at the slightest provocation, and
cries with equal readiness. On the other hand, the stolid
complacent child who rarely laughs does not frequently
indulge in tears. In later life, in cases of acute hysteria,
the bewildering and rapid passage from laughter to tears
or in the reverse direction, is characteristic of the abnormal
mental state.

The kinship of the emotional states, of which laughter
and tears are the outward and visible signs, is fundamental.
At times of great stress and strain it is often a question as
to which method of relief—laughter or tears—will be most
effective in getting rid of, so to speak, the waste products
of the released inhibitions of an emotional storm. In a
somewhat incongruous manner, the representatives of joy
and sorrow frequently join in the common task, and thus
demonstrate effectively their close relationship. It is a
not uncommon practice for intimate friends, who have
taken part in the sad obsequies of a funeral of some dearly
loved relative, to partake of a meal together after the
ceremony. Up to this point tears have been the prevailing

59

J- and Grief, meeting in the nocturnal forest,
60 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

element, and have served a valuable purpose in securing
a method of relief from the profound emotional strain.
Reminiscences are, naturally, now freely interchanged, and
if, by chance, some incident referred to has a slightly
humorous bearing, it is received with uncontrolled laughter,
out of all proportion to its real value as a mirth-provoking
contribution. Laughter has taken the place of tears, and
performs the most important function of providing
additional relief to the emotional burden of a great
SOITOW.

In the London air-raids the children who cried at the
terrifying experiences, and so obtained relief by tears,
suffered very little; and those who found an outlet by
great activity and occasional laughter slept well, and
appeared to suffer no evil consequences. It was those who
suppressed their emotion, and were too proud to confess
that they felt any fear, with whom the result of the terrible
incidents of those evil days remained for some time as a
serious handicap. The value of laughter and tears in
working off undue emotional disturbances cannot be over-
estimated, and, when they occasionally act in conjunction,
the relief may be considerably increased.

A good example of the united action of laughter and
tears has already been referred to, namely, that prolonged
laughter leads to exhaustion, and the lachrymal glands are
then affected, with the production of tears, which increase
the relief. Darwin, as we have seen, was particularly
interested in this strange consequence of excessive laughter,
and found that even among primitive peoples the curious
conjunction of laughter and tears was a common experience.
The susceptibility to a rapid transfer from the expression
of one to that of the other is therefore by no means confined
to children, and, moreover, it is not restricted to the more
highly civilized races. It is a matter of such absorbing
interest that it would reward fuller investigation, as it
appears to open up a fascinating field for further research.
LAUGHTER AND TEARS 61

Incidentally, it bears upon the question of the instinctive
nature of laughter.

In the contemplation of the minor misfortunes of others,
we are frequently faced with the important question, ‘ Shall
we laugh or shall we weep?’ Does the appropriate
solution of a situation suggest laughter or tears ? Humour
points in one direction, sympathy in the other. This
problem, as we have seen, has been the bone of contention,
in the varying attitude among the authorities, in the
conflict between different theories of laughter. It is
intimately bound up with the respectability of laughter,
and, to a large extent, with the respectability of tears. If
laughter is vulgar, and its employment the sign of an
untutored mind, its companion, tears, must also come
under the ban. An abnormal use in public of any expres-
sion of such emotional feeling as is represented by laughter
or tears comes under the general condemnation of what is
popularly known as ‘ bad form’. This was, to a certain
extent, the verdict of the seventeenth century on the
matter.

The abuse of laughter and tears, by excessive display on
one side or the other, undoubtedly merits disapproval.
Giggling is probably the most exasperating form of the
degradation of laughter. It is, almost exclusively, a
feminine vice, and attains its maximum development in
the earlier stages of the adolescent period. The giggling
girl, as a rule, also indulges readily and frequently in tears.
The transfer from giggling to weeping is as common as the
change from laughter to tears in the very young child.
Giggling, if continued into later life, may be regarded as a
sign of mental defect, and is frequently associated with a
well-marked hysterical tendency. Fortunately, however,
the giggling stage is not, under favourable conditions, of
long duration. This peculiarly irritating form of laughter
disappears as suddenly as it came into existence, and, with
it, the easily aroused lachrymose bias. Laughter and tears
62 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

thus appear to remain associated even when they depart
from a normal standard of respectability.

From this apparent digression we return to laughter and
tears under ordinary conditions. It is not suggested that
humour is devoid of an element of sympathy; on the
contrary, it is one of its characteristics. The capacity for
taking a wide view of a situation, and detecting in it a
factor of comic interest, would be severely limited if no
quality of a sympathetic nature were present in its constitu-
tion. In dealing with the misfortunes of others, the
question of the dominance of that which turns the scale
in favour of laughter, as against that which results in
favour of tears, is of the greatest importance. Take the
oft-quoted case of the man whose hat is blown off by the
wind. Provided always that the hat belongs to some one
else there is no doubt as to the decision. We laugh because,
in spite of any slight sympathetic feeling which may exist
with regard to the temporary loss and inconvenience to
the person concerned, the comic element dominates the
incident, and there is no place for tears, nor for any over-
ruling sympathetic interest to induce us to suppress our
laughter. :

The position, however, may be reversed by a slight
alteration of the conditions. A boy is looking over a bridge,
and a sudden gust of wind blows his hat into the river, and
there is practically no chance of its recovery. No one
laughs. Our sympathy is at once aroused—especially if
he is a poor boy—and may find expression in the allevia-
tion of his distress by compensation for his loss. There
are borderline cases in which the two elements are fairly
evenly balanced, and the resulting laughter or tears will
largely depend upon the social attitude of the onlooker.
Young children are frequently—quite wrongly—harshly
criticized on account of their actions on such occasions.
The play impulse is such a controlling influence in early life §
that the decision in favour of laughter of the five-year-old

-
LAUGHTER AND TEARS 68

may conflict with the more mature judgment of the
tén-year-old child.

In the laughter of primitive peoples the misfortunes of
others play a much more important part than other
elements of humour, and even the struggles of a drowning
man are occasionally the cause of much merriment. In
the record of favourite funny stories and jokes of young
children, much interest is concentrated on the misfortunes
of others at the ages of 7, 8, and 9 years. Then, they
rapidly decline in favour, and are replaced by those involv-
ing other types of humorous situations. Throughout the
series the appeal of this kind of humour is much stronger
with the boys than the girls. - The girls prefer fairy and
domestic stories. In the borderline cases referred to the
effect produced on the boys may be totally different from
that on the girls as the result of the more sympathetic
nature of the latter.

Although the attitude towards the misfortunes of others
shows more effectively the relations of laughter to tears,
the connexion is by no means confined to this particular
type of humorous appeal. The relief from strained
attention, necessitated by a variety of causes, may be in
the direction of laughter or tears, or, as we have found, in a
combination of both. The joyous laughter at church
parade is a common experience. For some time we have
been in a position in which laughter or tears were impossible,
or, at any rate, would have been unbecoming. Our
emotions have been stirred, possibly by a powerful appeal
from the pulpit, by the singing of a favourite hymn, or
some other element in a devotional service. Tears, in such
circumstances, are nearer the surface than laughter. Then
comes the opportunity for relief, and laughter serves the
purpose of the release of the consequences of conflicting
emotions. ;

Some great anxiety clouds our sky. We are overwhelmed
with grief, and find solace in tears. Suddenly, we receive
64 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

the joyous news ; the lost is found, or the child has survived
the dangerous operation and is on the high road to recovery,
and laughter and tears combine to relieve the mental
strain. This alternation of laughter and tears is not an
unusual experience in periods of exciting crises.

It is not sufficiently recognized that in the process of
emotional development towards the final result of laughter
or tears there is, in every stage, a well-marked tendency to
transfer. This is clearly shown in the case of an exciting
narrative, in connexion with which we are wondering
whether the story will have a joyous or a sorrowful ending.
If it points, near the end of the story, to a tearful conclusion,
any subsidiary comical incident produces an effect far
beyond its intrinsic merits. That is, in the neighbourhood
of tears, comic interest finds a particularly favourable
market. With obvious limitations, the converse may be
equally effective. The play-writer, if he is to obtain
success, must secure a certain emotional balance—a proper
relationship between laughter and tears. There must be,
in the most serious play, a certain amount of comic relief,
and, on the other side, a long succession of laughter-
provoking incidents produces a feeling of boredom, even
to the least intelligent of the groundlings. There must be
an appropriate admixture of light and shade.

What is contemptuously known, in theatrical representa-
tions, as sob-stuff, will always play a not unimportant part
in the structure of important plays of general appeal. In
analysing any really successful play or novel, it is not
difficult for the most casual observer to discover the sob-
stuff element. Characters and situations, apparently
unnecessary for the structure of the play or narrative, are
deliberately introduced to secure the necessary emotional
bias without which the work would have failed to obtain
popularity. Itisa distinct advantage for there to be a back-
ground of laughter for tears, and a background of tears for
laughter, by whatever terms they are designated. In
LAUGHTER AND TEARS 65

obtaining the appropriate emotional setting, external
factors may render important service. The scenery of the
theatre or the film, and the cinema orchestra—with a
selection of music calculated to enhance the emotional
effect of the visual appeal—all assist to produce the
necessary environment.

The laughter or tears of the mob attest the infectious
nature of joy and sorrow. The standards attained by the
group generally fall below those of the individual. In fact,
as members of a group, we frequently laugh at situations
of which we heartily dissapprove under ordinary conditions.
We can, also be moved to tears by mass suggestion at
incidents which would leave us unmoved in private life.
Much of the adverse criticism of laughter is based on the
observation of the behaviour of the mob in an emotional
state. The harsh—sometimes cruel—laugh of derision of
the excited crowd, which has for its object the holding up
to ridicule of opponents, leaves little opportunity for the

I

expression of tolerant judgment, which it is one of the main ~

functions of humour to achieve.

In many disputes, the humorous suggestion is one of the
most potent factors in arriving at a peaceful solution, and
the restoration of harmony. The tendency of laughter is
generally to act the role of a peacemaker, not that of a
provoker of quarrels. The intimate association of laughter
with the play impulse, as seen in the joyous merriment of
children, continues long after the stage of childhood is
passed. Laughter does not change its nature with advanc-
ing years. We may laugh less with a diminishing play
impulse, but, as we shall see in the next chapter, we all
retain something of the spirit of the child, and with this we
cling to laughter as of old. The great value to tears of the
companionship of laughter is due to its power to revive
that common experience of association with the play
impulse which has been temporarily eclipsed by grief.
There are other reasons why laughter should be a welcome

5
66 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

guest in the house of mourning. The laughter at the
funeral feast was no insult to the memory of the one whose
loss we mourned. The sadness of the expression of sorrow

in tears is, that though they afford relief, there is an element |

|

1

of futility in the method. There is no building process, no
restoration. Laughter restores in that it re-educates; it
brings us once more into contact with the pure, temporarily |

forgotten, joys of childhood. Moreover, it brings a message
of health. However much we may differ as to its psycho-
logical content, there is no doubt as to the physiological

i

value of laughter. We are strengthened, and the improve- |
ment in health gives an added zest to life, with the result |

that we may be prepared to make a fresh start.

We have seen something of the infectiousness of laughter
and tears when the herd instinct dominates the group. In
more intimate gatherings the infectious character of
laughter is also in evidence. It tends to tone down any
rough places in dissension, and, by its sympathetic
character, discloses unrecognized points of agreement. It

affects the nature of the witticism, and influences the |

- attitude taken to a humorous situation.

* Laughter is sometimes described as the antidote of grief,
but we have found that there is a closer relationship, and
that, at times of great strain, laughter and tears come to
each other’s relief. The quaint story, already referred to,

Ar of the origin of humour is not without interest.
CHAPTER VI1

THE SPIRIT OF THE CHILD

insufficient attention has been given to the child’s
contribution to the subject. In the present day,
however, we are concentrating on the study of the very
early stages of child life, and are recognizing the great
importance of that hitherto comparatively neglected, but
exceptionally fertile, field of investigation, the pre-school
period. Distinguished observers have, as is well known,
_ rendered great service by giving to the world the valuable
results of their detailed studies of the first year of the life
of the child. If only equally careful investigations had
been carried on in the intervening years, between the first
and the entry of the child into the infants’ school, where we
have an abundance of available material for research, it
would have thrown a flood of light on the subject of the
development in the early stages of a sense of humour and
the appreciation of situations at which children laugh, and,
moreover, of their intimate connexion with the play
impulse.

The third year of the child’s life is, in this connexion,
of supreme importance. For the first time he recognizes
himself as being something clearly marked off from other
elements in his environment. If one could establish the
necessary personal relationship with an intelligent group
of three-year-olds so that they would talk freely on simple
domestic matters, in their outlook on life, what an interest-
ing and valuable experience it would be. The insight into
the spirit of the child before the claims of habit and conven-
tion had warped it, would be of enormous value and interest.

67

I the theories of laughter, as we have already seen,

cc
68 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

The first impressions of the meaning of words, the nature
_of the material which was regarded by them as funny and
' caused laughter, the sights and sounds which amused them,
| and those which resulted in any indication of fear, would
. give a valuable starting point for acquiring a knowledge of
, the real child.

The change of attitude of the four-year-old, and the
apparent reasons for the change, would give some indica-
tion of the moulding character of the environment and
possibly suggest improved means of preserving, unfettered,
the most precious elements in the spirit of the child. The
observation of further changes during the five-year-old
stage would complete the cycle of the pre-school period.
The knowledge obtained would be an important asset for
the teacher in dealing with the entrant to the infants’
department of the school, and secure a certain continuity
of treatment which is so essential in the development of
the child. It would, moreover, do something to stem the
torrent of waste of time involved in the breaking-up of
undesirable habits in the early days of school life.

The detailed study of very young children is difficult,
but where experiments have been carried on, under more
or less ideal conditions, with appropriate groups of children
at different pre-school ages, by skilled observers, the
results have exceeded the most sanguine expectations.
The experiments have been so conclusive that they will
encourage the enthusiastic lovers of children to persevere
in their reasonable demands for better conditions for the
normal development of the young child.

In dealing with the spirit of the child, the above digres-
sion appeared to be necessary, in order to show that there
is frequently something lacking in the early stages of his
development during the very important period of active
habit-formation, when skilled attention and a suitable
environment are full of possibilities for the future. They
are essential for securing that freedom of outlook, and the
- THE SPIRIT OF THE CHILD 69

encouragement of that native ability for thinking for him-
self, which are of the greatest importance, and should be
the natural heritage, and the priceless possession, of every
child. Reared in an atmosphere of authoritative ‘ don’ts ’
the child has little chance of developing a wholesome sense
of humour, and the springs of laughter are injuriously
affected at their source.

Habits are obviously necessary for the general well-being
of the child. Without them there would be a perpetual
state of unrest, and the establishment of a definite per-
sonality would be impossible. A good character naturally
results from a nexus of desirable habits. Conduct along a
particular line in the child’s attitude to life, and the natural
response to given situations, are summarized in the habit.
Once firmly fixed, the child having reacted again and again
to a particular stimulus in the same way, the habit, in a
sense, takes over the natural response, and his mind is at
rest. He can now think about other things. To-morrow,
if the same situation arises, he will, in all probability,
behave as he behaves to-day.

Some fresh experience comes across the child’s path, and
he has to make a decision with regard to it. It is likely to
recur. He may take advice and follow the suggested
method of response, or he may think the matter out for
himself and decide upon a line of action. If it succeeds he
will probably react in the same way when he has to deal
with a similar experience again, and eventually he forms a
habit, and, again, his mind is at rest. Now, the habit is an
excellent servant but a very bad master. There is a serious
danger of becoming ‘ a creature of habits’. Here comes in
the spirit of the child, with its freshness of outlook and its
dominance of the habit-formation. The °creature of
habits ’ has practically lost the spirit of the child, he has no
growing points, they are buried in habits, and he has lost
the power of forming any judgments which are alien to
those habits.
70 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

In old age the definite routine, any departure from which
is resented, clearly marks the devotion to habit and the
departure of the spirit of the child. Take an extreme case :
the really old man who rises at a fixed hour, is punctual at
meals, has strong views with regard to diet, goes for his
morning walk at the usual hour, visits his club, is annoyed
if some stranger has taken his favourite chair with the |
accustomed outlook, reads the paper which suits his |
political views, has strong opinions with regard to any
modern movements, has a great contempt for new fashions
—especially feminine—in dress, compares the world of
to-day with that of his youth, to the great advantage of
the latter, takes his afternoon nap, and so on, day after
day, with little variation. This type is to be met with
at every club. The man is encrusted in habit and has
become an automaton. The outlook of the child has
practically no message for him.

The age of a man is generally estimated on a chrono-
logical basis, but his real age depends on the extent to
which he has retained the spirit of the child. A man is old
when he ceases, mentally, to have growing points, and can
make no effective response to a new idea. Physiologists,
on the other hand, tell us that old age has come when we
cease to respond satisfactorily to thyroid extract. Some
men are old at forty, others are delightfully young at eighty
years of age ; the chronological basis of age is most unsatis-
factory. | Freud's suggestion of the connexion of witticisms
with the submission of the basic material to childish
methods of dealing with situations is of great interest.
Unquestionably, the appreciation of humorous material
is largely concerned with the extent to which we have
retained the spirit of the child.

It is only in comparatively rare cases, however, that the
spirit of the child has become entirely submerged. On
special occasions it is revived if only for a brief period. It
appears that pleasure derived from humorous appeal may
THE SPIRIT OF THE CHILD 71

be said to vary directly with the extent to which the spirit
of the child has been retained. Joy in laughter is related
so intimately with the play impulse that we generally
find elderly people—though chronology, as we have seen,
has little to do with it—who laugh heartily at appropriate
times, have great sympathy with other childish pleasures.
They are immensely popular with children, who have no
difficulty in distinguishing between genuine mirthfulness
and an assumed hilarity. A child has an almost uncannily
sound judgment of what he terms ‘ a really good sort ’, as
distinguished from the person who simply wishes to make
himself agreeable.

Bergson, who gives a somewhat exaggerated estimate of
absent-mindedness as a cause of laughter, attributes this
failing to a want of mental alertness resulting from a
mechanical type of mind, which, from our present point of
view, would result from an excessive development of the
habit-formation, bringing it into line with automatism.
The absence of the spirit of the child, with its untrammelled
outlook, would naturally give the necessary explanation of
this attitude of mind. Happy joyous children are very
rarely absent-minded, but they laugh heartily at those who
are. Bergson, as we have seen, suggests that one of the
functions of laughter is to prevent absent-mindedness
because people do not like being laughed at.

An important reason for pleading for greater attention
being given to the study of the pre-school child in the
interest, incidentally, of the development of humour and
the springs of laughter, is that the two to five stage of
child life is exceptionally rich in material of great value
for the purpose. This is, par excellence, the period of
naiveté, in connexion with which it is of paramount
importance that the position of the spirit of the child
should be safeguarded. It cannot be too often emphasized
that a congenial atmosphere, and full opportunities being
given for freedom of expression, are absolute necessities
72 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

for its natural development. Any repressive action at the
beginning, through thoughtlessness or want of sufficient
care, may permanently injure the spirit of the child. In
the joyous environment of a good infants’ school with
skilled and sympathetic teachers it is comparatively safe.

In the early-Victorian home the spirit of the child was,
in the first few years, in a much safer environment than in
the modern home. The position of the mother was, as
regards her relation to her lord and master, a somewhat
subordinate, and, judged by modern standards, an unenvi-
able one. Domesticity was her prime concern, she con-
centrated on her children and the affairs of the home
and apparently was a very happy woman. She knew
her children far better than the modern mother does, and
they had a very good time. She was not concerned to
any serious extent with outside activities, and she was
blissfully ignorant of politics. Then came the higher
education, and, what is generally known as, the emancipa-
tion of women. Her interests were then divided between
external and internal activities, and the children were left
much more to governesses and servants, and saw far less
of their mother.

In the later stages, the spirit of the child had probably
some advantage from development under more highly
skilled guidance, but there can be no doubt that, in the
great period of the two to five years, the partial loss of the
mother’s undivided attention was a serious matter. There
is considerable evidence, however, that a strong back
current has set in, and that the charms of domesticity are
again making their appeal. With a more highly educated
mother, returning of her own free will to the satisfying
delights of the nursery, there may be a much more appro-
priate atmosphere in the future for the spirit of the child.
Any want of harmony in the home has an evil influence
on the natural development of the child, the far reaching
effect of which it would be impossible to over-estimate.
 

THE SPIRIT OF THE CHILD 73

~ The state of preservation of the spirit of the child largely

determines, as we have seen, the nature of the response to
humorous situations. However, even where the conditions
have been most favourable for its retention, there must
naturally be some diminution in its activities with
advancing years. Various elements in it are gradually
incorporated in habits which, though they may be of an
excellent type, leave the spirit of the child somewhat
impoverished. It is the joyous freedom, the fresh outlook,
the power of dealing with a new situation, unencumbered
with solutions suggested by neighbouring habits, which give
the spirit of the child its unique value, and its daring in
casting aside the conventions which would, in the normal
order of things, control the behaviour.

The attitude towards Christmas is the best possible test
for the existence of the spirit of the child. More than that,
we have in the attitude the power of gauging the relative
amount of it retained in different cases. In other words,
the Christmas test is quantitative as well as qualitative.
Christmas, being by common consent, the children’s
festival, means the temporary reversal of the normal
routine of the home. The children’s wishes, to a very large
extent, directly or indirectly dominate the situation. In
the struggle for supremacy in the nursery King Baby must
eventually be deposed to have to conform to ordinary
discipline. Here, at Christmas time, however, the child
returns to his kingdom, and, to a considerable extent, the
order of discipline is relaxed, and the spirit of the child finds
its purest expression. The extent to which this atmosphere
makes its appeal to each of us will vary with the amount
of the spirit of the child which we have retained.

The order of the Christmas festivities has of recent years
undergone some change. The visit of Santa Claus on
Christmas Eve, with the mysterious filling of the children’s
socks and stockings, is declining in popularity. The
important innovation of surprise-packets with substantial
74 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

presents on the breakfast table on Christmas morning, to
be followed at night by the joys of Father Christmas and
the Christmas tree, replace other pleasures. By those
adults, who have not an all-absorbing love of children, this
diversion from its normal function of an important meal-
time is resented. Many would gladly revert to the good
old days of Santa Claus, when the riotous excitement of
receiving presents had largely abated before the period
was reached for laying a substantial foundation for the
strenuous activities of Christmas day. An ineffective
breakfast to a man of regular dietary habits might lead to
an evaporation of the Christmas spirit long before the
Christmas tree stage is reached.

This is not all ; Christmas fare is notoriously indigestible,
and indigestion is a front-rank cause of night phantasies
in the réle of nightmare or vivid dreams. In spite of all
this, however, the spirit of the child element triumphs. Our
hygienic views with regard to meals are thrown on one side,
and we delight in indigestible food, with the inevitable
gastronomic disturbances which will naturally result from
such dietetic indiscretion. It is sometimes urged that our
behaviour at Christmas is simply a concession to family
life. On analysing our feelings, we find, however, that it
is not so. There is, in our heart of hearts, a feeling of joy
that we have retained the power of entering once more
into the happy, care-free kingdom of the child.

The concession-to-family-life theory can be shown in
other ways to have no substantial basis in connexion with
the emergence at Christmas time of the spirit of the child.
In an interesting experience of Christmas at sea in a large
liner, the evidence appeared conclusive that it was the
spirit of the child finding expression that made the Christ-
mas festivity a conspicuous success. Various nationalities
were represented, the family element was, of course,
lacking, and the influence of a religious factor with such
diverse peoples could have little effect. It was not merely
THE SPIRIT OF THE CHILD 75

a festival spirit. There was a clearly-marked temporary
lull in that sharp division into groups which are to be
found on board ship. We felt that, for the time being,
we were happy wanderers in the fairyland of childhood
and we were glad to be there,
CHAPTER VIII

THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER

connexion of the smile with the laugh. In the

reports of the first year of child life by trustworthy
observers we find, as we should expect, considerable
differences in the time of the first appearance of significant
features in the different stages of the course of development.
The placid look of contentment after feeding may easily
be mistaken for a smile by the fond mother, but the genuine
smile after some action by the observer, which is repeated
on the same, or a similar incident, is trustworthy evidence.
Preyer’s child is said to have smiled on the tenth day, and
to have laughed between the sixth and ninth week, but
the general verdict is that the date of the first smile is at
about the end of the third week, and that of the first laugh
at about the end of the third month.

Darwin’s two children did not smile before they were
six weeks old, but the younger child laughed twenty days
after the first smile, which is an abnormally short interval
~ between the smile and the laugh. Miss Milicent Shinn,
who made a very valuable and trustworthy investigation
of the development of her niece, Ruth, during the first
year of the child’s life, gives a very interesting account
of it in her fascinating book, The Biography of a Baby,
which every mother should read. Miss Shinn describes
the first appearance of the smile as follows: ‘The first
smile that I could conscientiously record occurred the day
before the baby was a month old, and it was provoked by
the touch of a finger on her lips; and a day or two later
she smiled repeatedly at touches on her lip.” ~

76

M = references have already been made to the
 

THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER 4d

Between the advent of the smile and the laugh, Ruth
frequently made sounds accompanying her smiles. These
were described as gurgling, cooing, crowing and chuckling ;
then, in the fourth month, came the definite laugh. ‘ From
early in the month she acquired an ecstatic little chuckle,
and once or twice even broke into a genuine laugh when
she was played with a little more boisterously than usual.’
She laughed at a grimace in the fifth month which was
definitely a laugh of amusement at the incongruous. It is
interesting to notice, in this connexion, that one of Sully’s
boys laughed between the fourth and the fifth month at
some comic antics of his sister, and at the age of six months
the sense of anything incongruous was a fertile source of
laughter.

The laughter of young children may be clearly shown to
be of two kinds, the laughter of pleasure in the general
well-being of the child, especially at the completion of any
experiment successfully performed; and the laughter of
amusement at comical incidents in which the incongruous
plays a very important part. Funny sights, strange
sounds, and unfamiliar combinations of domestic arrange-
ments, all enter into the field of laughter-provoking
incidents. The bath-room is the natural home of much
‘hilarity. If properly conducted, the bath is an excep-
tionally pleasing experience, the joy of being without
hindering clothes, the splashing in warm water, and the
conditions being so different from those of daily routine,
give unbounded satisfaction and pleasure to the healthy
baby.

From very early days sudden disappearance—now seen,
now gone—makes a very strong appeal. It is summarized
in the Bo-péep game, which is immensely popular and
retains its popularity for a long time. If the child is in a
fretting condition, a game of Bo-peep will frequently act
as a restorative, and smiles and laughter again enter the
baby’s kingdom. Many of the games which come after

a
78 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

babyhood is passed are based upon the principles of this
earlier delight. The Jack-in-the-box with its element of
surprise, sometimes at the beginning with a slight sense of
fear—so soon dissipated—is the starting point for the long
series of mirth-provoking games based on surprise, followed
by a relief from restraint. It is not confined to games ;
many of the most delightful stories and humorous situations
may be traced back to this foundation. Bo-peep and
Jack-in-the-box and their successors are, in fact, sometimes
regarded as the main sources of children’s laughter.

In treating of the beginnings of laughter a further
reference to tickling is necessary. Special attention is
drawn by Darwin to the necessity, in successful tickling,
of the particular areas touched being those which are
generally guarded against attack. The sensation does not
arise if the point to be touched is previously indicated by
the tickler ; the element of surprise must be present. A
child cannot tickle himself because he knows which point
in the ticklish area will be affected. Tickling is not purely
a physiological matter, there is an emotional factor. The
tickled child, if laughter is to result, must be on friendly
terms with the tickler and, moreover, he must be in a
playful attitude. Tickling by a stranger would be resented,
and the response would be anger or tears, not laughter.
The theory that tickling is valuable in preparation for
skill in defence from attack does not concern us here.

In most of the records of detailed observation on the
first year of child life, it is noticed that, at certain periods,
the childish play becomes unduly vigorous, and an element
of rowdiness makes its appearance, accompanied by loud,
and sometimes harsh, laughter. In the case of Miss
Shinn’s niece it was first in evidence in the early weeks of
the seventh month, lasted for a short time, and then there
was a return to normal behaviour. The desire for
boisterous fun at certain intervals does not appear to be
entirely associated with an unusually robust state of
THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER 79

health. It seems to occur fitfully, with no apparent
reason, as a phase in ordinary development. In the
boisterous fun the tickling sensation, with the continual
surprises involved, undoubtedly enters in. The variations
which are observed to occur in the sensitiveness of the
skin in particular areas, from time to time, may have
something to do with the fleeting interest in mimic fights
in the life of the baby.

A satisfactory animal, dog or cat, makes an abnormal
appeal to the ordinary baby, and is the cause of much
laughter. Here and there we meet with cases of a fear of
the domestic animal, which might probably be traced to a
rough response to the attentions of a persistent baby.
The extraordinary pleasure a developing child takes in
pulling hair, to whomsoever it belongs, must be a severe
trial to the temper of the nursery pet. Quite apart from
the hair-pulling interest, the baby derives great pleasure
from watching animals. In many respects the dog is far
more interesting than the nurse. There is a greater
variety in its movements, and the baby never knows what
a dog will do next. It is just a delightful series of sur-
prises ; whereas, in the nurse’s movements, there is very
little variety, and the intelligent baby soon gets a fairly
good idea of what she will do next. There is some-
thing wrong with the nursery from which animals are
banished.

In connexion with the first appearance of imitation in
the baby’s development, and any possible influence in
regard to the act of laughing, Miss Shinn’s record is of
considerable value. ‘I have already mentioned certain
doubtful imitations in the fourth month and a clearer one
in the fifth. Now, the baby began to imitate unmistak-
ably. Her uncle had a fashion of slapping his hand down
on the table by way of a salutation to her, and one day
(when she had passed a week of her sixth month) she
slapped down her little hand in return. The next day as
80 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

soon as her uncle came in, she began to slap her hand down
watching him, delighted to repeat the movements back
and forth, as long as he would keep it up’. This, which
is in keeping with the results of other observers, disposes of
the suggestion that laughter depends upon imitation.
Imitation comes on the scene after the laughing act is
firmly established.

It would appear that laughter comes naturally when the
neuro-muscular mechanism is sufficiently developed for its
production. Prior to this, as we have seen, when the baby
is in exceptionally good spirits smiles are accompanied by
sounds which, at the appointed time, reached the final
stage of laughter. The laugh of amusement is, undoubtedly,
stimulated by incongruous sights and sounds during baby-
hood. In learning to walk the child appears to delight
in mishaps, such as sitting down with a thud during an
interval of standing, as it gives rise to uproarious merri-
ment. It is evidently regarded by the child as being very
comical. An amusing incident is related by Miss Shinn of
her niece, in learning to talk. She had acquired a curious
sound to indicate ‘all gone’, which she frequently used
for any act of disappearance. On putting her hand on
her father’s bald head she used the same expression. But
to attach any humorous intent to this, would be to suggest
too high a standard of intelligence for a baby just reaching
the end of her first year.

The laughter of children in the pre-school period, as
far as funny sights are concerned, follows the line of those
indicated in the babyhood period. They laugh at the
funny antics of the domestic animals, and anything of an
incongruous character in the events of the home. Any
form of dressing up in weird costumes is a delight to them,
and they laugh heartily at abrupt changes in the daily
routine. The minor misfortunes of others, provided
that their intimate friends are not implicated, are the
cause of much merriment. Boisterous fun plays an
THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER 81

important part in everyday life, and it is accompanied
by shrieks of laughter. Quick action and constant change
are elements of popular appeal. If taken to the Zoo the
monkey-house is a glorious experience for them, and a ride
on the elephant is long remembered. With very young
children, however, the noise in the parrot-house may have
a somewhat terrifying effect.

The third year of the child’s life is, as we have seen, of
very special interest and a period of great development.
The following short extracts from the record of a competent
observer on his little boy at this age, shows the variety
of interests which have already made their appearance :

(a) ‘I asked him one morning when he awoke if he had
a kiss for me, and he replied, “ No. I haven’t got the new
ones in yet.” I then said, “ Haven't you any left over
from last night ? ”’ and he replied, “ Only one or two and
they are rather dirty and have got holes in them. But
I can give you one of these if you like ”.’

(b) ‘ His mother said when she was putting him to
bed, “If I had a little daughter what would she be
to you?” He replied promptly, “ She’d be no use to
ne”)

(c) ‘ Told that he was going to Jersey in the summer,
he asked immediately, “ Do the people all wear jerseys
there? ”’

(d) * When I told him that we were going to Kew Gardens,
he asked, “ Do they make cucumbers there ? ”’’

The boy always delighted in playing with words for
which he had considerable aptitude.

At the age of five he did not show the same delight in
playing with words, but occasionally he made excellent
puns. He became interested in other things, and some-
times moralized, as the following extracts from the record
show :

(a) ‘ He is always ready to say “ I am sorry ” if he does
wrong. But to-day, he was very slightly disobedient, and
6

ro

——
82 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

when I said, “ Won't you say you are sorry ? ” he promptly
quoted “ The walrus and the carpenter ”, by replying,
“ But answer came there none ”’

(6) “ A friend dining with us saw him in bed with a plush
cat, three bears and a golliwog. ‘ Oh,” she said, ““ does
mummy take a lot of things to bed with her ? ”’ to which
he replied, *“ No, only daddy ".’

(c) ‘ Built a house with toy bricks. I commented upon
its nine chimneys. “ Yes,” he said, “ and do you know,
daddy, there's a special invention of my own in that house.
When the door of a room is opened, it strikes a flint and.
lights the fire

(@) ‘ Last night the boy was unhappy because we were
going out to dine. To his mother he said, ““ I don’t think
life is worth living ; sometimes I wish I had never been
born.” Later, I asked him if he really wished he had
never been born, and he replied, *“ Sometimes I do, some-
times I don’t”.

(¢) ‘He showed a good deal of temper to-day, but
recovered a little later. When asked by his mother why
he had been so bad-tempered, he replied, “ Ah! that’s
the question. I find great difficulty in answering it ”’.’

The extracts are given in chronological order. The last
refers to an incident which occurred just before his sixth
birthday.

The boy, to whom the record refers, was an only child,
in a home of considerable culture. He spent much of his
time in the presence of his parents, who were devoted to
him. Apparently he did not care much for the company
of other children, and preferred that of grown-ups. During
the pre-school period the nature of the playing with words,
which is a great source of laughter from 2 to 5 years of
age, must of necessity be affected, to a remarkable degree,
by the type of environment. A similar record of a child
reared with other children in a typical lower middle-class
home would be of great interest and value. A comparison
 

THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER 83

of the records, as far as they concern the beginnings of
laughter, would, moreover, be most illuminating.

Reliable stories about very young children are valuable
as showing the rapid change of outlook from year to year.
The Jenny Lind Book of Children’s Sayings, by Miss Helen
C. Colman, is of considerable interest in this connexion.
The sayings are arranged in chronological order, and give
clear evidence of a developing sense of humour, starting
with the two-year-old stage. To give a few examples:
A child of two years makes a pun, knowing-the curious
combination of words to be funny as shown by his ‘ roguish
smile ’. At this age, a girl, seeing a coating of ice on the
water-butt, suggested that it was ‘the fairies’ birthday
cake ’, and another interested in looking at some tadpoles,
and, hearing her mother say that later on the tails dropped
off and their legs appeared, exclaimed, ‘ what did you do
with my tail, mummy ? And weren't you ¢ncited when my
legs began to grow ? ’

The anthropomorphic explanations of spiritual things by
the child are of special interest. A girl of three years on
going to church, and hearing that God was always there,
asked what He had for dinner, and, not receiving a satis-
factory reply, said cheerfully, ‘ Oh, I expect He'll have
an egg for His tea.” A good example of the same point
is the case quoted of an older child who, on the day that
his grandmother died, jumped into bed without saying his
prayers. Asked why he did this, he replied, ‘ Oh, well, I
don’t think I ought to bother God to-night as He will be
busy settling granny in’. Discussions on Bible narratives
are particularly productive of interesting examples of the
child’s attitude. Thus, a four-year-old boy in answer to
a question as to why Abraham lived in a tent, said, ‘ Be-
cause Abraham was a Boy Scout’. A girl of the same
age, after a Bible talk about Rebecca, was asked by her
mother why it was that Rebecca went to her wedding on a
camel. She replied, ‘ because there must have been a
84 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

railway strike’. The imperfect understanding of words
is responsible for the child’s description of the occupants
of the fiery furnace as Shadrach, Meshach, and a bad negro.

The fairy story has some effect on the beginnings of
laughter. In the ordinary home, when speech is fairly
well understood, and an effort is made to interest the child,
pride of place is given to fairy stories. The picture books
for the children are largely concerned with illustrations
of these stories. The richness of the fairy-story literature
gives it a great advantage over the domestic story. In
fact, the children on learning to read, have a greater and
more varied series of children’s books from the great
writers of different nationalities, dealing with the fairy
element, than they will have at any subsequent period.
The classical fairy story, well translated, and admirably
illustrated, reaches a far higher standard than the other
children’s books, and, moreover, those which compete
with it, such as Alice in Wonderland, have a distinct
fairy-element basis.

The young child in a fairly good home knows all about
the fairy stories long before he can read them, and one of the
greatest incentives to the child to learn to read is to be
able to enjoy them for himself. The quickening of the
imagination, and variety of interests aroused, give a whole-
some stimulus to the sense of humour and its expression
in laughter. The Three Bears, Jack and the Beanstalk,
Ali Baba, Cinderella, and Dick Whittington and his Cat are
full of delightfully humorous situations. Following closely
upon the heels of the fairy stories, come the children’s
animal stories, which are immensely popular. They are
linked up with the fairy stories, for the animals are generally
endowed with characteristic human qualities. The literary
and artistic standard of the animal story has advanced
considerably of recent years, and its beneficent influence
on the beginnings of laughter is beyond question. :

The influence of fairy and animal stories has had, as we
THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER 85

shall see later on, a marked effect on the child’s attitude
to animals. The extension of the interest created by the
exaggerated opinion of the intelligence of the domestic
pet, gives the dog or the cat a better claim to the close
personal friendship of the child. Even in the stories of
children of g or 10 years of age, we find the fairy element
in their accounts of animal behaviour.

The naiveté of the child, with his delight in playing with
words, reaches its highest point during the pre-school
period. It abounds in humorous material, due to the
misunderstanding of words as a result of the young child
talking and singing before he can apply the visual test to
the words employed. When the child sings lustily, * When
shepherds washed their frocks by night * he knows nothing
about watching flocks, and, after all, there is little difference
in sound, and the familiar replaces the unfamiliar. In
many of the hymns sung by children, the real words and
their meaning come as a revelation when the written form
is presented. In the meantime, the sounds and the
rhythm are all that appeal to the child mind.

The following naive story is not without interest, as
showing the child’s attitude to moral values: ‘A child
of 3% years told her mother that she had not broken
some partridges eggs, of which she was suspected. But
at prayer time the following was overheard: ‘‘ Please,
God, mend those eggs what I kicked, and tell the muvver
bird to come back again ’. Thereupon, the mother said
reproachfully, “ You did do it then ”, to which the child
retorted, “I was talking to God and you was rude to
listen. I will say my prayers in my stomach to-morrow *’.’

In a chapter on ‘ The Age of Naiveté’, in The Child's
Attitude to Life, I have dealt in some detail with the subject.
The following extract indicates the nature of the child’s
difficulty in appreciating the meaning of words :

‘ The slow process of discovering the real meaning of
words, which the children use quite fearlessly, naturally
86 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

results in a rich harvest of amusing mistakes. To follow
the meaning attached to words through the various stages,
ufitil they reach the normal content which the outer world
recognizes as satisfactory, would be a very laborious task.
Moreover, it would probably be of little value, as the
process of reaching the ultimate goal may be short-circuited
by the intelligent child, and would depend so largely on
the opportunities of hearing a particular word used in
different connexions. There is the greatest possible variety
even in adult life in the knowledge of the content of many
words in common use. The suggestion of a small child
that the reason why our first parents were forbidden to
taste the fruit of a particular tree was, ““ Because they were
cooking apples ”’, was quite natural, and probably repre-
sented the result of a childish experience. Little children
are much interested in the story of the Garden of Eden,
and the child’s question, as to the kind of carriage in which
Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, might well
indicate the child’s normal acquaintance with the word
“driven ”’. On hearing for the first time the banns of
marriage published in church with the final words, * This
is for the third time of asking ”’, it was not unreasonable
that a little girl should say, ‘“ Mother, dear, how did the
clergyman know how many times the man had asked
her?’

Children, at the age of naiveté, frequently use very
picturesque language in the description of normal occur-
rences ; for example, a child, describing a scene between a
dog and cat, concluded by saying, “ And then the cat went
up to the dog and she sneezed right in his face’. Another
child in describing a visit to the Zoo said, * When we threw
some biscuits to the elephant, he picked them up with his
vacuum-cleaner.”’ ’

A little boy went fishing for the first time but did not
catch anything, and remarked sorrowfully to his brother,
‘I don’t think my worm is trying ’.
THE BEGINNINGS OF LAUGHTER 87,

In some cases, as we have seen, the passage from naiveté
to humour is materially influenced by the effect produced
upon the child, as a result of the amusement caused by
his words, which were uttered with no humorous intent.
CHAPTER IX
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT

(FIVE TO TWELVE YEARS OF AGE)

HE springs of laughter at the pre-school stage are
largely funny sights and sounds, boisterous fun,

and an elementary playing with words; and, in a
well ordered home, contact has been made by fairy stories
and animal stories with a rich store of interesting literature.
Picture books are of absorbing interest, and the child is
finding his way rapidly, by his own efforts at reading, to
become less dependent on others for the explanation of his
pictures. Verbal humour is thus gradually entering into
competition with visual humour as a source of childish
pleasure, and playing with words is reaching a higher
standard. It is interesting to observe at what an early
age words are treated like new toys in the nursery, and
unusual combinations of them enlarge the field for laughter.
Such strings of words as ‘ A noisy noise annoys an oyster
most’ are very popular with young children. Many
children soon acquire an aptitude for punning, in which
similarity of sound is associated with contrast of meaning,
and this gives great scope for a variety of word games.

In order to find out what children laugh at at different
ages an investigation was made, in connexion with which
some thousands of children wrote accounts of the funniest
stories they had ever read or heard, the jokes which had
made them laugh the most, and the sights they had seen
which they considered to be the most comical. In order
to get the impressions of children in the infants’ school, who
could not give the information in writing, they were asked

88
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 89

questions and their answers recorded. In each case the
age and sex of the child were given. In this way it was
possible to obtain a survey of the kind of material which
provokes most laughter through a range of approximately
thirteen years from verbal and visual sources.

In the present chapter we shall deal with the laughter of
children from 5 to 12 years of age and in the following
chapter with that of boys and girls from 12 to 18 years of
age.

Verbal humour appears to run along the lines of a logical
sense of incongruity and of reasoning ability ; whereas,
visual humour appears to depend rather on emotional
development. It is comparatively easy to trace the
continuity and development of the former, which is closely
associated throughout with the play impulse, but with the
latter it is very difficult to trace its development along
equally definite lines. Humour appears to correlate very
highly with intelligence. In the stories of a large group of
American children the intelligence quotients were given,
and the correlation appeared to be very marked. Other
evidence from English children clearly points in the same
direction.

With a more careful and scientific investigation many
interesting problems might be attacked. The great
differences at certain points of the sense of humour in boys
and girls is of much interest, and the influence of environ-
ment seems to have a marked effect on humour. The
compensatory value of humour in the less fortunate sections
of the population is also a matter of considerable importance
and interest. In fact, the whole subject bristles with
fascinating problems for research, which are beyond the
scope of the present inquiry as to what children laugh at at
different ages.

Two points, however, emerge very clearly: At the
period of rapid growth, from about 11} years to the end
of the thirteenth year, there is a great falling off in the
90 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

sense of verbal humour of both boys and girls, but this is
gradually regained when the curve of growth flattens out
again. The nature of the sights which children laugh at
—visual humour—appears to be affected much less, apart
from an increase in the stories of the misfortunes-of-others
variety, but in describing them the extravagant language,
characteristic of this period, is nearly always used. The
second point which emerges is that, in analysing the
stories, it is found that certain types, as we shall see, seem
to have a more or less definite age limit, above which they
rarely occur. The funny sights, on the other hand,
representing the same type of humorous situation, still
make their appeal, and are frequently quoted as those
which caused most laughter. In other words, the childish
funny sight retains its popularity longer than the funny
stories dealing with similar material.

In naive stories, especially those told by children beyond
" the normal age of naiveté, there appears to be an uncon-
scious appreciation of the humorous content, which
apparently is unrecognized by the child. This may explain
the reason for the natural transference from mnaiveté to
humour which has already been noticed. In the social
intercourse of children, the production of laughter appears
to act as a sort of safety valve, and to remove sources of
irritation, and thus restores the normal joyousness of child-
hood. The ease with which tears can be turned to laughter
in the nursery is well known, and with a group of quarrelling
schoolchildren a well-timed joke may produce a similar
change of attitude.

Following the delight of playing with words during the
pre-school period of the child’s life, there comes a clearly-
marked stage in which the riddle plays a part among the
springs of laughter. The girls throughout are more
interested in the riddles than the boys, and, with them, the
popularity of this form of amusement starts a year earlier.
From 7 to 10 years of age with the girls, and 8 to 10 with
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 91

the boys, the riddle is referred to frequently in the choice
of funny stories, and then comes a sudden decline in favour
at II years; after which, with the exception of a short
period of revival about five years later, the riddle is rarely
mentioned in the records. Moreover, when the riddle
reappears it is of a different type, and is based on scholastic
material generally associated with geographical names or
with literary sources. There is occasionally some compe-
tition between boys and girls in the making of riddles,
during this passing phase, and in this the girls prcve to be
the more successful.

With young children the extraordinary appeal of the
fairy story naturally affects their selection of the particular
type which causes them most amusement. At 7 years of
age twelve per cent of the boys and twenty-five per cent
of the girls quote stories of the fairy variety. At the age
of 8 years the percentages are twenty-three and twenty-five
respectively, at g they are twenty-two and thirty-one, and
at 10 they are seventeen and twenty-three. Then there is
a falling off to eight and nineteen per cent respectively at
II years of age. After that period fairy stories are rarely
selected by the boys, though at 12 years fourteen per cent
of the girls remain faithful to stories of this nature. It will
be seen from these figures that the girls are always ahead
of the boys in their preference for fairy stories.

In the domestic stories, selected during the range of 7 to
I2 years, in the number of which the boys are somewhat
ahead of the girls, there is frequently a considerable fairy
element in the doings recorded of the animals associated
with the home and also of those at the Zoo. It takes the
form, as we have seen, of attributing abnormal qualities of
intelligence and humour to animals which are generally
assumed to be confined to human beings. In the descrip-
tions of funny sights during this period a very large
proportion centre around the remarkable behaviour of
animals, and there is a much closer approximation of
92 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

visual to verbal sources of laughter than is to be found in
other departments of mirth-provoking situations to be
described later on.

As examples of great intelligence among animals the
following records of the children may be quoted :

(a) ‘ The hedgehog lives in the country. It is a clever
little thing. Whenever a cow lies down to have a sleep
the little hedgehog crawls up beside him. The cow is very
heavy, and he presses the ground down. When the little
worms feel the cow on top of them they come out of their
holes to see what it is. The hedgehog knows what is going
to happen, so he looks out for all the worms that he can
possibly find. When he has had enough to eat he crawls
away. Foxes are very fond of hedgehogs, and they would
eat them if they could, but they cannot reach them.’

(6) ‘ One day when I was at the Zoo, and it was about
lunchtime, all the people were sitting on seats which were
right down the pathway. Along this path all the elephants
came, carrying little children for a ride. One lady, who
had a great many children, had taken some of their lunch
out of her attaché-case, and put the rest under the seat
again. Just then an elephant came along, and he saw the
attaché-case, and went nearer to get it. All the while the
children were running away and screaming. When the
elephant saw they had gone, he picked up the attaché-case
and the lunch which was inside, and then he walked on
again. After he had been round a great many times, he
dropped the attaché-case under the right seat, but there
was not any lunch inside it.’

(¢) ‘I think the funniest sight I ever saw was a goat with
three legs. It had two hind-legs and one in the centre at
the front. It had two kids which each had four legs. The
way it hopped about in the field was very queer and it
played with its kids in a most ludicrous manner. It never
seemed to lament its loss, and it always seemed in good
health. People very often are heard to say, “as silly as a
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 93

goat ”’, but I disagree with them, in this case at any rate.
One night we had burglars. The farmer had a collection
of old plate, which had descended from father to son and
had been in the family for years. To obtain an entrance
‘to the farmhouse, you had to come through the paddock
where the goat was kept at night. The burglars, therefore,
had to pass by the goat, there being no hedges round the
paddock. It was a dark night so they hoped to pass
unseen or heard. But the corner of the paddock was piled
with twigs and one of the burglars trod on them. Snap!
The goat was awake in an instant and bleated till the dogs
heard it. They rushed in and pinned the burglars to the
ground, while the farmer ran out with his men, and handed
them over to the police. The goat, *“ Three-legs ”’ they
called her, was petted all the next day, not by us children
only, but even the farmer gave her some extra food to
eat.’

(d) ‘ Our neighbours have a cat called Fluffy. One day
she was in our house and she jumped from the arm-chair
on to the top of daddy’s desk knocking a vase down ; then
opening the window with one paw she pushed it up with
the other and went after the birds.’

(¢) ‘I saw- a spider's web in our kitchen. I did put
upon it a fly and the spider came running out and wrapped
him up and ate him for his tea. It made me laugh.’

(f) ‘I saw a cat teaching another how to open a door by
standing on her hind legs and pressing down the latch with
her paws and then pushing it. I had to stuff my handker-
chief into my mouth to suppress my laughter. It was
too funny for words.’

Many stories are told by the children of the remarkable
intelligence of monkeys, and the wonderful remarks of
parrots overheard at the Zoo.

Occasionally, stories are told showing that animals give
evidence of possessing fine moral qualities as, for example :
~ (a) ‘Ihave a cat who has a kitten. One day my mother
94 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

gave the kitten some fish. I was very surprised to see the
kitten walk away, and start mewing as if she was calling
somebody. I showed her the fish in vain, she would not
eat it. Just then the mother cat came in and the kitten
at once took her to the fish, and they ate it together. Then
we understood ; the kitten would not eat the fish until her |
mother had some. I think the kitten was very unselfish, |
but it was very funny that she would not eat the fish
without her mother.’ |

(6) “ Our cat is very fond of our rabbit and likes to play |
with him in the garden. One day she took a cabbage leaf |
to him and kissed him. She will sit on his hutch every |
morning until he is let out to play with her.’

(c) “ A goose fought a cock because he drove some little |
children out of a poultry yard and he gave him a really |
good beating. It taught the cock a lesson and now he
never drives children out of the yard.’

(d) “ A little dog bit a small boy’s nose, and he was so .
sorry afterwards that he made a great fuss of him and >.
played with him and put his paws round his neck and)
kissed him.’

(¢) “ Our dog used to dislike our kitten but at last they:
made it up, and one day when I went into the room I saw
the dog asleep on the rug and his paw was curled round his is
late enemy, the kitten.’

The affection of one animal for another is a frequent ir
element in the girls’ stories but very rarely in those of thei:
boys.

Many of the children’s records also suggest that animals/s.
possess a sense of humour. After a graphic account of a 1.
hen successfully fighting a dog who had interfered with i.
her chickens, the story concluded with, ‘and when the
mother hen pecked the dog’s nose the chickens cacklec:i.
with laughter ’. In describing an incident of a large dog,
and a small fox-terrier who had befriended a small strange.
kitten, and had given her a good washing, the story goein,

se

nD
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 95

on to relate, ‘ The kitten raised no objection, and then the
dogs kissed her and they winked at each other.” In an
amusing account of a fowl who shared the family life, and
came into the breakfast-room each morning, and would lay
an egg in a box under the table or iu someone’s lap, the
record states: ‘The hen always smiled at us when she
came into the room in the morning.’ A favourite story
with the children was that of a chicken who asked her
mother whether she might have a little brother, to which
she replied, ‘What! With eggs at fourpence each,
certainly not.” A child, having heard that a hyena in the
Zoo laughed all day, but rarely had anything to eat or
drink, said, Then what has he got to laugh about.’

The misfortunes of others as a cause of laughter are
frequently referred to by young children, and form the
basis of many funny stories. With children of 7 years of
age, about twenty-five per cent of the boys’ stories, and
sixteen per cent of the girls’ are of this nature. At 8 years
of age there is a decrease to about eighteen and ten per
cent respectively. At 9 and 10 years there is a further
very considerable reduction, and beyond the age of 10
the proportion is negligible. At first, the boys are far
ahead of the girls in their choice of this type of humorous
situation, but beyond the age of 8 years the difference is
less marked. With animal stories there is a certain
similarity between the funny story or joke and the descrip-
tion of the funny sight recorded, but with the misfortunes
of others as the basis there is no such relation. The
misfortunes-of-others story practically ceases after the age
of 10 with both boys and girls. Not so with funny sights
of the misfortunes-of-others type. As we have seen, they
retain their popularity long after the age at which this
kind of funny story has disappeared, and descriptions of
them are in special favour during the period of rapid
growth from 12 to 14 years of age.

This parting of the ways of the appeal of verbal and
96 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

visual humour is of special interest. It has been pointed
out that the humorous situation appropriate for laughter
has varied from century to century, depending upon the
social attitude of the period in question. McDougall also
has, as we have seen, insisted on the important function of
laughter, in connexion with the minor misfortunes of
others, in the safeguarding of the principle of primitive
passive sympathy. As a matter of fact, even among
adults, a large proportion of our laughter is concerned with
the misfortunes of others. We laugh at the mistakes of
other people, especially those in official positions, and here
the element of our own superiority finds gratification and
increases the humorous appreciation of the situation. In
many ways, the amusement caused by the misfortunes of
others is an interesting resultant of different constituents.

Laughter at the misfortunes of others is seen in its
simplest form in the incidents which cause amusement to
very young children. Thus, a little boy of 5 says:
‘I saw a fat man running for a bus. He jumped on but he
couldn’t hold on and he fell off into the mud. Oh! I did
laugh.” A girl of 6 gives as her funniest sight: ‘I
saw a duck who got his head stuck in a jam-pot, and he
walked about with the jam-pot stuck on his head.’
Whereas, a boy of 7 says, ‘ The funniest sight I have
seen is when my mother fell out of the hammock ; but she
didn’t hurt herself much.” The fact that she hurt herself,
though not much, did not interfere with his enjoyment.
In many of the springs of laughter the child in his account
inserts a saving clause of this type, and the nature of it
varies from age to age. Though very rarely in the boys’
stories there is not infrequently in the girls’ a moral
indicated as for example ‘I saw a boy chasing a poor cat.
As he was running he fell and burst the seat of his trousers,
and so instead of hurting the cat he'll get hurt himself
when he sees his mother.’

From 10 to 12 years of age the funny sights recorded of
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 97

the misfortunes of others deal mainly with domestic events
of which the following are illustrations :

(@) A girl of 10 spent her summer holiday at the
seaside with her uncle and aunt, and they all went bathing.
Her aunt dived from a breakwater where there was a lot
of sea-weed in the water. ‘Presently I saw auntie’s pink
bathing cap appear above the water and her feet kicking
about, and uncle and I laughed. But there was still a
funnier sight to be seen, for auntie came up covered with
sea-weed, and she had two crabs biting her, and she cried
out, “ Oh, my toe! oh, my leg!” She looked so comical
that we laughed until the tears ran out of our eyes, and I
still laugh whenever I think about it.’

(6) Two small boys were watching a big boy fishing from
a tree over a lake. He slipped and fell into the water, and
the record ends: ‘When he was safe on dry ground,
dripping with water, we could no longer hold our suppressed
mirth, and we held our hips and roared. What happened
when he heard us laughing is another story.’

(c) A girl visited her uncle in the country : ‘ A man near
the house we were in had a donkey, and one day he asked
my uncle to fetch it into the stable. My uncle having
coaxed the donkey near to him leapt on its back. To this
heavy load the donkey objected. After galloping about
for some time, he rushed wildly to a pond where there were
lots of ducks and geese, and threw my uncle right into it.
There was my uncle with the ducks and geese flying all
round him. At last he picked himself up and fled, with
the geese all running after him.’

(4d) ‘ One evening as I was walking along a main road I
suddenly espied in the distance a man and woman. The
man was very tall and frail and the woman very small and
stout. They were both running to catch a bus which was
on the point of starting. The man was taking long strides
while his wife was puffing and blowing to keep up to him.
They lost the bus and the man made angry remarks at his

7
98 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

wife for not running quicker, and the woman was standing
beside him wiping the perspiration from her face which was
very red. Then the two went stalking off to get the next
one with very long faces.’

(e) ‘ A boy jumped on the back of a water cart to have a
ride ; the driver saw him and turned on the water which
drenched him. We laughed till our sides ached as the
boy rolled down the hill.’

It is natural that, in the records of funny sights, the
scenes in streets, trams, buses and trains should play a
prominent part. With the exception of the seven-year-old
period, far more sights of this type are described by the
boys than by the girls, who spend more of their time in the
home. This is especially the case at 11 and 12 years of age,
where the proportions of the number of boys’ records to
girls’ are as thirty-four to sixteen and forty-five to twenty-
three respectively. In cases where the funny sights are
associated with queer costumes and dressing up, however,
the percentage of girls’ records is greatly in excess of that
of the boys’ at all ages.

The conductor on the top of a bus who asks, ‘ Which is
the gent. with the two ladies inside ’ ; the stout gentleman
who admonishes a boy who is sitting down while there are
two ladies standing up in the bus, and is told by the boy
that if he stood up both of them could sit down ; the two
stout ladies who enter the tram, and one asks for
two Elephants; and the little man wedged in between two
fat women who asks if he may come up to breathe, all cause
much amusement to the children. In the streets, the cat
who walks on her hind legs and does the one-step, and
takes her share in pushing a doll’s perambulator ; the man
who in a windstorm runs after, and captures, the wrong
umbrella ; the clever performing monkey and a variety of
attractive shows greatly add to the enjoyment of the
children. Among the records of street incidents described
by the children are the following :
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 99

(a) © A fat woman was going for a walk with a frail man.
They came to a puddle through which they had to walk,
whereupon the woman said, *“ If you were half a man you
would have carried me over that puddle,” and the frail
man retorted, ““ If you had been half a woman I would
have done so ”’.’ ;

(6) ‘ A band was playing and a dog in the front row of
the crowd jumped up and fetched two other dogs and they
sat down together a few yards from the band. Then the
three started howling and would not stop until the band
moved on.’

(¢) A bishop was interested in some mud figures which
had been made by a boy, and he asked him to explain
whom they represented. After the boy had done so, he
said, ‘ I see you haven't made a bishop’. ‘No!’ said the
boy, ‘ I hadn’t enough mud for a bishop.’

We have seen that, at an early stage, the riddle is very
popular ; but at about 10 years of age, after a period of
comparative docility, the classroom becomes the scene of
much laughter from a very different source. A critical
attitude makes its appearance, and the children find
pleasure in comical incidents concerned with the stupidity
of their class-mates, and at passages of arms between
teacher and child. Any failure of those in authority to
come out successfully in a wordy dispute, or any ridiculous
misunderstanding of instructions, are causes of much
merriment. A boy is discovered eating sweets, and at the
same time his feet are projecting beyond the natural
confines of the desk space. The teacher in reproving him
said : ‘ Take those sweets out of your mouth and put your
feet in.” Her rebuke was the cause of much laughter. A
similar reception was given to the response of the child
who was asked in a Bible lesson to quote a Commandment
containing four words, and said, ‘ Keep off the grass’.

The explanation of a word by the teacher, and the
request to the children to construct sentences containing the
100 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

word to see whether the meaning of the word is adequately
grasped, frequently gives rise to interesting results. One of
the most extravagant of those quoted in the records was in
connexion with the word heroes ; for which the sentence
ran: ‘I put a pin in my father’s chair, and directly after
he sat down, %e rose’. Similar examples are given by
children in different countries. The laughter caused in
the classroom by the stupid replies of young children is
largely due to the feeling of superiority of the others. A
few examples may be given :

(a) The teacher was talking about thankfulness and
politeness, and told a story of the Indian Rajah who brought
some lovely gems and beautiful silks for the king, and she
asked the children what the king would say. To which a
small boy replied, ‘ ‘Ow much for the lot.’

(b) The talk was about the wind ; and the teacher told
how in coming to the school in the morning on the top of a
bus, something came very softly and kissed her on the
cheeks, and she asked, ‘ Now what was that, children ?’
Whereupon, a young child said, ‘ Oh, teacher, I think that
must have been the conductor.’

(c) A teacher was telling the children about the functions
of different parts of the body, and in the course of her
remarks said, ‘ you have ears to hear, eyes to see, nose to
smell, and feet to run.” On which, a young girl said, ‘I
think I must have been made wrong teacher, for my nose
runs and sometimes my feet smell.’

Mistakes made in examination are much enjoyed by
older children who know the correct answers. It is
suggested by some critics that schoolboy howlers are
frequently manufactured by adults. In some cases this
may be true, but the genuine answers by children rival in
absurdity those from such questionable sources. It is
interesting to compare reliable products with the actual
questions set in the examination concerned. In an
investigation of the scripts of about 5,000 children of the
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 101

ages of 11 and 12 years, some remarkable results were
obtained. One of the questions set was, ‘ Write in a few
words, what you know of any three of the following :
Among the nine names of people and objects named in the
list were included, Julius Cesar, Oliver Cromwell, Thomas
Beckett, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Here are some of the
answers :

‘ Julius Caesar betrayed our Lord for thirty pieces of
silver,” and another child wrote : ‘ He conquered England,
and reigned from 55 B.C. to A.D. 410.’

‘Oliver Cromwell had a round head. He asked for
more.’

‘ Thomas Beckett was a great churchman. He gained
favour of the king by giving useful advice at the king’s
request to be divorced from his wife, Catherine of Aragon.
When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, he was tried
for heresy and condemned to be burnt to death, because he
said that he was a Roman Catholic, when he was really a
Protestant. He put his right hand in the flame first, for
that was the hand which had cost him his life.” Many of
the boys said that Thomas Beckett was a great boxer.

‘ Sir Walter Raleigh laid down his cloak in the mud for
Queen Victoria to step over.” Another child wrote : ‘ Sir
Walter Raleigh discovered Virginia, and after that Queen
Elizabeth was always called the Virginia Queen.’

Entertainments at cinemas, theatres, concerts, music-
halls, and circuses, are immensely popular with young
children and form the basis of many funny stories, and the
descriptions of comical sights. There is, however, a great
difference in the number of stories of this type recorded by
the boys and girls. At the age of 7 and 8 years the boys’
stories are considerably in excess of the girls’, and in all
cases up to 12 years of age the percentage for the boys is
greater, though the difference is not so marked in the
later as in the earlier years. It would appear that more
boys than girls attend entertainments of this character.
102 ‘THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

Thus, as in connexion with street scenes, there is more
boys’ laughter than girls’ outside the home. It is interest-
ing, at a popular entertainment containing a variety of
items, to notice the difference in the nature of the appeal
of particular situations to the representatives of widely
separated age groups in the audience.

In accounts of laughter in the home at domestic incidents
the girls’ records are much more numerous than the boys’.
Such a story as the following is typical : ‘ One morning my
mother’s bootlace was undone, and she tripped on it when
she brought the porridge into the room, and she fell down
and spilt it all. When dad went to help her up he made
matters worse because he fell down too on to the porridge.
We could not eat for laughing.” Many of the home stories
are concerned with the mistakes of younger children, such
as that of the small boy who put the mustard near the
open window so that it might get cool ; the girl who was
whipped because she had washed the wrong arm when she
went to be vaccinated ; the child who, on hearing a cat
purr, said, ‘Oh, mother! I think our cat must have
swallowed a bee. I can hear it humming inside’; and the
girl who refused to sit on her uncle’s knee, because every
time he laughed, or drew a deep breath, she was pushed off.

Some of the home stories are very popular with the
children, as, for example :

(a) A young boy said to his father : ‘ Father, I want to
marry granny.” His father laughed at him and said, * You
can’t marry my mother,” to which he replied, * Why not ?
You married mine.’

(b) A boy ran up to his mother and exclaimed, ‘Oh,
mother | Baby has swallowed one of my marbles.” The
mother was very much distressed and sent for the doctor.
To comfort her, the boy said, It’s all right mother, don’t
worry, I have some more left.’

(c) A young man, having become engaged to a boy's
sister, broke the news to him by saying : ‘ Your sister has

x
WHAT YOUNG CHILDREN LAUGH AT 103

given herself to me for a Christmas present,” to which the
rude boy retorted: ‘Oh! Has she? She gave herself to
Mr. Smith last Christmas ; but she was returned to us as an
Easter Gift.’

(d) The vicar was asked to have a talk with Nellie, who
had been using very bad language. He introduced the
subject by saying, ‘ Nellie, I hear that you have been using
very bad language.” ‘No, I haven't,” she said, ‘ and who
told you?’ ‘A little bird told me,’ said the vicar. Where-
upon, Nellie replied, ‘ I know now who it was, it must have
been that d—— sparrow I gave the crumbs to this morning.’

With young children stories based on absent-mindedness
to which Bergson attaches so much importance as the
cause of laughter, are very uncommon. The story of the
man who refused to take onions for lunch because his
breath would smell, and he had to telephone to a lady
friend soon afterwards, is regarded rather as stupidity than
absent-mindedness. The same might be said of the lady
with a revolver, who found a burglar hanging by his hands
on the window sill, and pointing the revolver at him,
shouted, ‘hands up’. One genuine case is quoted of a
girl who was absorbed in reading an exciting book, when
the servant announced that a friend had called to see her.
Not wishing to be disturbed, her mother told her sister to
go up and tell her friend that she was not at home. But
the girl said, * Oh, never mind, I will go and tell her myself,’
which she did, and returned to her book, to the great
amusement of her mother and sister.

At the age of 12 years, during the period of rapid growth,
the type of funny story becomes of a much more extrava-
gant nature, and the descriptions of funny sights are affected
by the peculiar kind of language employed at this stage of
the child’s development. Absurd announcements such as,
‘ Lost ini Kensington : an umbrella, belonging to a gentle-
man, with a bent rib,” are frequently quoted. A graphic
account is given of a runaway bicycle coming down a
104 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

steep hill. At the foot of the hill the bicyclist seeing a
wide plank from the ground to the roof of a house steered
for it, and was providentially caught on the other side of
the house by people beating carpets in the garden. Such
stories as the following, by a boy of 12 years of age, are
not uncommon : ;

‘One day when I was on Hampstead Heath, and was
flying my toy aeroplane in the air, I heard a constant
buzzing noise. It kept on getting louder every moment,
till at last I happened to glance upwards and I saw an
aeroplane coming towards me. It grew bigger every minute
till it came down with a rush and ran along the ground. I
wondered where my aeroplane had gone. I looked around
and found it right underneath the big one. A costermonger
who happened to pass with his wife as the big aeroplane
flew upwards, said : ““ Blowed if the big one hasn't laid a
little one ”.

Even at this age the girls often refer in their stories to
the more serious side of life as, for example: In these
dark days of unsettlement in the world, there are not
many humorous touches with which to cheer the people.’
Reflections of this kind are very rarely found, however, in
the boys’ stories.

With the cessation of the rapid growth period the stories
which provoke laughter revert to a more normal type.
CHAPTER X
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN

(TWELVE TO EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE)

children up to the beginning of the period of rapid

growth, which may be regarded as, approximately,
from the age of eleven and a half to the end of the thirteenth
year. This, as we have seen, is a very interesting but
somewhat confusing stage in the development of the child.
In the earlier years there may be traced a fairly regular
continuous growth of the appreciation of humorous situa-
tions which cause smiles or laughter. Naturally, as the
child acquires further knowledge his interests are increased,
the field for the development of humour is enlarged, his
taste undergoes a definite change, and he now ceases to
laugh at stories and sights which in earlier days caused
uproarious merriment. This is more clearly shown in his
attitude to funny stories and jokes than to comical sights,
which in many cases have a longer range of appeal.

In the rapid-growth stage, however, progressive develop-
ment can no longer be traced. It is very difficult to
prophesy at this time how a boy or girl will respond to a
humorous situation. There is frequently a marked change
of attitude, and a considerable lowering of the standard of
humour, until at last normal growth reappears, and then
there is continuous progression as before. The recovery
from the serious interference with the cultivation of a \
normal sense of humour appears to come earlier with the
girls than the boy. On the other hand, it is probable that
the change affected the girls’ attitude to life before the

105

I the last chapter we dealt with the laughter of
106 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

boys’; and, therefore, there is little difference in the
actual duration of the break. Even when the rate of
growth is restored to the ordinary standard, the after-effect
is felt especially in the extravagance of language which is
a well-known characteristic of the rapid-growth period.

In practice, the springs of laughter during the 14 to 18
years’ stage are comparatively easy of discovery. The
progress in the sense of humour is regular, and the effect of
the additional elements which enter the field can readily
be traced. Whereas, from 12 to 14 years is a stage in
which progress, if any, is very difficult to recognize, and it
becomes a more or less hopeless task for investigators.

A further point which marks off the difference between
the laughter of older from that of younger children is that
the child has now become a member of a group. The
team spirit has entered into his attitude to life. His
individualistic outlook has to a certain extent disappeared,
and the interests of the self are much affected by his
desire to play a part which will secure the good opinion of
other members of the group in which he finds himself. This
partial transfer of allegiance from those in authority in
the school and the home to the social group which has
now come into existence, and which will increase as
time goes on, naturally colours his response to humorous
situations. The consequence is that, quite apart from
his advance in knowledge, events of individual interest
which form the basis of the material which cause laughter,
take a new orientation as the result of the influences at
work as to how the group regards the matter in question.
. We find, therefore, fundamental changes in the subjects
which now cause laughter. Fairy stories have ceased to
enjoy the popularity of former days, and are rarely selected
in the choice of favourites in connexion with humorous
narratives, though, occasionally, a fairy element in the
animal or domestic story is, evidently, the turning point
for its selection. The misfortunes of others, as the humorous
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 107

basis, unless concerned with the behaviour of adults, have
also practically lost the power of appeal, and even the
Punch and Judy Show is rarely mentioned. The critical
attitude of the child towards those in authority, which
made its appearance at about the age of 10 years, now
affects many of the stories, and this increases up to the end
of secondary school life. In fact, in the laughter of older
children, throughout the whole of the twelve to eighteen
period, it is evident that the affairs of grown-up people
are of greater interest than those of children.

After the difficult period of rapid growth, the selection
of humorous stories from good literature increases steadily
—both in quantity and quality—during the fourteen to
eighteen period. The element of subtlety now becomes
apparent in many of the stories, and in some of them it
dominates the situation. The most marked change is,
however, the contribution of the narrator in describing
the incident which causes laughter. The growth of a really
good story from the simplest material is interesting in this
connexion. This is sometimes the work of successive
narrators who improve the humorous effect as it passes
from one to the other. On the other hand, an excellent
story may be ruined by an incompetent exponent, who has
failed to recognize the really humorous points in the story,
or because he has not that gift of narration for which many
children have great ability.

As a rule, where combinations of events which produce
hilarious merriment in very young children—such as the
boisterous fun of the knockabout variety—have ceased to
produce laughter among the older children it is very
uncommon for them to recur at a later stage, and produce
the original effect. Here and there, however, an old
source of laughter may reappear if only for a very limited
period. Thus, the riddle, of which the child’s love of the
play upon words was the origin, fell off suddenly in popu-
larity, and practically disappeared at a comparatively
108 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

early age. For a short time, however—at about the age
of 15 to 16 years—the riddle comes to life again in a some-
what altered form. It is now associated with class-room
material, and the pun is generally used as its foundation.
Among those quoted are :

(a) A play upon the words Missouri, Mississipi, Delaware,
Alaska, and Havana: ‘If Miss Souri lent her jumper to
Miss Sissipi, what would Della wear ? I don’t know, but
I'll ask her. She might have Anna's.’

(b) A play upon the name Robinson Crusoe: ‘In a
poultry yard there were three cocks. One was called
Smith, another Brown and the third Robinson. Why was
the third called Robinson ? Because he crew so.’

(c) A play upon the words, ‘Come into the garden
Maud’: A farmer had three pigs, one was called George,
the second John and the third Maud. Why was the third
called Maud ? Because she would come into the garden.’

When once a competition is started in riddle formation
in a school, at about this age, it will probably enjoy a short
season of great popularity ; but the interest soon wanes.
This reappearance is not confined to children in English
schools ; but, wherever it is found, it is always short-lived,
and seems to appeal more to girls than to boys.

Throughout the rapid growth stage, however, there are
many revivals of more infantile sources of laughter, but
this is due to the regression of the standard of humour to
that of a lower type during this abnormal period. Stories
of exaggeration, which are so characteristic of this phase,
retain their popularity with children during the twelve to
fourteen stage. References are made to the Japanese
version of the Epaminondas folk-story which deals with
older children. A boy separates birds who are fighting
and is severely pecked. He was told that the appropriate
action would have been to stroke the birds and tell them to
be friends. Later on he applied this advice, in the case of
two fighting bulls, with the inevitable result, and so on.
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 109

In every way it follows the line of the original story which
was so popular with young English and American children.
A patient in an asylum kept knocking himself on the head,
and, when asked the reason why he did this, replied that
it was so pleasant when he left off. This story is fairly
typical of this period. Many stories are now told of the
frugality of Scotsmen, such, for example, as that of the
man who bitterly resented the tipping system in London,
which reached the limit when he saw a notice in a
lavatory, ‘ Please tip the basin after washing.’

In this connexion an amusing story is quoted of a
Scotsman who dropped a shilling in crossing the street, but
could not find it because of the heavy traffic. He told a
policeman of his loss, and said he would come there the
following day to see if it had been found. When he
arrived, the street was up for repairs, and he told the
policeman that he was very sorry they were taking so much
trouble to find his shilling. The ridiculous story is also
told of a man who informed his friend that, in taking his
bath, he found that a musical box playing in the bathroom
added greatly to his enjoyment. The friend thought it was
an excellent idea, and bought an old second-hand musical
box for his bathroom, but it was a failure, as it could only
play ‘ God Save the King’, and, naturally, he had to stand
up during the playing of the tune.

Other popular stories of exaggeration at this stage are :

(@) A man in hospital had just come back to his ward
after an operation, and his companions were telling tales of
the carelessness of doctors in leaving things, such as forceps,
in the body of the patient. The man was becoming some-
what alarmed when an attendant came in and said the
doctor had lost a small bag and could not find it anywhere.
The patient collapsed. ’

(6) The parents of a girl who was engaged to a Scotsman
were very indignant because, during a long day in the
country with the daughter, he had only contributed half
110 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

a crown towards the expenses of the outing. In order to
make him feel uncomfortable, they sent the amount to him
at once by the girl’s brother to whom the lover said, ‘ I am
sorry you have come with it to-night, to-morrow would have
done quite well.’

(c) A little girl feeling very sick in church, her mother
told her to go outside until she felt better. Surprised at
the child’s quick return the mother asked the reason, and
the child explained that, fortunately, she found a box in
the porch with the words, ‘ For the sick ’.

(d) A man was suffering from sea-sickness on the deck
of a ship, and his friend, anxious to be of any assistance,
said, ‘I am going down to our cabin, can I bring any-
thing up for you?’ ‘No, thank you,’ he replied, ‘ I have
no difficulty in that direction.’

(e) A farmer, wanting to buy a bicycle, went into a shop
to ask the price of the one on view in the window, and was
told that he could buy it for twelve pounds. The farmer
laughed and said, ‘ Why I could buy a cow for twelve
pounds.” Yes,’ said the shopman, ‘ but you'd look funny
riding a cow.” To which the farmer replied, ‘ Not so funny
as you would look milking a bicycle.’

The following records of funny sights indicate not only
the extravagant language which, as we have seen, is a
well-marked feature of this stage of the child’s life, but also
his intense dislike of the over-dressed person, who now
generally replaces, in describing the misfortunes of others,
the fat man or woman of earlier days :

(a) ‘ One day in September, passing along our road, I
saw an immaculately-dressed foppish young man. His
felt hat was tilted to one side, showing long, red, brushed-
back hair, and his jacket was resplendent with a purple-
coloured handkerchief. He was walking very gingerly
along the muddy path when his eye caught sight of the
number of a passing bus. “Hi! stop!” he shouted to
the conductor. In his excitement, forgetting to examine
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 111

“every piece of ground before him, he broke into a stilted
run. “Come along sir ”, bawled the conductor, pulling
the bell vigorously. Without noticing it the gaily-dressed
young man unfortunately slid for half a dozen yards on a
nicely-placed piece of orange peel. The rest is obvious.
Alas for the smart jacket and perfumed handkerchief !
Alas, too, for the small felt hat | It was a muddy hopeless
mass of pulp under the hoofs of passing horses. Glaring
with watery eyes around him, the no-longer-smart young
man picked himself up, and his face was smothered with
mud and filth. A crowd of hooligans quickly collected
and energetically derided him ; and, cursing the mob, he
slowly made his way down a side street, where I was, to
my sorrow, in too great a hurry on an errand to follow
him.’

(0) ‘ Whilst walking down the road on one Saturday
morning, I saw a select-looking taxicab in which were
a young couple dressed in their wedding garb. Suddenly a
loud roar and grinding noise signalized that the car was
out of action. After much conversation another car was
telephoned for, but all the cars had been hired, and so
another was not available. The church was some miles
distant, so that to walk would be a tiresome task. Then
the funny sight came. An old labourer’s horse and wagon
were put into action, and with the aid of a rope and the
horses fittings, the car was towed by the horse to the
church.’

(c) ‘I was going along the street soliloquizing upon the
drabness of the general outlook, when my reveries were
interrupted by melodious sounds, which issued from a very
ancient-looking personage. His clothes were very dilapi-
dated, and the hat that partly covered his hair was more
or less in the form of a telescope, for it had a large hole in
the top. His nose was red, very red, why I do not know,
perhaps he did, but likely enough it was the cold. Any-
how, when he had finished singing ““ Bubbles ”’ in a most
112 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

somniferous manner, accompanying himself with a banjo,
he started a refrain, which I had never heard before, but
which I am sure I shall never forget. It was this:

Just try to picture me
On my old mother’s knee, etc.

Try as I might, I could not at first picture him on his
mother’s knee, for he had an extraordinarily large circum-
ference, and I rather felt sorry for his poor old mother.
Anyhow, after an effort I managed to see him faintly
seated upon his fond parent’s knee, and I do not know why,
but the result made me laugh. At length, I gave him
twopence, and after a grateful ““ Thanks,” he disappeared
into a public-house, into which he had been pouring forth
his melody, evidently for the purpose of lubricating his
throat preparatory to a fresh musical effort.’

The extravagance of language during the period of rapid
growth is less marked in the funny stories of the girls than
in those of the boys. In describing street scenes, however,
there are evidences of this, as, for example, ‘ We were
choking with silent mirth at his questioning look and force
of gaiety ’ and ‘I could not withstand my curiosity and
hastened to the spot’. In the comparatively few girls’
stories of animals there is no falling off in attributing to
them extraordinary intelligence and reasoning power.
Thus, ‘ A cat having caught her tail on fire dipped it in
some water to putit out’. The girls appear to recover their
sense of humour during this period earlier than the boys,
and their power of description is far greater. The fact
that the girls are about to leave school appears to have a
marked effect upon them. They appreciate humorous
situations in a more delicate way, and the more boisterous
fun attitude is practically non-existent.

In the twelve to fourteen period there are considerable
differences between the boys and the girls as to the situations
which cause laughter. Girls play with thoughts more than
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 113

boys, and they can build up good stories from very simple
foundations. Boys, on the other hand, appear to have a
greater range and variety as regards humorous incidents.
Girls’ stories are of a more domestic character. The
following are typical :

(a) © At an evening party they were playing the game of
“ Ugly Faces”. A person goes out of the room, and those
who remain make grimaces in competition for the prize for
the ugliest face, to be awarded by the one outside. One
lady, however, refused to play the game, but the judge,
unaware of this, on entering the room, awarded her the
prize to the great amusement of the others.’

(6) “ A family, going out for the day, put up a notice on
the door : ““ All out. Don’t leave anything.” On return-
ing, they found that the house had been visited by burglars,
who wrote beneath the notice, “ We haven't left much ”’.

(¢) “A child was commissioned to buy a mouse-trap
among other items of shopping. Pressed for time, she
ran into a shop and said, “ A mouse-trap, please, make
haste as I want to catch a tram

In the girls’ stories there is frequently a tendency to
attach a moral, but this is rarely found in those of the boys.
Another marked difference is that the point of the girls’
story very frequently concerns the stupidity of a boy ;
but the converse scarcely ever occurs.

An opportunity was afforded of investigating the sense
of humour of a large number of children who had recently
entered employment on leaving school at the age of 14
years. Many interesting changes are to be observed as the
result of the great alteration of environment. The most
marked feature is the rapid development of the superiority
element in the attitude of the boys towards humorous
situations. They are no longer subject to the same type
of authority, and the greater freedom, accompanied by the
necessity of forming judgments for themselves, all affect
the sense of humour. The objects which produce mirth

8
114 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

are now practically all concerned with adults who have
become more interesting than children. The descriptions
of funny sights are still somewhat florid, but the excessive
use of adjectives takes the place, to a certain extent, of
extravagant expressions. The children are more critical,
and poke fun at adults in positions of authority. A curious
change is that the boys are becoming more introspective,
and have a keener appreciation of details, and thus enter
into competition with the girls who formerly were far in
advance in this respect.

The girls, at this stage, do not develop along the line of
increasing superiority. They are still interested in stories
of children. Dreams are quoted frequently as the funniest
sights they have seen, and they appear to day-dream far
more than the boys. Girls also moralize more than boys ;
they talk round a subject, and occasionally discuss the
value of humour. Practically for the first time, they
laugh at stupid things they have done themselves, and
cases are not infrequent of stories of absent-mindedness.
A favourite story in this connexion is that of a man who had
a room over that of a woman who was seriously ill, and he
promised to make no noise. In a fit of absent-mindedness
and irritation, on taking off his boots, he threw one of
them across the room, and then remembered his promise.
After some time the nurse of the invalid came up and asked
him when he was going to take off the other boot.

Animal stories are far less common with older children,
and these are, moreover, of a somewhat different type.
Thus, a child gives an account of the infliction of corporal
punishment in the animal world : ‘ At last Tiger (the cat)
caught Blackie (the kitten) and she took hold of his ear
with her teeth, and, with her paws, she gave him a thorough
good smacking.” Another story suggests admirable human
qualities : ‘ Our dog made friends with the kitten because
she resembled her mother who had been a great friend of
his.” Another function of the Zoo is referred to in one of
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 115

the animal stories : ‘ Some people delight in making fun of
the blundering mistakes of foreigners. This shows a lack
of sympathy. I think nature provides us with far more
comical scenes and the best place for this is the Zoo’. A
child also tells a story of seeing a clever elephant who
accepted half-crowns from visitors, and placed them in a
money box on a high shelf ; but the attendant explained
that the elephant had never been taught how to take
them out again.

The following records of animal stories show clearly the
growth of the power of the narrator to describe the simplest
situations in such a manner as to produce interesting
stories. They are arranged in order of the age of the
children : (a), (b), and (c) belong to the 12 to 14, and
(d), and (e) to the 14 to 18 period.

(a) ‘I was sitting by the fire reading a book when a
knock came at the front door. By looking out of a certain
window in our house you can see our front door, so I
looked out, and there was the cat standing on the step
on his hind legs and with one of his front paws was knocking
at the door. Then I went and let him in. I think this is
the funniest sight I have ever seen.’

(b) ‘ Our two cats were sleeping in a box with a lot of
papers on them, and pieces of wood. Happening in my
conversation to mention the word ‘‘ meat ’’, there was a
sudden clatter and the cats came flying out, knocking over
the box and wood, yet they had been apparently fast
asleep! This proves that cats are always alert even in
their sleep.’

(¢) ‘ This happened one day, when I was reading a book
out in the garden. An empty condensed milk tin was
carelessly thrown in the direction of a dust-bin. It was
intended to go in but fell short. Our little Persian cat
immediately rushed at it, and being a little playful began
to play with it. After about a minute’s play, noticing a
little milk in it, it began scraping out the contents. It
116 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

had nearly scraped it all out when in an effort to lick the
bottom of the tin it wedged its head in it. Instead of
trying to get it off the cat raced round the garden, and
three or four times banged against a wall, jamming it on
much tighter. I could not get at it for as soon as it heard
my feet it ran in another direction. I managed to get the
cat after chasing it for several minutes and when I took
the tin off its head it jumped on my shoulders and licked
my face.’

(@) © A friend of mine kept two ducks and a very fat old
rabbit in her garden. These three had a free run of the
garden, which was quite a large one, and the two ducks
though of different breed became fast friends. Although
the rabbit was not on such good terms he was very friendly
from the start. One day, feeling mischievous I suppose,
one duck, whom we will call Billy, went up to the rabbit
who was sitting in the middle of the garden. After he
had waddled near enough Billy gave the rabbit a dig in
the back with his bill. This had no effect on the rabbit,
who I suppose was used to such behaviour. Billy then
went back to the other duck, and must have planned with
her, in “ Duckish ” I suppose, to play a trick on Bunny.
They both waddled up to the rabbit who, though he saw
them coming, remained seated. They went one on each
side and then deliberately took hold of an ear each and
pulled it. This of course was too much to put up with
and so Bunny thumped his tail and lopped off. The two
ducks stood where they were and quacked. I suppose it
was their interpretation of a laugh.’

(e) ‘ At home we have a big dog named Jack. One day
I was out walking and I had Jack by my side. He is a
big dog with a very fierce disposition but he is very
chivalrous to lady dogs and cats. As I was walking past
a house a very tiny kitten fell out of the front door, there
is really no other word for it. It seemed to rollout like
a very tiny ball of fur. This ball came to a stop, uncurled
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 117

itself and came upright, eyes bright and tail up. The
kitten was on the war-path, I could see that and she seemed
to resent Jack being in the neighbourhood of her house.
As I watched she came to a decision and decided that Jack
must go. Well, the next minute this atom of energy had
hurled itself at the dog’s heels and began scratching and
fighting for dear life. Of course Jack ran to get out of the
way of this tiny kitten. With big strides he made a wide
detour and came back to me. After him went the kitten,
all four tiny legs going like piston rods, as fast as she could.
Each time Jack stopped so the kitten just reached him
and he had to start off again. Of course he had too much
chivalry to hurt it, but the kitten was bent on hurting
him. The look on the dog’s face was such a mixture of hurt
dignity, annoyance and boredom that I laughed till I
could laugh no longer. At last we evidently got far enough
away for the kitten to decide that she had done her duty
and off she went her tail high in the air, with a mincing
step as though she had conquered an army.’

The stories and descriptions of sights of the streets,
trams, buses and trains are, naturally, associated with the
laughter of older as with that of younger children. Here,
as with other sources of laughter common to both
periods, we find that from 12 to 14 there is a much closer
connexion between the springs of laughter referred to in
the last chapter, whereas, there is a marked difference
after leaving the rapid-growth period. As the sense of
humour develops in the narrator, and a greater power of
literary expression manifests itself, we find that the method
of narration frequently atones for the poverty of the basal
humorous situation. In this connexion, the descriptive
power of the girl, especially at the ages of 14 and 15, is
notably superior to that of the boy, who has to rely more
upon the intrinsic merits of the original material whether
in story or in the comical sight. In both, as we have seen,
the greater interest taken in the behaviour of the adult is
118 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

to be noticed, but it is stronger in the boy than the girl
who still discovers in the doings of children occasions for
laughter.

The animal performing in the street is a delight to the
child : ‘ The dance which made the people laugh the most
was the military two-step of the clever dog who heel-toed
so nicely, and strutted up and down like a soldier, until
the children screamed with laughter.” Children, with
their dislike of people who are too elaborately dressed,
generally take the side of the working man in any alterca-
tion. When a swell in a railway carriage complained to
the porter that he did not sing out the name of the station
properly, and he replied that he was not a * Hopera singer ’,
the youthful portion of the company rejoiced, and one of
them gave an account of it as a good story. The boy, in
his accounts of interviews with officials, frequently describes
the incidents in extravagant language as, for example,
‘ When a policeman said I wouldn’t arrest a kid like you,
I looked at him with hauteur and rose and marched off
with dignity.” Another boy being suspicious of the
behaviour of a tramp says: ‘I decided to act the part of
a sleuth-hound and, with this idea firmly implanted in my
mind, I followed him.’

The superiority element in humour is frequently the
dominant feature in street scenes, as in a description of the
long time it took a man to see the point of the joke in the
advertisement of Watney’s stout (What knees), whereas
the recorder of the sight saw it at once. And, again, the
amusement caused by the stupid boy who had put a six-
pence into a chocolate slot machine, and was waiting
patiently for the change and the chocolate. A favourite
story in this connexion is that of a dog whose lead was
fastened to an umbrella. The dog, seeing a cat, broke away,
taking the umbrella with him, and caused minor accidents
in the street to the great amusement of the children
onlookers.
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 119

The tram conductor in his disputes with passengers is a
fertile source of laughter : (2) The two aggrieved women
who keep the occupants of the tram in a state of hilarity
by their references to the conductor’s beautiful face and
kindly manners. (b) The woman who asked the conductor
to let her know when she reached a certain point and,
when he stopped the tram, said she only wanted to show her
little dog, Fido, the house where he was born. And,
(c) The woman whose child (George) is crying, and the
conductor calls out George’s Cross, to which the woman
retorted, thinking a reference was being made to her
boy, ‘ Yes, and so would you be if you were cutting your
teeth’. Such incidents are occasions of much merriment
for the children.

As in the case of the animal stories, those of street
incidents also illustrate the great difference between
the earlier records of the children and those of the 14
to 18 period. This is well shown in the following
examples: (4) and (b) are crowded with details of the
sights seen with very little addition by the narrators.
Whereas, in the cases of (c) and (d), each has a very slender
basis in actual occurrence, and is made up almost entirely
of the contribution of the narrator :

(a) ‘ Our suburb recently noted with interest a queer
couple accompanied by a pram parading the streets.
People who were hurrying to business, and others who
were whiling away the time, all stared curiously at the
figures of Charlie Chaplin and ““ The Kid ”’. People who
did not care for the picture which created so much interest
couldn’t help being amused at the ridiculous antics of
“ Charlie Chaplin ”. When ‘ Charlie ”’ raised his hat to
a minute stone which he fell over the children chorused
with laughter. Grown-ups in the trams and buses smiled
when “ Charlie ” raised his hat backwards and ‘‘ The Kid ”
pushed the pram. He peered into people’s baskets with a
wistful face, twirled his tiny cane and hooked the neck of
120 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

a delighted youngster in front. Not very often do things
like this happen and one may be assured that the younger
generation see to it that they get all the enjoyment they
can out of them.’

(b) ‘It was on a cool summer evening that my cousin
and I were strolling along the banks of the river Thames.
We sat down for some time on a little patch of grass, when
two or three joyful barks attracted our attention, and
much to our amusement we saw a little boy, who had
evidently come from the swimming baths, bewildered by
a little terrier who had got hold of the boy’s towel. He
tried hard for some time to release the towel from the dog’s
mouth, but the harder he pulled the harder the dog pulled.
The little dog was about to give up when he gave a final
pull, and, much to his glee, he was sole possessor of the
towel. We started to chase him, and a gentleman seeing
what had happened ran forward to release the towel ; this
he did, and gave it to the boy who afterwards went home.
This was not all, for when the gentleman turned to pick
up his stick he found the dog had it. The little dog was
very artful, he would put the stick down, and he would
wait till we were near him and then run away again. At
last his attention wandered elsewhere and after a few
minutes the man had his stick again. We laughed over
this for many days after, and never forgot the innocent
expression on the face of the dog.’

(¢) ‘ The funniest sight I have ever seen was that of an
old gentleman chasing his hat. I do not know why, but
this spectacle always seems to amuse the onlookers.
Perhaps it is because the crowd is always pleased to see
the mighty fallen. A moment before, this portly old
gentleman, with red face and bristling whiskers, had
strode along like some conqueror of old. Clerks and
typists seemed to hurry from his path, while newsboys had
insinuatingly held forth their papers as though they were
some humble petition. Then along came the North
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 121

Wind, who respects nobody, and in a moment all was
changed.’

‘The gentleman's top hat, casting all dignity to the winds,
bounded from the stately head of the wearer and, fluttering
to the ground, began to bowl merrily along the street.
The gentleman, after one frantic clutch to save it, doubled
up in the proper athletic style, and charged after it head
foremost. There they went down the street, the hat
bounding and leaping and seeming possessed with the very
spirit of mischief ; the gentleman tearing after it, his face
becoming redder and redder, coat-tails flying and little
legs going like clock-work. Now and then he would bend
nearly double, thinking he had it, but the hat just managed
to leap ahead, and the gentleman, after nearly tripping
over, would plunge ahead once more. On his way he was
accompanied by the wind’s shriek of glee, and the laughter
of the bystanders. He was encouraged by yells of, “ Go it
Guv’'nor ”’ and “ Put yer beef into it,” while another youth
was willing to have, “ Two to one on the 'at ”’. Thus they
went, tearing away, the sport of the North Wind, growing
smaller and smaller until they turned the corner and
disappeared from view.’

(d) ‘It has always struck me as surprising and quite
inexplicable that a grown man, in all other respects possibly
above the average intelligence and capacity, should
persistently be late for his train in the morning. That
such a logical creature as the London business speculator
should think it worth while to sacrifice his dignity and
comfort in his journey to the station for a few more short
moments in bed is a quite unexpected departure from the
paths of reason.’

‘And perhaps it is merely because of its unnaturalness
that the sight of a procession of middle-aged, well-groomed
men and women, with set faces and clenched fists, proceed-
ing at a steady jog-trot towards their suburban railway
station (what time the fiery dragon of steel, belching forth
122 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

its breath of fire in contempt, pursues its relentless course
along the iron road to the metropolis some hundred yards
in the rear) appears to me the most truly funny of the
many sights which our city affords.’

‘Take this man, for example, now sprinting with renewed
vigour as the station bell clangs out its warning—he is
perhaps the controlling power of a seething hive of business
activity ; he sits all day in his Holy of Holies, supplying
solutions to momentous problems and performing quite
extraordinary feats of mental skill and initiative—and
yet, during those few minutes preceding the time of
departure of his train, he is reduced to the level of the
meanest city clerk.’

The laughter of older children is concerned only to a
very slight extent with country scenes. The glorious
novelty of rural life is wearing off after many expeditions,
and the stories told are, as a rule, not of personal experiences
but of absurd events recorded of younger children, such
as that of the boy who was fascinated by the sight of a
cow being milked. To his delight, he found a porcelain
cow on the mantelpiece in his bedroom and he spent much
time in looking at it. He had nightmare, and was found
sobbing as he tried in vain to milk the little cow. There
are many variants of the story of the faithful dog who has
charge of his master’s clothes while he is bathing. Here,
the clothes are attached to the dog who, feeling anxious
about his master’s safety, swims out to bring him ashore.
The most extravagant story recorded of country life is that
of the boy of fourteen who describes a prize fight between
two robins in a ring surrounded by a hundred robins
intently watching the contest.

The stories of school life now take a far more important
place than with the younger children. The following
are examples: (a) A teacher was surprised that a boy
who, in answer to a question as to the meaning of the
word furlough, replied, ‘a mule’, and found that the
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 128

misunderstanding arose from a picture he had seen of a
soldier riding on a mule with the title, ‘ Going home on
furlough’. (b) A child, who had never heard of monogamy
before, after a lesson on marriage customs, astonished
the class by saying in reply to a question, ‘ When a man is
a Christian, and has only one wife, it is called monotony ’.
(c) Hearing, at a prize distribution, that a pious donor
had given large sums to the school, a boy remarked, ‘ Why
couldn’t he do them himself.’

At a later stage the * Hamlet ’ story is frequently referred
to. An imspector was examining a class on English
literature, and finding one boy very stupid asked him in
a loud voice, * Who wrote Hamlet ? ’ to which the boy
replied, ‘ Please, sir, I didn’t.” The inspector was much
amused, and, at night, when he was dining with a farmer
in the neighbourhood, he told the story. The farmer did
not see the point and remarked, with a smile, “ Young
rascal, I expect he did’. The delight in commenting
severely on class-room events is well illustrated by the
description of a girl of 17 years of age on a singing lesson :

‘On the platform a bright cheerful lady stood with a
silver-topped baton in her hand. After commanding
silence she took her seat at the piano and suddenly the
beautiful chords of a well-known song sounded through the
hall. After a few bars of perfectly harmonized music
had been played through in a most martial manner the
sound of weird, melancholy and raucous voices tore through
the atmosphere like the piercing shrieks of a thousand
sea-gulls over the rugged cliffs of an unknown shore.’

Stories about people in authority who are in any way
held up to ridicule are exceptionally popular with boys
and girls during the 14 to 18 period: (2) The witness
in court who said that the man of whom he was
~ speaking was ‘ as drunk as a judge ’, and was corrected by
the judge who said, ‘ You mean as drunk as a lord’. ‘I
beg your pardon, my lord,” he replied. (b) At a council
124 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

meeting, the mayor who was impressed by the excellent
service rendered by a subordinate official suggested that
he should be given a honorarium. Whereupon, a Labour
member retorted, ‘ What's the good of that, he wouldn’t
be able to play it, let’s give him five pounds.’

Occurrences in church are also fertile sources of favourite
stories, some of them being of an extravagant character,
as, for example, that of the church in which an additional
font had been provided, ‘ so that in future babies might be
christened at both ends’, and, again, in an announcement
about egg-Sunday the parishioners were requested, ‘to
lay their eggs in the font’. A curate complained to a
friend of his embarrassment at the attention he received
from so many importunate young ladies of the church,
and was told that there was no need to worry as there
was ‘ safety in numbers’, to which he replied, there might
be even greater ““ safety in exodus”. Many stories are
told of language used in the pulpit which might have a
double meaning, as that in which a clergyman, revisiting
his former church in the Isle of Wight, expressed his joy
at seeing before him again ‘so many old Cowes faces’.
Another clergyman, who was much touched by the kind-
ness of his parishioners in sending him a birthday present
of brandy cherries, referred to it on the following Sunday
morning, and said. * What pleased me most was the spirit
in which it was sent’. Yet, another favourite story is
that of the Jew who fainted in church during the collection
and was carried out by two Scotsmen. |

During the 14 to 18 period the children have recovered
from the stage of rapid growth—in which there was
such a serious deterioration of the sense of humour
—and now fairly general progress is made all along the line.
At the age of 15 years, the appreciation of the ludicrous
appears to reach its highest point as the cause of laughter
and then gives way in competition with other elements of
humour. Fortunately, however, in the normal person it is
THE LAUGHTER OF OLDER CHILDREN 125

never entirely lost and may be frequently a great source
of comfort in many difficult situations. As we have
already seen, as time goes on the part played by the
simplest humorous situation may result in an excellent
story, or in the vivid description of a funny sight. The
appearance of subtlety greatly increases the range of
laughter-provoking material, and educational achievement
naturally enlarges the area for the play of the spirit of
humour. During the later part of school life there are many
excellent stories told of the use of formulas which are im-
perfectly understood. The critical attitude which as we
have found, makes its appearance in the child at about the
tenth year, now takes on a useful form, and laughter acts
as a deterrent to the student who professes a higher
standard of knowledge than he can rightly claim. In this
way laughter performs a most valuable function.

In an investigation of the sense of humour of a large
number of children, it is interesting to notice the remarkable
variation from age to age, and the difference in the type of
situation which appeals to boys and girls. Up to the age
of 16 or 17 years, the girls’ greater power of description,
and probably a keener sense of humour, give them the
premier position. But towards the close of higher school
life the boys advance very rapidly and in originality of
thought, and especially in the greater variety of treat-
ment, they would appear to have the advantage. The
amount of material available, however, is not sufficient
upon which to come to anything in the nature of a definite
conclusion.
CHAPTER XI
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR

’ : ‘HE fundamental sense of humour, in spite of many
statements to the contrary, is much the same in
England and America. The material on which it

operates, however, differs widely, and thus we get a clear
distinction between English and American humour.
There are various definitions of what is termed American
when contrasted with English humour, and most of them
stress the distinguishing feature that, in the former greater
emphasis is placed on one or more of the elements of
exaggeration, gross absurdity and mendacity in laughter-
provoking situations. In this connexion it may be well
to recall Mark Twain’s description: ‘To bring incon-
gruities and absurdities together in a wandering purposeless
way and seem innocently unaware that they are absurdities
is the basis of the American art.’

The nature of the environment, the social outlook, and
the advance of civilization must, of necessity, have a
profound effect on the things we laugh at. And nothing
illustrates this better than the change of attitude from cen-
tury to century and the folly, of which so much advantage
has been taken, of discussing the statements of experts
who have written on humour and laughter from age to
age under widely different social conditions. The definition
of a couple of centuries ago, which was then perfectly
sound, naturally fails to bear careful examination success-
fully in the altered outlook of to-day. A study of the
material which causes laughter in peoples of different
stages of culture make this abundantly clear. The

126
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 127

~ humanization of laughter accompanies the progress of
higher ideals in national life.

As we have seen, in discussing the sudden-glory theory
of Hobbes, there has been, for example, an extraordinary
change in our attitude towards deformities in drawing the
line between the things which can, and those which cannot,
decently be the subject of merriment in dealing with the
~ misfortunes of others. It stands to reason that as environ-
ment, history and tradition have such a great effect on
the laughter-provoking material of a people, there must
~ be a considerable difference between English and American
humour. A new country with a comparative absence
of tradition, and therefore with every opportunity for
great freedom of expression, must have a different type
of humour from that of an old country bound by tradition
and with a people anxious above all things to keep well
within social conventions.

In America the professional humorists have had an
abnormal effect on the favourite subjects for laughter.
This point has not been sufficiently recognized, and, as it
is a matter of supreme importance in comparing English
with American humour, it becomes necessary to make a
brief study of what may be termed the Mark Twain school
as there has never been a corresponding movement in
England. The great triumvirate which formed the Mark
Twain school consisted of Artemus Ward born in 1834,
Mark Twain in 1835, and Bret Harte in 1839. These
dominant figures, with an age range of only five years,
would undoubtedly have, in any case, produced a marked
effect on the future of American humour. But the fact
that for many years they were closely associated in literary
work, and on the lecture platform, had the result of bringing
into existence a well-defined school of humour which made
a profound impression on the American people, the in-
fluence of which persists, and is clearly in evidence, in
the American schools of to-day.
128 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

Artemus Ward was the great °Mis-speller’. He
preferred to write phonetically, and this probably somewhat
interfered with the appreciation of his literary work in
this country. His first contributions appeared in a comic
weekly at Boston, the Carpet Bag, in connexion with which
he was a compositor. Later on he became a member of
the great literary circle at San Francisco, of which Bret
Harte was for a long time the president. In America and
England he acquired great fame as a lecturer of considerable
distinction, and he influenced Mark Twain in his style of
lecturing. His humour was genial, kind and never pro-
fane, and he was the most lovable of men. He came to
England and became a noted contributor to Punch, under
Mark Lemon. It is reported that John Bright went to
one of his lectures, and said afterwards, that he had enjoyed
it very much but that ‘he doubted some of Artemus
Ward's statements’. To the great regret of a large circle
of English and American friends Artemus Ward died at
the early age of 34.

Bret Harte, the scholar, dreamer and poet, was for a
considerable time one of the greatest, if not the greatest,
short-story writer in the world. He had a wonderful
style and practically every sentence was a little gem. Mark
Twain came under his influence in the literary circle at
San Francisco, which had the happy effect of improving
his style of writing immensely. The debt he owed to
Bret Harte was freely acknowledged by Mark Twain. In
The Vulgar Little Boy there is a good example of his concen-

tration, in the retort of the boy who had been playfully

lashed by a whip by a passing driver. ‘A single sentence
conveyed in a few words a reflection on the legitimacy Jf
the driver's birth, it hinted a suspicion of the father’s
integrity and impugned the fair name of his mother. It
suggested incompetence in his present position, personal

uncleanliness and evinced a doubt as to his future salva-

tion.” This example was quoted by Bret Harte in his
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 129

lectures in England. He also told the story of a boy who
was reproved by an old lady for swearing, to which the
boy replied, ‘ Call that swearin’, Mum. You should hear
our Bill exhort the impenitent mule.’

The turning point, financially and otherwise, in Bret
Harte’s career was the publication in the Overland Monthly,
of which he was editor, of The Luck of Roaring Camp.
The verdict was instantaneous. The story was hailed in
Boston as a classic, and he was offered $10,000 a year to
become a regular contributor to the Atlantic Monthly.
His genius in depicting boy-life is clearly shown in such
stories as Maiggles, and in his lecturing he showed his
great preference for his efforts in dealing with children.
In many of his stories the influence of Dickens, of whom he
was a profound admirer, is clearly seen. The character
sketches in The Outcasts of Poker Flat are singularly
powerful and effective. This is considered by some to be
of higher merit in many ways than The Luck of Roaring
Camp. He spent the latter part of his life in Europe and
acted as Consul at Crefeld and Glasgow.

Mark Twain, as he was known after definitely entering
literary life, had as a boy and young man a series of remark-
able experiences which formed an excellent background and
material for many of his books. After assisting his brother
in the office of the Hannibal Journal, as printer and assistant
editor, he became a licensed pilot on the Mississippi, then
a gold-miner and after that took a position as a news-
paper reporter. Artemus Ward recognized his ability and
helped him forward, and at the age of twenty-nine he came
under Bret Harte’s influence at the famous literary circle.
The success of a story in Harper's Magazine encouraged
him to write his first book, The Jumping Frog. He was
now attracting favourable attention as a humorist lecturer
and was on the high road to success. Fhe Innocents
Abroad, written from material obtained during a five
months’ tour in the Holy Land, was a great literary and

9
130 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

financial success and firmly established him in public
favour. Other books of travel followed: Roughing It,
A Tramp Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, and Following
the Equator.

In fiction he achieved extraordinary popularity with
Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and, to a lesser extent,
with A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur,
and The Prince and the Pauper. A book, Joan of Arc,
which was first published anonymously is on an entirely
different basis. It is a fine panegyric, represents a certain
amount of careful research, and gave Mark Twain great
pleasure in its production.

His fame as a lecturer was unbounded, and when, to
meet financial difficulties caused by unsuccessful business
ventures, he went on a world lecturing tour and achieved
a remarkable success, and effectively disposed of the
difficulty which had arisen. To the end he retained his
delightful sense of humour, and when at the age of 72
he came to England to receive an honorary degree con-
ferred upon him by the University of Oxford, and a rumour
to the effect that he was dead was circulated, the king of
laughter-makers made the whole world laugh again by his
reassuring message to America, ‘ The reports of my death
have been grossly exaggerated.’

The short sketch given of the Mark Twain School, with
its enormous publicity through its literature and the
lecturing platform, sufficiently indicates the elements
which gave a very definite stamp to American humour.
In addition to this, the rapid growth and extraordinary
prosperity of America have produced a fertile soil for the
development of a habit of exaggeration. The English
humorist makes comparatively little use of exaggeration
and gross absurdities ; it would not be tolerated and he
has, therefore, to obtain his humour effect from other
sources. Whereas, a humorist, in a comparatively young
country, with his greater freedom of expression, together
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 131

with a more or less standardized type of humour, is on
safer ground. On the other hand, the absence of any
authoritative school, or recognized type of humour, gives
the opportunity for a more individualistic treatment of
laughter-producing material, in consequence of the greater
variety in view-point of the humorist, provided that he
does not trespass beyond the bounds of the conventional
social attitude of his readers.

Such delightful stories, for example, as those of : (2) The
walking tour and the long search for the lost sock at the
end of which the pedometer registered forty-seven miles.
(0) The man who proposed to travel from the Gorner Grat
to Zermatt by locating himself on the central part of the
glacier, and putting his luggage on the sides to come down
by slow freight, and (¢) The lake which went down two
inches when the big fish was landed, are intensely amusing.
These stories from an English writer would meet with
little success, but we rock with laughter when they come
from Mark Twain. English humour is less primitive in
its nature, but the charge is made that it frequently
becomes too subtle, heavy, and pedantic. There is less
boisterous fun in English than in American humour ; the
play element is less dominant. We are, however, apt to
take ourselves much too seriously, and it is a genuine
relief to turn occasionally to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
Finn to restore our mental balance.

In my investigation of the sense of humour of American
children, with the kind co-operation of American teachers,
a very large number of selected funny stories, jokes and
descriptions of funny sights, were obtained from the schools
in answer to the same questions that had been given to the
London children. In each case the age of the boy or girl
was stated, so that it became possible to compare the type of
humorous situation selected by large groups of children
of the same age in both countries. It is of special interest
to notice that though the order of appearance of well-
132 2 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

marked humorous types, as evidenced by selected stories
and descriptions of funny sights, is much the same, the
age at which they appear, however, varies considerably,
as does also the duration of the special appeal.

The effect of the Mark Twain school of humour is particu-
larly well shown, not only in the large percentage of stories
at different ages of the exaggeration and gross absurdities
types, but also in the great number of stories indirectly
influenced by the writings of Mark Twain. In addition,
there are others which are unmistakable variants of actual
stories recorded by him, as will be seen in the illustrations
to be given later on. In one large group no less than
twenty-three per cent of the stories were traceable to this
source. Among English children exaggeration stories are
confined almost entirely to the ages of 12 and 13 years—
that is during the period of rapid growth—but with the
American children exaggeration is practically a stock form
of humour from 11 to 18; generally far more among boys
than girls. At the upper ages, however, it is very prominent
among the girls’ stories.

In connexion with the play upon words the stories of
the American children of funny mistakes are naturally
very numerous, especially at the ages of 8 to 11. This
is due to the great mixture of races and the difficulty
of children in making themselves understood in, to them,
a foreign language. There is a marked falling off of stories
of this type at 12 years of age, but they reappear three
years later in a different form. It was seen that with
English children the riddle was the crowning point of the
young child’s delight in playing with words at the ages of
8 and 9. In America the riddle appears much later and is
never so popular as in England, as it is frequently asso-
ciated with puns which, fortunately, have never taken firm
hold in American literature. We have seen among English
children that the appeal of the riddle makes a short-lived
reappearance at the ages of 15 and 16, and, curiously
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 133

enough, with American boys and girls there is a similar
reawakening of a vivid interest in playing with words at
the same ages.

This revival of interest in a special type of mental
attitude, if based on an adequate amount of material,
must have some significance though it may be difficult to
explain the cause. But where, in a separate investigation,
the same phenomenon is to be observed, it assumes a
position of greater importance. In this connexion, it
should be noted that though there are marked differences
in many respects in the type of humorous situation which
makes a strong appeal to both English and American
children yet, in a variety of important points there is a
striking similarity. Thus, in the earlier stages, the mis-
fortunes of others become an interesting basis for humorous
material, but this type ceases to appeal at about the age
of 10 years in both countries. When it takes the form of
criticism of authority, in the delight of boys and girls in the
mistakes of prominent officials, it is on an entirely different
footing. :
~The element of superiority in humour, which finds
‘expression in stories of stupidity first in that of mistakes
of younger children and later in those of adults, is more
fully developed in American than in English schools.
There are more than twice as many stories of stupidity
selected by American children at nearly all ages. For
example, at 12 years of age the percentage of stories of this
kind is about twenty for both boys and girls in America,
whereas, for English boys the percentage is fourteen, and
for English girls it is only eight, although this is the great
age for this type of story in English schools. The explana-
tion may be due to some extent to the greater freedom of the
American child in expressing his own opinion at a much
earlier stage than the English child. The six to ten period
of docility, with its greater subservience to authority,
is less marked in American schools, with the result that
134 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

the critical attitude of the child makes its appearance
long before it is developed in English schools.

It thus appears from the investigation that one of the
greatest differencesis that stories and jokes of gross absurdity
are far more common with American children, and that
there are far fewer of stories involving the smart retort,
and those included under ‘surprise followed by a relief
from restraint’. At the ages of 13 and 14 the per-
centages of stories of absurdity selected by boys and girls
are as twenty-six to thirty-eight and thirty to forty-
five respectively. At 12 years of age, however, the boys
lead in the selection of this type of story, the percentages
being twenty-six to twenty. Throughout the whole of
school life, as shown by the above percentages, the appeal
which stories of gross absurdity makes to American
children is quite abnormal.

The popularity of the fairy story with English children
reaches its maximum at about 9 years of age. It is
still very strong at 10; but after that this element is
negligible with the boys; but the girls—always much
keener on fairy stories than the boys—select about ten
per cent of their favourite stories from this source up
to the age of 16. In the early stages fairy and animal
stories are even more popular with American than with
English children. If there is, in the story, in addition to
the fairy element, a humorous situation of gross absurdity
its popularity is assured, and it will probably find a place
in the selected list. The great appeal of the animal stories
to the American child finds expression in the extraordinary,
and well-deserved, popularity of such books as those in the
Dr. Dolittle series.

There is a wide difference between the favourite domestic
story of the American and that of the English child. The
books for American children from 8 to 12 years of age
receive very great attention, so that readers for each year
have not only appropriate material but also the method of
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 185

presentation which is regarded as being most suitable for
the particular age of the boy or girl. This standardization
of picture book might be severely criticized, but it serves
its purpose admirably, and there is no question whatever
that such books make the desired appeal most effectively.
The result is that stories of the domestic order are, with
the American child, largely based upon these books.
Whereas, with the English child they more rarely come
from literary sources, but are mainly descriptions of
comical incidents which have interested the children in
the home. Many also are records of funny stories they
have heard.

It is astonishing to find what a large proportion of funny
stories are the common possession of English and American
children. Up to the age of 12 years the number is some-
where in the neighbourhood of twenty per cent. Above
that age the percentage is not so high; the stories have
now much less in common and have interesting characteris-
tics of their own. The contribution of the narrator, to
which many references have been made, is not so much
in evidence in American as in English stories. The play
element dominates the situation to the end of the school
course. Here are two stories selected by girls of 17 years
of age. One deals with the life of man and the other
with an extravagant story of two travellers.

(a) ‘ The life of man. When he comes into the world
every one wants to kiss him, before he goes out they all
want to kick him. If he dies young there was a great
future before him. If he lives to a ripe old age he is simply
in the way and living to save funeral expenses.’

(6) ‘ Two travellers, for whom there was not room in
the hotel, had beds fixed up for them in a neighbouring
church. The town was alarmed early in the morning by
the church bell ringing. There was great consternation and
a man rushed in from the hotel. “Iced water for pew 25,”
said the man who had rung the bell.’ .
136 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

Books of children’s stories are frequently published in
both countries, regardless of the place of their origin.
Some of these become popular and pass from school to
school ; others make no appeal and are rarely quoted.
As a rule, however, provided that the story does not depend
for its value in causing laughter on local incidents or slang
phrases, great popularity in one country generally finds
a cordial response in the other. Just as revues, farces
and comedies which have had long runs in America
generally do equally well in England and vice versa. In
the case of occasional and sometimes very notable, failures,
the reason may be found in the stressing of some
particular element in humorous appeal which misses the
necessary stimulus in the psychology of a different type
of audience. It is abnormally difficult to form a reliable
estimate of public approval before an actual test. The
same is true of the success of failure of funny stories or
jokes.

It is interesting to find that some professions appear to
provide more material for the basis of children’s stories
than others. There are many dentists’ stories: (a) A
man suggested an improvement on the term dental parlour,
and proposed calling it a drawing-room. An Englishman
who professed to be unable to see the point of this suggestion
was charged with having no sense of humour. (5) Asked
why he had had the fire escape removed from his room, a
dentist replied that he had lost twelve patients in that way.
(¢) A boy went to have a tooth extracted, and the dentist
told him that it would be seventy-five cents if he screamed,
but only fifty cents if he was a good boy. Asked by his
mother if he had screamed, he replied, ‘I couldn’t, you
only gave me half a dollar’.

Similarly, there are many stories about doctors: A man
called up a doctor because he couldn't get off to sleep.
The doctor said, ‘ Hold the wire and I will sing you a
lullaby.” Another man went to see a doctor about the
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 137

state of his health, who found that he was suffering from
a serious loss of memory. ‘And what did the doctor do,’
asked his friend. ‘Oh,’ he replied, ‘ he made me pay his
bill in advance.’ Two stories, frequently quoted in
different countries, are very popular with children. The
first is that of the university professor who was also a
skilled surgeon. One morning, for the information of his
students, he put on the notice board, ‘I have to perform
an operation on the king and will return presently’.
Underneath the notice a student wrote, ‘ God save the
king’. The other is that of a doctor who was attempting
to persuade a student to give up alcohol as it was injuring
his health. ‘On the contrary doctor,” he said, ‘I can
prove that it is making me much stronger, for the last time
I had a cask of beer sent to my room I was so weak that I
could hardly move it, but before it had been there a month
I could carry it round my room three times without any
difficulty.’

It was seen, in dealing with the stories of English
children, that the origin of many of them was concerned
with the doings of clergymen, or with incidents happening
in church. Those of the American children are of a
rather different type as will be seen by the following
examples: (a) A baby was perfectly good during the
christening ceremony. He just smiled all the way through.
The clergyman was so much impressed that he congratu-
lated the parents on the baby’s splendid behaviour.
‘ Thank you, sir,” said the mother. ‘ Jim and I have been
practising on him with a pail of water for the last ten
days.” (b) A priest, having asked a boy the way to the
Post Office, invited him to come and hear him preach on
the following Sunday and he would show him the way to
heaven ‘Go on,’ said the boy, ‘ you don’t even know the
way to the Post Office.” (There are many variants of this
story.) (c) A missionary with a cork leg was captured by
cannibals who decided to kill him. He suggested to the
138 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

king, however, that it might be well to sample him before
he died. He assented to this, and, having tried to masticate
two small pieces from his leg, the missionary was reprieved
by the king and became a power in the land.

The sea, and affairs on board ship, form the background
of many stories: (a) A sailor had been given charge of
two valuable laughing jackasses on a ship coming home from
Australia. He was much distressed one morning to find
that they were both dead, and he broke the sad news to
the captain by saying, ‘ Them birds ain’t got nothing to
laugh about this morning.” (b) A man, having fallen
overboard, the captain shouted to an Irishman to throw
out two lifebuoys, but instead of doing so he threw out
two boys. ‘I meant cork buoys, you idiot,” said the
captain, to which the sailor replied, * How was I to know
whether they came from Cork or Dublin.” (c) A lady lost
her wig as a sailor swam out to save her from drowning,
and she cried out, ‘ Save my hair,’ but the man said, ‘ No,
madam, I am a life-saver not a hair-restorer.” (d) A lady
on board ship asked the captain whether the equator could
be seen. ‘ Yes, madam,’ he said, ‘ you can see it through
my field-glasses,” and, for a joke he pulled a hair from his
head and put it across the glass. The lady was delighted,
and said, ‘ Oh, yes, I can see the equator distinctly, and
there is a camel walking across it.’

Stories of domestic infelicity are very rarely selected by
English children, whereas, with American children there
are many of them. As examples, the following may be
quoted : (a) A wife hearing her husband, in his sleep,
murmuring the word Irene, asked him in the morning for
an explanation. He told her that it was the name of a
horse he had backed at the races. When he returned
home at night she said, ‘ Oh, by the way, that horse you
dreamt about last night has been ringing you up on the
telephone.” (b) A mother said to her little boy, ‘ Come,
Georgie, and kiss your new governess.” The boy refused
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 139

and on being asked the reason, said, ‘ I'm afraid to do so
mother, because when dad kissed her yesterday she slapped
his face.” (c¢) A young man, who had fallen in love with a
nice girl, wrote to his father and asked him whether he
would advise him to propose. In the presence of his
wife the father replied, ‘ By all means, settle matters
immediately ; married life is much better than single
blessedness,” to which he added, ‘ P.S.—Your mother has
just left the room ; don’t be a fool. Stop single.” (4) A
man dreamt that another man was running away with his
wife, and that he had caught him. ‘ Well,’ said his wife,
‘ what did you say to him.” To which he replied, ‘ I asked
him what he was running for.’

Class-room incidents form the basis of far more stories
of American than of English children under 12 years of age,
but with older children the positions are reversed. The
child delights when slips are made by those in authority
as when a teacher said, ‘ Johnny, you must never say
ain’t, there ain’t no such word in the dictionary.” He is
also interested in disputes of teachers with parents: a
teacher wrote to a parent and said ‘ There is an odour
coming from your son and I think a bath would do him
good.” To this the mother replied, ‘ My son is not a rose,
don’t smell him, just teach him.” The child also likes to
argue with the teacher, a story of which the following is
fairly typical: ‘ You're a very naughty boy,” said the
teacher, ‘ and I should like to see your father.” ‘ You can’t
do that,’ replied the boy. ‘He's a doctor and charges five
dollars a visit.” ‘ Then I shall write to him,” she retorted,
but the boy persuaded her not to do this on the ground
that ‘ it would make mother so jealous.’

The home is also interested in class-room experiences :
A mother inquired of her son whether he had obtained
any marks at school that day, to which the boy replied
that he had got several, but they were where they did not
show. Similarly, a father, to stimulate his son to greater
140 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

industry, called his attention to the fact that whereas his
clever sister had obtained many prizes and certificates the
brother had never had a single certificate. ‘ Yes I have,’
he said, ‘ I got one for being born.’

At 10 years of age English children, as we have seen,
become critical and make fun of inspectors and teachers.
Some stories of the American children indicate a similar
attitude to those in authority :

(a) An inspector, in examining a class in history, asked
the children to give him a description of a pilgrim, and
received the answer, ‘ A pilgrim is a man who goes about
from place to place.” ‘Well, then,’ said the inspector, ‘I
also go about from place to place, so I suppose that I am a
pilgrim.” ‘Oh, no, sir,” said the child. ‘A pilgrim is a
good man.’

(6) The boys at a school were given a sum for homework :
‘ How long will it take a man walking at the rate of three
and a half miles per hour to go round a field, of given
dimensions, two and a half times.’ One of the boys
telephoned through to the school on the following morning
asking to be excused attendance as ‘ father is doing the
walking and I am acting as time-keeper.’

(c) In some schools the meaning of certain words is
explained by the teacher and then, in order to see whether
the meaning has been properly grasped, the children have
to construct sentences containing the words. The teacher
had explained that the word excavate meant ‘ to hollow
out’. One of the sentences sent up ran as follows : ‘ John
hit me and I excavated ’. ;

It has been shown that the distinguishing feature, in
comparing English and American humour, as seen by the
selection of funny stories by the children, is the great
prominence given by American children to those based on
exaggeration and gross absurdity. A few examples of
each will be sufficient. In some of the exaggeration
stories there are indications of the Mark Twain influence.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 141

(a) A fisherman, having caught an enormous fish, found
that it was impossible to land it. He therefore tied the
line to a tree on an island and the fish was so powerful
that it pulled the island a mile to the north-east. (3) An
Arizona farmer told an audience that it was so hot in his
country that he had to give ice to his hens with their food
in order to prevent them laying hard-boiled egg. (c) An
English boy told an American boy that in England the
houses were so high that they could hardly see the top of
them. °That’s nothing,” said the other, ‘ in America they
are so high that we have to take them down at night to
let the moon pass by.” (d) Pat said that in the war he
had one arm blown off. Later on he caught two Germans
and knocked their heads together. He was reminded that
he had lost one arm. ‘Yes, he replied, ‘but in my
excitement I forgot all about it.’

The gross absurdity stories fall naturally into those of a
domestic character and those of general interest. In the
first division are the following: (a) Mr. Jones and Miss
Smith were engaged, and each wanted to give the other a
suitable Christmas present. Mr. Jones sold his watch to
buy haircombs and Miss Smith had her hair cut off and
sold it to buy a watch chain. (b) A child asked her mother
how she came to get married, to which she replied, ‘ some
one rang me up on the telephone and asked me to marry
him and I consented ; he had rung up the wrong number.’
(¢) A nervous young man asked a pretty girl if he might
kiss her. ‘First of all,” she said, ‘ I want to know if you
have ever kissed a girl before.” ‘I cannot tell you a lie,
he said, ‘I have.’ ‘All right then by all means,” she
replied, ‘ but I wasn’t going to let you practise on me.’

In the second division may be quoted : (2) A woman,
in lecturing to a small audience said, ‘ Men are so much
more modest than women and they care so much less about
dress. Why the handsomest man in this room has forgotten
to put a tie on.” There were only nine men present and
142 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

they all felt for their ties. (b) A scout-master returned to
the log cabin very late. The door was locked so he got in
through the window and saw a notice up, ‘ Have gone
fishing, key outside under flat stone.” (c) The prisoner
in disgust threw the magazine across the cell. ‘Hard
luck,” he said, ‘I have to be executed on Friday and all
these stories are to be continued in our next.” (d) A new
traveller was told to wire any important news to the firm.
The first day, a message was received from him : ‘ Arrived
safely, good room with bath, feeling fine.” To which the
firm replied, ‘ So glad, love and kisses, good-bye.” (¢) A
soldier was being flogged and laughed continuously. The
harder the flogging the more he laughed. The Sergeant
was puzzled and said, ‘ What are you laughing about ?
‘ You're flogging the wrong man,’ he said. (f) A man who
visited America for the first time, in giving his impressions
to a friend, said that what struck him most was the almost
universal complaint of the shortage of bananas (* Yes! we
have no bananas’).

It is curious that children, in recording stories of absent-
mindedness, very rarely associate this failing with women,
and the man is almost invariably referred to as a professor :
A brigand in attacking an absent-minded professor used the
expression, ‘If you move youre dead.” The professor
objected to this loose form of statement and said, ‘ My
dear sir, you really ought to be more careful about your
English. If I move it shows that I am alive.” Another
absent-minded professor, who had retired to rest, felt rather
nervous because he thought he heard a noise under the
bed. At last he summoned up courage and asked, ‘Is
there anyone there.” ‘No, professor,’ answered the
intruder. ‘ Well, that’s very strange,” he said, ‘I was
almost sure that I heard someone under the bed.’

Similarly, when the story centres around niggardliness,
excessive thrift or hard bargaining the story is generally
attributed to a Scotsman, or, if further particularized, an *
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 143

Aberdonian. This is as common in America as it is in
England : A Scotsman and his wife were anxious to have a
ride in an aeroplane, but could not agree upon terms with
the owner. Finally it was arranged that every time the
Scotsman called out during the trip the charge would be
five dollars. At the conclusion of the ride the Scotsman
said to the owner, ‘I nearly gave way when Maggie fell
out.” A somewhat gruesome story is also told of a Scots-
man who, finding his wife had passed away in her sleep,
ran to the door and called out, ‘ Mary, cook only one egg
for breakfast.’

Far and away the most popular story, and the one most
frequently quoted in the investigation, was that of ‘ Tom
Sawyer painting the fence.” A very large number of boys
and a fair proportion of the girls selected it as the funniest
story they had ever read or heard. It also took a very
high place among the stories recorded by English children.
Other stories are clearly based upon it as, for example :
A lady gave a boy fifty cents to clear away the snow from
her front door. He got his friends to come and play snow-
ball with him and so got rid of the snow. A similar story
is told of a boy who was employed to remove a large heap
of stones. In this case the boy induced his friends to join
in a stone-throwing competition, with the desired result.

Many stories are told of unsuccessful fishermen, who, on
their way home purchased fish at the fishmongers. In
one case the man induced the dealer to throw the purchased
fish to him so that he might truthfully tell his wife that he
had caught them. Most of these stories, however, turn
on the discrepancy between the number referred to by
the fisherman and those charged for in the fishmonger’s
bill.

Girls of 10 and 11 years of age are particularly interested
in the smart sayings of young children, and quote them as
being favourite stories: An old lady said to a little boy,
‘Don’t you think your mother would let you come and
144 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

live with me if I gave her a thousand dollars ? ° He replied
‘No, I don’t think so, because you see there are five of us
and she wouldn't like to break the set.” Another little boy
was asked how old he was. He said, ‘I am four when I
go by train, five when I go to the movies, and six when I
go to school.” And, again, a grandmother found her little
grandson smoking a cigarette and said, * Oh, Johnny, what
would your mother say if she saw you!’ and he replied,
‘ She’d spank me because they are her cigarettes.’

In the range of material which taps springs of laughter
in the American children, it is seen that when the illustra-
tions represent similar groups of humorous situations—
apart from an age basis—there is to be observed a very
considcraple similarity to the stories selected by English
children. The American, biased in favour of exaggeration
and gross absurdity, can, however, be readily noticed not
only in the individual story but in the selection of a far
larger proportion of those stories which rely on these
characteristics for their appeal. In making an age survey
much wider differences make their appearance. This
might reasonably be expected on the ground that there is
in America a far greater mixture of races than there is in
this country. Moreover, of many countries of which a
fair proportion of representatives is to be found in such a
city as New York, scarcely a single child of the particular
nationality may be present in any London school.

The normal order of appeal of a special type of laughter-
provoking situation from age to age, which may be dis-
covered in the population in which foreign elements play
no important part, is in this case lacking. The marked
differences, which have already been seen in the general
statement of the result of the investigation, are, in large
measure, unquestionably due to the racial factor. Another
factor is that children being, in consequence of their
suggestibility, unduly affected in their appreciation of
humorous situations by the attitude of other children
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 145

with whom they are associated in the home or, more
especially, in the school, tend to accept the verdict of the
group as to what is, or is not, an appropriate cause for
laughter. These two factors, however, are further compli-
cated by the foreign child being brought into contact with
a standard of humour in the land of his adoption which
may differ considerably from that of his native country.

It is thus evident that an age survey, while far more
interesting from a psychological point of view, is very
difficult in the presence of so many conflicting elements.
It must be almost as embarrassing to the child to change his
attitude to subjects producing laughter as to that of a new
language. In selecting from the very large number of
stories contributed by the children in the different age-
groups, those will be taken as examples which are fairly
typical of the particular age, largely irrespective of their
value from the humorous standpoint. However careful
one may be in the choice of such examples, it will be
practically impossible to conform to any definite rules for
their selection, but the most obvious course must be to
regard the number of stories of the particular type recorded
by the children as the controlling factor. Here and there
we find a story prevalent among, say, the 14-year-old
children quoted by the 8-year-old child and vice versa.
This is an uncommon experience when the children are
practically all of the same nationality.

Children of 8 and g years of age quote a large number of
fairy, animal, and domestic stories. As in England, the
story of the Three Bears is very popular, as it contains
fairy, animal, and domestic elements and thus makes a
triple appeal to the child. Alice in Wonderland is
frequently referred to. One boy expresses his admiration
for this story, by saying, ‘ I like Alice in Wonderland because
words come in when you don’t expect them. It is very
thoughtfully written.” A girl, in a Christmas story, came
to the conclusion that Santa Claus was very wicked

10
146 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

because he used such bad language when he fell over a chair
in her bedroom on Christmas Eve. At these ages children
are very fond of playing with words. A few examples of
this are the following : (a) ‘ A baby is like a Ford, it has
a new rattle every day.” (b) ‘ A Chinaman is like an author
because his tail comes out of his head.” (c) A child, on
seeing mummies in the museum for the first time said, ‘I
am very glad my mummie isn’t like that.” (d) A tramp
having refused to visit a certain house again, his fellow-
tramp accused him of being afraid of the dog. ‘No,’ he
said, ‘ but my trousers are frayed on account of the dog.’
(¢) ‘ The more you lick a horse the faster it goes. It’s the
same with candy.’

Among the domestic stories recorded at these ages the
following are fairly typical : (4) A man was unconscious
after a serious accident, and the doctor who was called in,
after a hurried examination, told his wife that he was dead.
The man was just recovering consciousness when he heard
the verdict. After the doctor had gone he said to his wife,
‘I'm not dead,’ and she replied, ‘ Oh, John, you must be
mistaken, the doctor knows best.” (4) A boy asked his
father whether he could write with his eyes shut, and he
replied that he could do it quite easily. The boy was
much relieved and asked him to sign his report-card with
his eyes shut. (c) A grandmother explained to her little
grandson that the reason why she wore spectacles was
because it made things look so much bigger. Whereupon
the boy said, ‘ Granny, will you please take off your glasses
before you cut me my piece of cake?’ (4d) A childs
father refused to give him a quarter because he was broke.
The following day the boy said, ‘ Dad, are you fixed yet ?
I want that quarter.” (¢) A father was rebuking his son
for inattention and said, ‘ Everything I say to you goes
in at one ear and comes out at the other.” ‘Is that the
reason why we have two ears, dad ? ’ inquired the boy.
(f) A maidservant, scolded by her mistress for not watering
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 147

the rubber plants, excused herself by saying that she
thought they were waterproof.

Unlike the English, the American children at this stage
tell many stories of class-room incidents, and have evidently
already acquired the critical attitude : (a) A teacher was
lecturing to her children on monkeys, but one boy was
paying no attention and was looking out of the window.
‘ Look at me, Johnny,’ she said, ‘ or you won't know what
a monkey is like.” (bd) A boy, having been given, as home-
work, a long bill of groceries to do, went to a store and
asked the manager how much he would have to pay if he
bought the various items at the prices stated. The store-
keeper worked it out and showed him the bill. The boy,
to his surprise, took the bill, thanked him for his kindness
and left the store. (c¢) They were conjugating the verb ‘ to
scream’ in school, and one boy said, ‘I scream, you
scream, we all scream for ice-cream.” (d) They were
having a history lesson, and the teacher asked a boy what
Sir Walter Raleigh said to Queen Elizabeth when he put
down his cloak for her. His reply was, ‘ Step on it, kid.’

There are many more domestic stories quoted by
American than by English children. One of the most
common is what is known as the ‘gazinta’ story. At
school they had been doing arithmetic, and the form of
instruction had been: 2 goes into 4 twice; 3 goes into
9 three times; 5 goes into 20 four times, and so on. A
boy asked by his mother what subject he liked best at
school, replied, ‘ Gazinta’. It was some time before
she realized that this was the boy’s interpretation of
‘ goes into’. The popularity of this story is not confined
to children in the American schools. The fact that it
appeals to the element of superiority (stupidity of the boy)
and also includes a play upon words is probably the cause.
At these ages more than fifteen per cent of the stories are
common to both countries.

Children of 10 years of age. At this period there are
!

148 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

many changes. There are fewer fairy and domestic
stories. Occasional stories from good literature, such as
those from Alice in Wonderland, are told by children of
g years of age ; but none of these are now recorded. There
are also fewer of the old stories related than at the earlier
stage. Stories of great extravagance are now becoming
common. Those concerned with the play upon words
occur more frequently, and a few conundrums are reported.
The girls’ stories at this age are much better than those
of the boys’, and a few give some slight indication of
subtlety. There is also some increase in the proportion
of class-room stories and the critical attitude is becoming
more firmly established.

Among the stories of great extravagance, selected by
the boys, are to be found : (4) A man bought his wife a
hat, and ran all the way home with it fearing that it would
be out of fashion before he got there. (b) A little girl who
was in the upper berth of a sleeping car kept asking her
mother and father whether they were there—in the lower
berth. An irate passenger shouted, ‘ Yes, we are all here,
go to sleep.” The child, after a pause, said in a low
voice, ‘ Mother, was that God talking ? ° (c¢) The Governor
of the State addressing prisoners at a penitentiary said,
‘ Fellow citizens,” and then seeing his mistake, in his
embarrassment, said, ‘ Halloa, boys, glad to see so many
of you here to-night.” (d) A Scotsman, in telling a story,
said, ‘ In an old castle in Scotland I found some wires laid
which proved that my countrymen, in olden times, knew
all about the telephone.” Whereupon, an Irishman said,
‘I found no wires in an old castle I visited in Ireland,
which proved that the Irish, in olden times, knew all about
wireless.” (¢) Three men were debating about ‘The
Closest Race’. The first said, ‘A yacht was newly
painted and won the race by the thickness of the coat of
paint.” The second said, ‘ There was a horse race, and a
bee stung one of the horses on the nose and he won by
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 149

the swelling.” The third said, ‘I am quite certain that
the closest race is the Scotch.’

The extravagant stories selected by the girls at this age
are of a very different order : (a) A man’s store was raided
by monkeys, who stole a number of hats and wore them.
The man, who was wearing a hat of the same kind, took it
off and threw it into the street. The monkeys imitated
him, and so he regained his lost property. (b) A mouse’s
tail was bitten off by a cat, and he tried to induce the other
mice to have their tails cut off, so that he might not look
peculiar, but they were too wise. (¢) A mother was much
concerned at finding a lot of holes in Tommy’s pants.
The boy’s explanation was that he and his friends had been
playing at ‘groceries’, and that, unfortunately, he had
been cast for the part of ‘ the Swiss cheese’. (d) A boy
was found standing up on his bed, and he gave as the
reason that he had dreamt that his brother was playing
‘ The Star Spangled Banner’.

In the class-room stories, although the number is
increasing, there are few of any special interest. The
earlier development of the critical attitude spreads this
type over a wider range of age, whereas in England it is
concentrated in this special period, and the stories there-
fore reach a much higher level. Those of the American
children are generally associated with the mistakes made in
class: (a) Asked to give the name of an extinct bird, a
small boy replied, * My canary, he was extincted by our cat.’
(b) The subject of education was being discussed in the
home, and a visitor asked one of the boys, * Where do you
stand in school?’ To which came the unexpected
response, ‘Generally in the corner.’ (c) A teacher
impressed upon her children, in a health talk, that when-
ever they sneezed they should clap their hands. Soon
afterwards a boy, who had fallen into a well, was being
hauled up by a rope to which he was clinging. Just as
he was approaching the top he sneezed, with the inevitable
150 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

result. (There are many variants of this story). (d) A
teacher included under common nouns the word pants
(trousers). A boy objected to this, as he thought it was
a very uncommon noun because pants were singular at the
top and plural at the bottom.

Stories based on the play upon words are gradually
improving in quality and are extending their range, though
naturally they are still of a somewhat primitive type : (a) A
boy was seen to be sobbing at a party, when one of the
guests was singing a song called, * My old Kentucky Home.’
‘ Why are you crying, my dear ? ’ inquired an old lady.
‘Are you a Kentuckian?’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I am a
musician.” (b) A girl was thanking her fiancé for some
flowers he had brought, and said, ‘ They are lovely, and so
fresh that there is some dew on them yet.” Yes, but
I will pay it to-morrow,” reported the embarrassed young
man. (c¢) ‘No,’ said the humorist, ‘ Uncle Tom's Cabin
was not written by a female hand but by Mrs. Beecher
Stowe ’ (Beecher’s toe). (d) The advertisement, * Wanted
a single man who can milk and drive a Ford car,’ is fre-
quently referred to by the children. (¢) A man, wanting
to get information about a boy who had narrowly escaped
drowning, asked him, ‘ How did you come to fall in the
river?’ ‘I didn’t,’ he replied. ‘I came to fish and then
I fell in.” (f) Tommy had been playing truant and had
gone fishing. A friend asked him on his return if he had
caught anything, and he said, ‘ No, I haven’t been home

et.’

Chaldren of 11 years of age. One of the most important
differences at this age is the increase of stories of an extra-
vagant nature including some of Irish stupidity. In this
connexion the girls’ are now quite as extravagant as the
boys’ stories. The fact that this age embraces the
beginning of the period of rapid growth is partly respon-
sible for this well-marked change. Another special feature
is a renewed interest in stories of young children, some of
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 151

which indicate remarkable childish precocity. There is
also further evidence in some of the stories of the gradual
appreciation of the element of subtlety.

A few examples are given of extravagant stories recorded
by the boys : (a) Pat, in giving an account of his adventures
in the war, related how a bullet went into his chest and
came out of his back. He was reminded that in this case
it might have gone through his heart and have killed him.
‘Oh, no,” he said, ‘that would have been impossible
because my heart was in my mouth.” (5) A man described
an adventure in which he was terrified because a huge
lizard ran up his arm. ‘ Oh, that is nothing,’ said a friend,
‘ one day a sewing machine ran up the seam of my trousers.’
(¢) A nervous tramp asked a lady, at whose house he was
calling, ‘ Does your dog bite ?° Yes,” she said, ‘ he does ;
but you must not come in because we are very particular
about what he eats.” (d) Two men were telling yarns, and
one said, ‘ Do you know the story of the guide who showed
the people at a museum two skulls of Cleopatra, one as a
girl and the other as a woman ?’ ‘ No,’ said his friend,
‘ tell me all about it.” (¢) An old lady asked the officer in
charge of the line whether it would kill her if she put her
foot on the rail. ‘Yes, madam,” he replied, ‘it would
if you put the other on the overhead trolley wire.’

The following examples of extravagant stories selected
by the girls are somewhat abnormal. It is possible that,
as has been suggested, the girls enter the rapid growth
stage rather earlier than the boys, and this is partially
confirmed by the increased favour shown, at the age of 11,
for this type of story: (a) A sportsman, having run short
of ordinary ammunition shot at a stag, using cherry pips
instead of the usual material. It was only wounded.
Years after he saw the stag again, with two cherry trees
growing out of its head. He killed it and had venison
and cherry sauce for dinner. (5) A man received a warning :
‘ If you don’t give me two thousand dollars I will kidnap
152 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

your wife.” The man replied, ‘I haven't two thousand
dollars, but your proposition interests me greatly.” (c) A
man made a bet that he would make his parrot say ‘ Hello’
as if he were at the telephone. After trying for some time,
the sleepy parrot opened one eye and said, ‘Line's
busy.’

As evidence of the revived interest, at this age, in the
affairs of small children the following examples may be
quoted : (a) A child at the Zoo said, ‘ Oh, mother, isn’t
that gorilla like uncle?’ ‘ Hush, you mustn't say such
things,” said the mother. ‘But, mother, dear,” retorted
the child, ‘ the gorilla cannot understand me.” (b) A boy,
going on an errand, was told by his mother to see if the
butcher had pig’s feet. On his return, he said, ‘ I couldn’t
find out, mother, whether he had or not, because he had
such long trousers on.” (c) A child, on her first visit to the
country, seeing a woman plucking a chicken, asked if it
had to be undressed like that every night. (d) A boy gives
an original account of a domestic incident: ‘Our white
cat made great friends with a rat, but one day she felt very
hungry and ate the rat and that broke up their friendship.’
(e) A little girl was allowed to go to a wedding, and when
she spoke to the bride she asked her whether she felt very
tired. ‘ No,” said the bride, ‘but why do you ask?
“Oh,” replied the child, ‘because I heard mother say
that you had been running after Mr. Smith for some
years.’

Children of 12 years of age. At this age, which is well
within the period of rapid growth, there is a decline in the
sense of humour. The stories are to a large extent of a
comparatively low order, and consist principally of records
of gross absurdity or of exaggeration. The breaking away
from authority and tradition is clearly marked. The
redeeming feature is the selection of many stories about
children, in some of which the child gets the advantage
in verbal encounters with the parent. Irish stories of
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 153

stupidity are exceptionally popular. On the whole the
girls’ stories are of a much better type than those of the
boys.’

It will be seen that in the boys’ extravagant stories
there is considerable variety, which is also characteristic
of the period: (a) A girl, describing her fiancé, said that
he was a bit of a lawyer, and a bit of a musician, and
added that ‘ The lawyers regard him as a musician, and
the musicians are of the opinion that he is a lawyer.’
(b) Mike, walking through a forest, went to catch a parrot
who greeted him with, ‘ Hello, Mike.” ‘I beg yer pardon,’
said Mike, ‘ I thought you was a bird.” (¢) A man went to
a charitable lady and drew a harrowing picture of a poor
family who were in danger of being turned into the streets
unless £10 could be collected for the rent. ‘ Who are
you,” said the lady. The man, brushing away his tears,
replied, ‘ I'm the landlord.” (4) A man called for his boots
which he had left to be repaired by the bootmaker, who
would, however, only give him one boot as he had become
a bankrupt, and was only paying ten shillings in the pound.
(¢) A dog committed suicide by turning round and round
and at last, on catching his tail, he exclaimed, ‘ This is the
end of me.” (f) A woman went into a drug store and said,
‘I want some canine pills.” ‘ What is the matter with the
dog,’ inquired the manager. The woman replied
indignantly, * My husband isn’t a dog.’ Whereupon he
gave her some quinine pills.

The girls’ stories in this category reach a much higher
level than those of the boys’ and are far more interesting :
(2) In a crowded train a man, wanting a seat, sang, ‘ The
Star Spangled Banner’. All the passengers stood up, and
then he was able to secure one. (b) A policeman asked a
girl to marry him. She refused, and then he took her into
custody for ‘resisting a police officer’. (c) A weeping
woman said that the reason why she was overcome by
grief was that she had no money to pay for the christening
154 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

of her baby. A man gave her a five-dollar bill, and told
her to bring him the change (two dollars). The result
was general happiness. The mother was happy because
her baby was christened ; the priest was happy because
he received his fee of three dollars; and the man was
happy because he had got rid of a bad five-dollar note.
(d) A post was advertised at an institution, and a boy
thought it might suit him and so he made inquiries. The
secretary in enumerating the necessary qualifications said,
‘ He must be a gentleman, keep himself clean, brush his
hair every day, be a non-smoker, never swear nor drink,
and Here he was interrupted by the applicant, who
said, ‘ You don’t want a boy, you want a girl for this job.’
(¢) A painter in an asylum kept looking at a plain canvas,
and told an inquiring visitor that it was his great master-
piece of ‘ The passage of the Israelites over the Red Sea.’
The visitor said he could not see the sea, the Israelites
nor the Egyptians. ‘Of course not,” said the painter,
‘ the sea has been driven back, the Israelites have crossed
over, and the Egyptians haven't arrived yet. (f) A
lecturer on Ireland was explaining why green was the
Irish colour. He said that there was once a great plague
of monkeys in Ireland, and a body of men went to drive
them out. In order to tell them apart from the monkeys
each man had to wear a piece of green ribbon ; and after
that green was regarded as the national colour.

The stories about children are becoming increasingly
interesting. It is difficult at first to account for the great
popularity of the following : A mother alligator said to a
baby alligator, ¢ What will you become when you're grown
up,” and the baby alligator replied, ‘ A travelling bag.’
But an animal story, with the added interest given by the
fairy element in the power of speech, together with a
quaint reply to the mother’s question, provides sufficient
lines of appeal to give such a story a certain survival
value. Its popularity, moreover, is not confined to

 
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 155

children of this particular age. The enthusiasm for stories
which survive far beyond the age at which they are first
selected by the children may frequently be traced to the
possession by them of more than one element of appeal.

It has already been pointed out that there is a certain
breaking away from authority at this age, and that the
critical attitude is rampant. In these circumstances
criticism of, and love of argument with, parents or others
in authority would naturally be dear to the child’s heart.
They find expression in such stories as : (a) * Mother, why
do brides always dress in white ? ’ inquired a small boy.
To which the mother replied, ‘ Because white denotes
joy.” ‘Then why do the bridegrooms wear black ? ’ said
the boy. The only retort was, ‘ Go on with your break-
fast.” (b) The train was crowded, and a mother asked her
boy what he would do if he saw a lady standing up. He
said, ‘I should do what father always does, I should
pretend to be asleep.” (c) A mother was talking to her
children about the sin of naughtiness. * If you're naughty,’
she said, ‘ remember, your children will be naughty too.’
‘ Oh, mother,” exclaimed one of the boys, ‘ what a naughty
girl you must have been.’

In other stories about children there is a certain amount
of playful criticism of home affairs such as the desire to
please everybody as in the statement of the child : ‘ When
I grow up I shall be a minister to please mother, and then a
lawyer to please father, and then I shall become a police-
man to please myself.” It is very difficult in some cases
to tell whether children are serious or stupid or simply
making fun of those in authority in the recorded stories.
A mother noticed that her boy was washing himself far
beyond the accustomed time for the operation, and
inquired the reason, to which he replied, ‘ I am washing
myself seven times so that I need not wash again for a
week.” The reason for the selection of such a story as a
favourite was probably because it ministered to the feeling
156 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

of superiority of the selector, who simply regarded it as a |

good story of a stupid boy.

Children of 13 years of age. There is a marked improve-

ment at this age in the type of story selected by the chil-
dren. This is particularly noteworthy in the case of the

stories chosen by the girls, which are generally of a different |
and more refined quality than those of the boys. The
period of rapid growth appears to affect the sense of |

humour of the boys more than it does that of the girls,
who seem to recover from the set-back more readily. The

stories of absent-mindedness are slightly on the increase, |
but they still constitute a very small proportion of the |
whole. Stories of Irish :tupidity are still popular but |

markedly less so than with the twelve year old children.
There are still some excellent stories about young
children.

The kind of extravagance referred to in the boys’ stories |

is rather less associated with gross absurdity than in those

previously quoted as being selected by younger children : |
(a) Some guinea-pigs were sent by rail, and the authorities
had no obvious category in which to place them. They
were clearly not chargeable in such divisions of animals |
as, for example, pigs, mice, canaries, or squirrels. The |
matter was referred to an eminent zoologist, who wrote a |
long memorandum on the subject without coming to a

definite conclusion. In the meantime the guinea pigs
were increasing in number so rapidly that the railway

company let them through free of charge. (6) A man sat

in the electric chair, and the sympathetic governor of the |
prison told him that if he had any last wish it should be
granted to him. Without hesitation, he said, ‘I should

like to give up my seat to a lady.” (c¢) Three men were
singing the praises of the countries which they represented—

England, Scotland, and Ireland. At the end of the

discussion the Englishman said, ‘ If I were not an English-

man I'd like to be a Scotsman.” Whereupon the Scotsman
oN

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 157

said, ‘ If I were not a Scotsman I'd like to be an English-
man.” But the Irishman said, ‘ If I were not an Irishman
I should be ashamed of myself.” (4) A woman in a drapery
store asked a man, by mistake, to show her some silk
things. When he brought them she said, ‘ Oh, I must be
mad, I want muslin.” An attendant overhearing this,
ran out for a policeman, and said, ‘ Come at once. There's
a mad woman in the store who wants muzzling.’

The girls’ stories of extravagance are of a very different
order : (a) A clergyman was delighted at seeing a confirmed
drunkard at the evening service, and told him the next
day how glad he was to have seen him in church. ‘At
church! Oh, that’s where I was last night,” he observed.
(6) A soldier had a bullet-proof shirt made for him. Later
on, his wife found several holes in it and told her husband.
‘ Yes,” he said, ‘I sent it to the laundry.” (¢) A man at
the back of a hall at a lecture kept on shouting out
‘Louder!’ At last a man in the front row stood up and
said, ‘ Can’t you hear what the lecturer is saying ? ° ‘ No,’
said the man. ‘ Well,” he retorted, ‘ we can, and you ought
to be very thankful, sit down.” (d) A careful wife said
to her husband, ‘ John, that suit of yours is very shabby.
It looks as if you had been sleeping in it.” ‘I wore it last
Sunday at church,” he replied.

In the stories about children at this age, there appears
to be a partial reversion to accounts of mistakes made by
them as the basis rather than of verbal encounters between
the child and parent or teacher. Of those selected by the
boys the following are fairly typical: (¢) A boy con-
gratulates his father on having saved five dollars, because
he had promised him that sum if he were promoted to a
higher class at the end of the term, whereas he had been
left behind in the same class. (b) A discussion was taking
place between two boys about the division of an apple,
the older boy having kept the larger part. The younger
said that if he had divided it he would have given the
158 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

other the larger part. ‘ Well, then,” said he, ‘ what is
there to grumble about ? In any case you would have had
the smaller part.” (c) A plumber went to a house and said
to the little boy at the door, ‘ I’ve come to fix that old
tub in the kitchen.” The boy shouted out, ‘ Mother, the
doctor has called to see cook.” (d) The teacher wanted to
help the children to remember to say, ‘ It is 1’, instead
of ‘It is me’. She therefore taught them to say, ‘It is
I, said the spider to the fly.” One of the boys, however,
made the same mistake the following day, and she said,
‘ Tommy, what did I teach you yesterday ?° To which
he replied, ‘ It is me, said the spider to the flea.’

In the girls’ stories about the doings of children there
is considerable variety: (a) Some fathers were talking
about the excellent qualities of their children. After
hearing many opinions expressed, one of them said, * Now
I have a perfect son, he never smokes, doesn’t go to
clubs, and never comes home late.” They all said,
‘ What a splendid fellow!’ Then, one inquired, ‘ How old
is he ? The father replied, ‘ Six months.” (4) A little boy
went to a farmhouse, and was interested to see the eggs
brought in. ‘Do cows lay eggs?’ he asked. His sister,
who was proud of her knowledge of country life, said,
‘ Of course not, you stupid boy, how could a cow get into
the chicken coop.” (c¢) A policeman found a boy crying
on the side-walk, and asked him the reason. ‘ Mother said
I wasn’t to cross the street before all the automobiles have
passed, and none have passed yet,” he said. (4) ‘ Daniel,
what a dirty hand you have,” said the teacher. ‘If you
can find another hand as dirty as that I won’t punish you.’
Daniel produced his other hand from behind, and he was
let off. The number of girls’ stories of stupidity at this
age are considerably in excess of those of the boys.

Children of 14 years of age. Great changes are to be
observed at this age in the nature of the stories selected.
The rapid growth period, with its demoralizing effect upon
"ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 159

the appreciation of humour, has passed Throughout,
there is a very marked improvement, especially in the
boys’ selections. There are still many ext avagant stories
but now these generally possess other elements than
exaggeration or gross absurdity to justify them. The
girls still quote more stupidity stories than the boys.
Stories about children have practically disappeared, and
many of the domestic stories are obtained from good
literature. Absent-mindedness is, still, occasionally the
cause of laughter. Frequently, traces of subtlety have a
beneficent effect upon the stories.

Among the extravagant stories there is a much wider
range and also a greater variety : (2) An Englishman was
enjoying lunch with a Chinaman, and thought he was
eating duck in the stew provided. To mark his enjoyment
he rolled his eyes, stroked his stomach, and said, Quack,
quack.” The Chinaman shook his head and said, ‘ Bow
wow.” (b) A traveller going up hill in a bus could not
understand why the conductor kept opening and shutting
the door. He explained that it was done to encourage
the horses, who thought from the noise that passengers
were getting out of the bus. (c¢) An officer told his men to
fight until all their ammunition was gone and then to run
for their lives. ‘I am rather lame,” he said, ‘so I think
I'll start now.” (d) A tramp gave a charitable lady an
abnormally long list of diseases from which he was suffer-
ing. She suggested that it would be more effective if he
concentrated on one or two.- ‘No, kind lady,” said the
tramp. ° There is nothing so fatal to the full development
of one’s natural powers as narrow specialization.” (¢) In a
cinema production, a nervous man had to go into a lion’s
den. The director said, ‘ Don’t be afraid, that lion was
brought up on milk.” ‘Yes! so was I,” he said, ‘ but I
eat meat now.’

The stories of absent-mindedness are still associated
with professors, such, for example, as: A professor was
160 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

told by a burglar to lie still while he was looking for money.
‘ Looking for money,” said the professor, ‘ do let me come
with you.” Another professor was lecturing to some
friends and said, ‘I will now show you the various parts
of a frog which I have brought with me.” He opened the
packet and found there some sandwiches and cake. ‘ That's
strange,’ he said, ‘ I felt certain that I had eaten my lunch.’

Among the few stories recorded, at this age, about
children are: A gentleman seeing a little boy trying to
ring a bell, rang it for him. Whereupon, the boy said, ‘ I
think we had better run now.” (0) A child was told to
draw a horse and wagon but only drew a horse. Asked
the reason, he said, ‘I thought the horse would draw the
wagon.” (¢) A mother suggested to her little son that he
should give a poor boy his bunny because he had no father.
The boy didn’t like losing his rabbit, and said, ‘ Mother,
wouldn't it do as well if we gave him father ?’

Children of 15 and 16 years of age. The improvement
obse ved at the age of fourteen is continued, and is fairly
equally shared between boys and girls. The tendency
to select stories based on good literature is further developed
and is not, as at the lower ages, so much confined to the
writings of the great triumvirate of humorists—the Mark
Twain school. Reference has already been made to the
revival of an interest in playing with words at this stage,
and this is common to the stories about adults and also
those intimately concerned with the doings of children.
The pun has never become popular in America, but
occasionally in this revival it may be the turning point
of the story. Stories of absurdity, especially at the
age of fifteen represent a much smaller proportion and, as
a rule, they are not entirely dependent upon the element
of extravagance lor their selection. Here and there, we
still find stories based on absent-mindedness.

As examples of absurdity stories we may mention the
following : (a) A motorist ran over a dog in the road and
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 161

gave the owner, who was carrying a gun, five dollars as
compensation. ‘I fear I have interfered with your day’s
sport,” said the motorist. ‘Sport,’ exclaimed the man,
‘I was only taking the dog out to that wood to shoot it.’
(This is a member of a large family of stories of this type.)
(6) A country cousin went to the theatre for the first time,
and saw the play of ‘ Hamlet’. ‘It is a very good play,’
he observed, ‘ but it is a pity that it contains so many
familiar quotations.” (c) A girl, getting tired of waiting so
long for the wedding day, suggested to her fiancé that
they should elope, and get married at once. Just as they
were preparing to leave the house, he whispered, ‘ What
is that noise, dear?’ ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘it is only father
bringing down my trunk.” (4) An absent-minded man
saw his own notice on the door, ‘ I shall be back at 3 o’clock.’
He sat down and waited, as he had returned earlier than
he had anticipated. (¢) A boy was about to make a
remark at dinner, when his stern father said, ‘ You mustn’t
talk at meals, my boy. No! not a word.” Afterwards
he said, ‘ Now, then, what was it you wanted to say?’
‘It doesn’t matter now, father,” he said. ‘There was a
green worm on your salad but you have eaten it.” (f) A
town child, not wishing to be thought ignorant of country
life, on seeing honey on the table, said, ‘Ah! I see you
keep a bee.” (g) A child, seeing the picture of a man with
a halo, said, ‘ Look how that man is carrying his spare
tyre’

There is considerable diversity in the stories of this
period of those dealing with play upon words: A small
girl, seeing her mother waving her hair, stroked her father’s
bald head, and said, ‘ No waves for you, daddy—all beach.’
(b) A royal baby had a severe stomach-ache, so that the
Court decided to send for the Minister of the Interior.
(c) A strap-hanger in a bus lost his grip, and was hurled
into a lady’s lap. She was indignant, and said, ‘ I thought
you were a gentleman.” ‘ Well,’ he said, ‘I thought that

II
162 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

I was an Irishman, but it now appears that I am a Lap-
lander.’

In the record of selected stories it has been possible,
by a liberal supply of illustrations, to show the main
points of similarity and difference, age by age, of the
appreciation of material which is productive of laughter
in English and American children. The influence of what
we have termed the Mark Twain school of humour can
be clearly demonstrated. The undoubted superiority of
the American children in the domestic stories, of which no
statistical evidence is possible, is undoubtedly due, as
we have seen, to the successful efforts which have been
made to provide suitable, interesting, and humorous
children’s books, graded for particular age groups. The
numerous stories which are based upon such books provides
sufficient evidence that they are fully appreciated by the
children.

The descriptions of comical sights which have been seen
was the subject of a separate investigation. Ample
references have been made to such descriptions in dealing
with the sense of humour of English children. For
purposes of comparison it will be sufficient to give a few
examples of accounts of funny sights recorded by American
children at different ages. Some of these descriptions
are verbatim reports, others are somewhat reduced in
length by the omission of irrelevant material.

(a) A boy, 12 years of age. ‘1 was in a restaurant the
other day where the waiters were mostly darkies. Every-
thing was going on peacefully. One of the patrons asked
one of the darkies to bring him a platter of turkey with
plenty of gravy. The waiter said he would if he would
wait a moment. Presently the darky was seen emerging
from the kitchen with a delicious platter of roast turkey,
with lots of gravy, cranberry sauce and dressings. He
was about a yard away from the table of the man who had
ordered the turkey, when suddenly he tripped and fell.
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 163

When he had fallen, by some trick or other the plate
managed to be under him and the turkey was in his hand.
When the guests had stopped laughing, he said sadly,
‘ Lord 0’ Massy fo’ drefful things am happened.” ‘ What,’
I inquired. He answered, ‘ The downfall of Turkey, the
spilling of Greece, the breaking of China, and the misery
of Africa.’

(6) 4 girl, 12 years of age. ‘One day I was walking
with my friend on Fifth Avenue, when I saw such a sight
that made my eyes water from laughing. We saw two
men walking side by side, one was about six feet tall and
the other one was about three feet. There was a crowd
going after them, so we heard that the tall man was the
son of the short man. They were having a quarrel. The
son lifted up the father and talked to him, when the
father struck him in the face. That is the funniest thing
I ever witnessed.’

(c) A boy, 13 years of age. ‘One day while I was riding
in the subway I saw a most singular sight. There was one
man who seemed to be very affectionate to a lady who
must have been his wife. When they came in he had his
arm around her and when they sat down his arm was
around her. When the train reached his station, he got,
up, but she was up ahead of him. He put his arm around”
her, or rather the lady whom he thought her. Imagine
his embarrassment when he saw that he had put his arm
around an old negress.’

(d) A girl, 13 years of age. ‘On “ Safety Day” my
mother and I went to see the parade which was held on
Fifth Avenue. One of the funniest things which 1 ever
saw was the old-fashioned way of travelling. This amused
me, and also interested me very much. To think how the
world has changed from 1769 to 1925. The different type
of automobiles, wagons, cars, locomotives, coaches, and
bicycles. Everybody was very happy. The people, who

~ were sitting in the coaches, were all dressed up just like

12
164 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

in the olden times. How I wish I could see this parade
over again. I am very sorry for the girls and boys who
have not seen this parade, for it was interesting and would
teach us many things in history, and also very amusing.’

(e) A boy, 14 years of age. ‘ A few weeks ago I saw some-
thing funny. It may not strike you as humorous but it
certainly did so to me. A small dog was walking along
the avenue. It was not the kind of dog that you or I
might consider well cared for. He had a very long snout
and was as dirty as he could be, but nevertheless he had
an intelligent look. Just then, a large car came out of the
maze on the street and pulled up with a quick stop near
this dog. The coloured chauffeur jumped out and opened
the door of the limousine. The dog was taking all these
actions in, with a cocked head, and was slowly walking
toward the car, when a well-dressed man with a high hat
stepped out. The man turned his back to the dog without
noticing him and started to give directions to his chauffeur.
The dog came up and sniffed the man’s shoes and cane.
The man suddenly became frantic, and jumped away
when he saw the dog at his heels. In the excitement his
high hat fell off. At that the dog stopped, and started
playing and ripping the hat to pieces. The man jumped
back into his car, and was off. But the dog was still
playing with the hat.’

(f) A girl, 14 years of age. ‘Once, while I was coming
home, a woman came out of a shoe store. Her old shoes
she was carrying in her arm, and her new shoes she was
wearing. As she was walking out of the shoe-store her
heel caught in the car-track. This was her first pair of
shoes with high heels, so she did not want them to be run
over by a car. She tried every way to take out the shoe
but she did not succeed. A car was coming along, and
she did not know what to do. Then she suddenly remem-
bered that she had a red petticoat on. She took off her
petticoat and held it up for danger. The people laughed,
ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HUMOUR 165

and the conductor stopped the car and helped her get her
shoe out.’

(g) A boy, 15 years of age. ‘A Chinaman came to this
country about a year ago and settled down to live in
Chinatown. He was a jolly fellow and made friends
easily. He loved best to walk through the city streets and
see the sights. One day, during his rambling, he managed
to save a man from being run over. He had been approach-
ing Fourteenth Street when he saw a man dart in front
of a passing vehicle in his effort to cross the street. He
immediately dashed forward and snatched the man from
certain death. At first the man was highly indignant at
this outrageous treatment, but he became profusely
thankful when he learnt the truth from onlookers. There
developed a warm friendship between the white and the
yellow man. When the white man’s birthday came, the
Chinaman presented him with a miniature coffin. In
China this is the highest honour that can be paid to
anyone. At this, the white man’s face became a study.
Doubt, bewilderment, suspicion, and anger struggled for
supremacy. When he could control his voice he asked
the Chinaman for an explanation. The Chinaman, who
had been surprised by his friend’s actions, explained that
according to Chinese customs, this was the highest honour
that could be paid to anyone.’ :

(h) A girl, 15 years of age. ‘One day, while walking
with a couple of girl friends, we stopped at a place where
many people had gathered. Thinking something very
serious had happened, we also stopped to see what was
going on. There we saw a little boy sobbing bitterly,
while he was being questioned by the policeman. ‘ What
is the matter, little boy ? ’ asked the policeman ; but he
would only cry, and scratch his back. Then the policeman
repeated what he had said, and finally the child said, ‘I
was walking down here with my tame bird on my shoulder,
and now he has flown away.” The policeman laughed, and
166 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

put his hand down the boy’s back, and out came the little
bird. The little boy turned towards the policeman, and
said, ‘ Never in my four years did I dream of being a cage.’
I think this little youngster was quite clever, for he made
every one around him burst into laughter.’

The greatest difference to be observed in comparing
such records of English with those of American children
is that, in the former the narrator seems to play a far more
important part in making a readable and interesting
account of a relatively simple humorous situation.
CHAPTER XII
THE LAUGHTER OF COLOURED CHILDREN

r ! \HE laughter of the coloured child is a matter of
pure enjoyment, and retains all the characters of
the hearty uncontrolled laughter of the white child

in the infants’ department of the school. The spirit of

the child, uninfluenced by the disciplinary effect which
results in a somewhat modified form of laughter making
its appearance as a white child develops, is unduly pro-
longed in the act of laughing of the coloured child. It is,
in fact, in this as in other respects, the retention of the
undiluted spirit of the child in full vigour which marks off
quite clearly the great difference in the emotional attitude
of the two types of children. The comic sight at which
the nine year old white child would smile is greeted with
hearty laughter by the coloured child of the same age.

It would appear that the coloured child smiles less and

laughs much more than the white child.

In young children of both types there is a distinct ten-
dency to join in the laughter of a group before the cause of
merriment has been grasped. This reaction to an environ-
ment of hearty laughter is, however, controlled much
earlier in the white than in the coloured child. The
response of laughter to a humorous situation is much more
easily aroused in the latter than in the former variety
throughout the whole range of school life. This retention
of the unchanged spirit of the child to a much later age
is the main cause of the wide divergence of the apprecia-
tion of mirth-provoking situations between white and
coloured children, as is evidenced by the selection by them

of funny stories and jokes, and their descriptions of comical

167
168 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

sights. Stories and, to a less degree, funny sights which
have lost their power of appeal to white children, will still
cause laughter in the case of coloured children of the same
age.

Up to the age of twelve years, more than half of the
stories of coloured children are selected from those which
have their basis in fairy or animal stories, especially if
the latter happen to possess a fairy element. The childish
outlook thus remains very much longer with coloured
than with white children. In mass experiments it is
easily possible to discover the kinds of stories which are
most popular with the boy or girl of a particular age. Using
this as a basis of comparison, it is found that the stories
which are selected by coloured children of 12 years of
- age are of a similar nature to those selected by the white
children at the age of nine. This difference of three years
is maintained up to the age of 15 years. If the selection
of a favourite story is regarded as a rough indication of the
sense of humour reached at a particular stage, the conclusion
must naturally be that the sense of humour of the coloured
child is three years behind that of the white child. This,
however, can only be regarded as an approximate general-
ization, as there are other factors which would require
investigation before any definite statement could be made.

It has been seen that the sense of humour—certainly
up to the age of 16 years—of the white girl is as keen;
if not keener, than that of the white boy of the same age.
With regard to coloured children, however, the boy is
considerably ahead of the girl. The play upon words as a
source of laughter is retained among coloured children
even longer than among American children with whom,
as we have noted, it is continued to a later stage than with
English children. About twenty per cent of the stories
of coloured children are associated with the play upon
words. Here and there, also, we find riddles of a some-
what primitive order. The element of subtlety is very
 

THE LAUGHTER OF COLOURED CHILDREN 169

rarely found in the stories selected by coloured children.
From 12 to 15 years of age they are very keen on Irish
stupidity stories. In the stories selected we find that in
those of the more extravagant type only comparatively
few are influenced, to any considerable extent, by the
Mark Twain school.

Many of the stories referred to by coloured children are
associated with pulpit utterances and other church matters.
The favourite story is that of the minister who had been
asked by his flock to tell them the meaning of the word
‘ phenomenon ’, which he so frequently used in his sermons.
He dealt with it in the following way : ‘ If you see a cow
eating grass in a field that is not a phenomenon, and if
you hear a bird singing like a canary, up in a tree, that,
also, is not a phenomenon ; but if, my friends, you saw
a cow sitting up in a tree and singing like a canary, that
would be a phenomenon.” The popularity of this story is
widespread, and it is frequently quoted.

Among other stories dealing with church matters may
be mentioned: (4) A minister was somewhat surprised
that a certain member of his congregation had been elected
a deacon of his church, and he asked him how it came
about. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘there’s a lot of disreputable
people here and I have been elected to represent them.’
(6) A coloured Baptist preacher was exhorting people to
come and have their sins washed away, when a member
of his flock said he had had his washed away at the
Methodist church. Whereupon, the Pastor said, No, my
brother, you ain’t been washed, you've only been dry-
cleaned.” (c) A man was brought before the judge on a
charge of making whisky, and said, in reply to a question,
that his name was Joshua. The judge said, ‘ Are you the
Joshua that made the sun stop.” ‘No,’ he replied, ‘I
am the man what made de moonshine.” (4) A Minister,
remonstrating with a member of his congregation, said,
« Surely you're not going to marry again now that the
170 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

Lord has taken your fourth husband.” ‘Sure,’ said the
negress, ‘ as long as de Lord takes them, so will I.’

A new type of story is frequently quoted by coloured
children, which deals with the black man’s weakness for
stealing chickens. Among those selected are: (2) A man
was charged with stealing chickens but the evidence was
not conclusive, so the judge said, * Sambo, you are acquitted
on the charge of stealing chickens for lack of evidence.’
The man did not understand this, and said, ‘ Does that
mean, boss, that I shall have to return the chickens?’
‘No,’ said the judge, ‘guilty; ten days.’ (b) In con-
nexion with a charge of chicken-stealing a prisoner declared
that the chickens had jumped right into his arms, and he
hoped that he might be struck dead in five minutes if
what he said was not true. The judge said, ‘ If you are
not, you will go to prison for fifteen days.” (c¢) A doctor
ordered a sick man to have some chicken soup, and always
to go to bed early. ‘ How can I get the soup unless my
evenings are free to go out and get the chickens?’ he
replied. (4d) A boy was reproved by a judge for again
stealing chickens. Turning to the father, he said, ‘ Why
don’t you teach your son something?’ ‘I do,’ replied
the father, ‘ but he always gets caught.’

As examples of the more extravagant stories chosen by
the coloured children are the following: (2) ‘ A bee was
on a horse’s tail, and said he couldn’t kill him, and the
horse backed on to a tree and bruised himself so badly
that he had to go home on crutches, and the bee flew up
into a tree and laughed so much that his sides busted.’
(b) Sambo was in love with a negress, but could not sum-
mon up sufficient courage to ask her to be his wife, so his
master advised him to ring her up on the telephone. He
didn’t mention his name but told her all about his worldly
possessions, and ended up by saying, ‘ Will you marry
me, Miss Lucy?’ ‘Sure I will,’ she replied; ‘what
nigger’s this?’ (c) A General asked a coloured man
 

 

THE LAUGHTER OF COLOURED CHILDREN 171

who wanted to join the army, which he would prefer, the
cavalry or the infantry. ‘Infantry,’ he said, ‘ because
if there’s any running to be done I don’t want to be
bothered with no horse.” (d) A child was baptised Nosmo
King Smith, because his mother had been attracted by
the names Nosmo and King on the doors of an institution.
Afterwards, when the doors were closed, she found that
the words simply meant ‘No smoking’. (¢) An old
woman was having her pictures cleaned and told the men
to be very careful. They suggested that with a little
whisky they could be made to look fine. She, therefore,
fetched some whisky which they drank when she was not
looking and cleaned the pictures with water. She was
pleased with the result, and said to the men, ‘I never
thought I should have used that whisky again after I had
washed my poor dog, Fido, in it when he died.’

The relations of the white masters with their coloured
servants are frequently the subject of selected stories ;
(a) A great advocate of no slavery entertained a negress at
dinner and made a fuss of her. He said, ‘ I guess, Amanda,
that your old master never treated you like this.” ‘ Oh no,
sir,” she replied, ‘ my master never had me at his table ; he
was a gentleman, sir.” (5) A man was telling his coloured
servant about his wonderful dog, Rover, who, being
locked in the house, got out of a window and followed him
for a distance of eight miles, entirely by scent. ‘Oh,
massa,” said the boy, ‘I thinks you needed a bath.’
(c) Sambo’s master was very ill, and there was to be a
consultation among the doctors after the examination.
Anxious to hear what the doctors thought of his case,
the master told his servant to hide in the room and let
him know what they said. His report was, ‘ They said
your heart was fine, and your lungs were fine, and they
didn’t know what was the matter with you, but they
would find it out all right at the post-mortem.” (d) At
the conclusion of a trial a negro was found guilty of a
172 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

serious offence, and the judge informed the prisoner that
on the following Monday he would be shot at sunrise.
‘That will be impossible, judge,” he replied. ‘I never
get up so early as that.” (¢) A negro asked his employer
to let him have a holiday to attend his uncle’s funeral
on a certain day in the following month. ‘It is strange,’
he replied, ‘that your uncle should have fixed the date
of his own death.” ‘He didn’t, boss, it was the judge,’
was the retort. (There are many variants of this
story.)

There are continual references to the play upon words in
the stories of the coloured children : (2) In announcing the
appointment of a coloured boy to the State Legislature, it
was stated, ¢ This is not the first dark page in the history of
the legislature.” (b) A traveller asked a black conductor
whether he liked his quarters, and he replied, ‘ Yas, I likes
de quarters heah berry much when I gets ‘’em.” (c) A boy
on entering a hospital was asked if he had pyjamas. ‘No,’
said the boy, ‘it’s mumps.’ (d) A negro insisted on
speaking of fleas as mathematical fleas. Asked the reason
he said, ‘ They subtract from your happiness; divide your
attention; add to your misery and multiply rapidly.’
(¢) A father asked his son why he called his sister May’s
young man ‘April showers.” ‘Because he always brings
May flowers,” was the answer. (f) An Irishman with his
mother, wandering in a city, saw many restaurants, and
said, There are plenty of places to rest your aunt here, but
there are none to rest your mother.’

Among the younger coloured children the most popular
stories are those recording stupid answers to a simple
question, such as: (a) ‘If a dog stood on a doorstep and
howled would that be a sign of death?’ ‘Yes,’ was the
answer, ‘ if he stayed there long enough.” (0) An Irishman
was asked why he always called his pig Ink. To which he
replied, ‘ Because he’s always running out of his pen.’
(c) An old fat woman asked a policeman if he could see her
 

: THE LAUGHTER OF COLOURED CHILDREN 173

across the street. ‘Madam,’ he said, ‘I could see you a
mile away.” (4d) A man who said he had never had an
accident was asked, ‘ What is the matter with your hand ? ’
‘ Snake-bite,” he replied. ‘Well, surely that was an
accident,” suggested the questioner. ‘No,’ he said, ‘the
darned snake did it on purpose.” (¢) A boy was asked in
school to give an example of a collective noun. And he
replied, ‘A vacuum cleaner.” (f) A coloured boy saved
another, with whom he was fishing, from drowning, and
was asked why he risked his life for his friend. ‘I was
bound to,” he said, ‘ he had all the bait in his pocket.’

A sufficient number of illustrations has been given to
indicate the type of story which coloured children appreciate
during the period of, approximately, 9 to 15 years of age.
It will be noticed that, apart from certain types of humorous
situations with which we find no corresponding material in
the stories of white children, the general impression is that
the attitude shown by these coloured children may be
compared roughly with that of English and American
children of the age range of 6 to 12 years. It should be
remembered, however, that the stories are chiefly from
children educated in New York schools, and that records
obtained from districts in which the population contains a
much larger proportion of coloured children would probably
give very different results. It has already been pointed
out that it would, however, be dangerous to conclude, from
the information available, that there is a difference of three
years between the sense of humour of white and coloured
children.

Some carefully selected records descriptive of funny
sights, almost entirely from boys, will show, perhaps most
clearly, the attitude of the children towards comical
situations. A few of them have been somewhat reduced
in length, but the actual description recorded, apart from
changes in the spelling of certain words, is in the child’s own
language. The age is given in each case.
174 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

(a) (12 years of age).

‘ Once when I was in swimming I got tired and went on
a raft. While we were talking on some interesting subject
we heard a cry of “sharks”. The cry came from one of
the fellows in the water, and all eyes were searching the
water for a fin of a shark, but all they could find was a mass
of jelly. And when we found out that it was a harmless
jelly fish that stung him we laughed until we thought we
would bust.’

(0) (x2 years of age).

‘ The funniest sight I saw was as follows : it was snowing
and a man was walking down the street and coming towards
him were some boys on sleds. All of a sudden they came
right up on him and as he went to jump out of the way of
one of them he would jump into another one’s way. He
managed to escape all until the last boy came full speed
right towards him. The man’s arm was full of packages
and as the sled struck him, the packages flew up in the
air. In one hand he had a dozen eggs and as he fell
down he fell right on the top of them. He was a sight for
sore eyes when he arose from the ground.’

(¢) (x3 years of age).

‘I was on a train one day and next to me were a little
boy and his father. The little boy was playing with his
hat and his father thought that he might let go and let
it fall. The father wanted to teach the little boy a lesson,
so he put his hand out of another window and took the
little boy’s hat. The boy was surprised and told his father
that he had dropped his hat. The father said, ‘ Don’t
worry about that. I will whistle and it will fly in again.’
The father (who had the hat at the back of him) whistled,
and threw it in at the window and the son was glad. But
the son liked to see him whistle and make the hat come
back, so the little boy threw it out (without the father
knowing it) and the little boy said to his father, ‘ Papa,
whistle.” The man was very sorry that he ever started this.’
 

 

THE LAUGHTER OF COLOURED CHILDREN 175

(@) (x3 years of age).

‘ A man who had been a cripple for over fourteen years
was taking the fresh air in his wheel chair on the avenue,
when a huge truck ran into a coal truck loaded with coal.
The other truck containing three wild bulls was broken on
the side and the bulls made their way out to the street.
The people who had gathered around looking at the accident
started to throw up their hands and run, asking God to
save them. The cripple, hearing the screams, turned his
wheel chair around to see what was happening, when
suddenly he saw two of the wild cattle coming straight
towards him. This made him scared and excited ; he
pulled the blanket off of his legs, jumped out of the wheel
chair and up the street he flew, outrunning everybody
although he was a cripple before the accident. When
everything was over and he was calmed down he came
back to his wheel chair. After this he tried to walk
several times but failed to do so.’

(e) (x4 years of age).

‘ The funniest sight that I ever saw was when a foreigner,
who had just come from the other side, bought an auto-
mobile. Thinking that the sidewalks were for automobile
purposes, he rode up on the sidewalk. He was surprised
when he saw all the people looking at him. Ah,” said
he to himself, ““ these people think that I am a Count or a
noble from the other side. Ah, the American people are
very much refined.” Soon a blue-coated man came along
and said, “ Here is a ticket to dine with the judge.”
Thinking that the judge was some great personage of the
city, he courteously said, “ Tell your master that I am very
much honoured.” Then he stood up in his car and said:
“ The American people are very kind and generous of
heart.” ’

(F) (x4 years of age).

- ‘Last summer, while on my uncle’s farm, the roof
sprang a leak. Uncle said he would go out and fix it as
176 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

soon as it had stopped raining. When the rain had

stopped he took a long ladder, the only one he had, and
his tools, and went on the roof to fix the leak. Unfortu-
nately my little half-brother was playing under the ladder
and pushed it. It fell and was instantly broken to pieces,
locking my uncle on the roof. The worst part was that
it started raining again and I had to take a horse and go
eight miles before I could get a ladder to help him
down.’

(8) (x4 years of age).

‘ As I was walking through the streets one day, I saw
a man carrying a package and on the package it said,
“Dry goods”. As he was about to enter a house he
slipped, the package falling to the ground. When he saw
the people laughing at him he turned to pick up the package
and there was the Dry Goods flowing all over the street.
It sure was Canada Dry Goods.’

(h) (x5 years of age).

‘It was a nice summer day in August, a warm sunny
day and I was sitting by my window eating ice cream so
as to keep cool, as I had just come from playing a tiresome
game and I was reposing. Later on that same day about
one o’clock it started to rain, but it was the funniest sight
I have ever seen. It was raining on one side of the street
and the other was just as dry as a piece of wood in the
sun. I was greatly surprised to see this, but later I was
told by a man of experience the reason for it.’

(¢) (x5 years of age).

‘ There was a girl whose name was Alice. Her mother
had died when she was only three years old and she was
living with her aunt, who took care of her from the time
her mother died to the present day. One day while her
aunt was going to the library it was raining slightly and
she caught a cold which made her sick. So the doctor
ordered her not to eat anything hard but just to eat eggs,
drink milk, etc. It was a Saturday and her aunt said to
RAR eae,

 

  

DREN

THE LAUGHTER OF COLOURED CHILDREN 177

/ her, ““ Alice, please boil me a soft egg as the doctor said.”
Alice got to work and began boiling an egg, but it took so

long before her aunt got it, that her aunt said to her,
‘“ Alice, isn't the egg ready yet?” and Alice replied,
“ No, aunt, I have been boiling the egg for the last ten
minutes and it is still hard.” ’

It is interesting to observe that these fairly typical
descriptions of comical sights, in response to the request,
‘Give an account of the funniest sight you have ever
seen,” deal mainly with the misfortunes of others or with
stupidity as the basis of the humorous situation. Such
stories generally make their special appeal to white children
at a much earlier stage of their development.

The period of rapid growth has far less influence upon
the sense of humour of coloured than upon that of white
children. The main reason being that the childish outlook
is practically maintained right up to the beginning of this
stage. Any effect associated with it is, therefore, simply
added on to the natural joyousness and exuberance which
are typical of very young children. There is no such stable
condition, established as the result of authority, in the
case of the coloured child, the temporary breakdown of
which in the case of the white child produces, as we have
frequently seen, such remarkable changes in the mental
attitude. Here and there, however, in the essays of
coloured children there does appear to be an increased
extravagance of language from 12 to 14 years of age, but
it is only occasional and not the general rule as in the case
of white children.

Two very good examples of this are the following from
the descriptions of funny sights. In the first, it is an
account of a noisy street hawker: ‘ He was making the
pedestrians aware of his wares by his loud-pitched voice
that held in it an Italian accent.” The second is part of
an account of a boy’s early attempt at sleigh riding:
‘ The moment the sleigh reached a piece of rough ground,
178 THE SPRINGS OF LAUGHTER

the sleigh stuck in it, and the law of inertia had a tendency
to make the body of the youth continue in motion. The
surprised lad at once went down the hill until stopped by
some external force.’
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

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FORM NO. DD 14 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
5M 9-08 Berkeley, California 94720-6000

 
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