Laughter, Comedy and the Pandemic

Are jokes appropriate in a cruel pandemic?

The trauma of the pandemic

The viral pandemic caused by Covid-19, has landed a huge body blow to the people of every country in the world. It can arguably b claimed to be the most lethal blow to the United Kingdom since the horror that was World War II.

In that war we lost approximately 450 000 soldiers and civilians with many others wounded. We have lost a third of that amount to Covid. Between September 1940 and May 1941, 40 000 civilians were killed, almost half of them in London. Between Sept 2020 and May 2021, more than 80 000 people died of Covid.

It is clear that this virus has inflicted considerable trauma on the people of the United Kingdom. Many people have lost loved ones and we all know of someone who died of Covid. Exacerbating the situation was the fact that most of us were neither able to visit dying relatives nor attend their funerals. Not only were we subject to crippling grief, but we were also denied the normal ways of processing that grief with loving relatives and friends, making it even more painful than losing them in a war where at least we were able to be comforted in our pain.

Is this an appropriate time for laughter and comedy?

Leaving the comparison between WW2 and the war against Covid and eschewing the temptation to linger on a comparison between the damage caused to Britons by lethal germs and German bombs, is there a place for laughter and comedy at such a time?  When the legendary Jerry Seinfeld was asked this question soon after 9/11, his answer was unequivocal: ‘There is always a place for comedy!’ Of course this does not mean that all comedy in all situations is appropriate; it clearly is not.  It does mean that most people understand the difference between comedy aimed at cheering us up and comedy such as heartless banter that is callous and cruel. The difference is in the intention of the comedian or person telling a joke or clowning around.  Indeed there are many medical clowns who visit children’s hospital wards including cancer wards where the patients can be critically ill. Children instinctively understand the difference between someone laughing with them and someone laughing at them.

There is a crucial difference between sarcasm and irony. Sarcasm inverts language with the aim of inflicting pain while irony says one thing on the surface but has a more profound meaning for those who can see the speaker’s real intention. In Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony at Caesar’s funeral refers to Brutus, one of Caesar’s assassins, as an ‘honourable man’. Some mourners who take the ‘compliment’ at face value, but Antony’s real target audience who will get the irony in his speech and take appropriate action.

Sarcasm has no place in the use of comedy and laughter in medicine, but irony when used appropriately and with the tacit permission of the patient or suffering person, can be powerful and healing. But how can this help us deal with the trauma of the pandemic?

Laughter and our physical health

That laughter is good for our physical health is beyond doubt.  Many years ago I composed the acrostic SMILEE as an aide memoire to remember the physiological benefits of laughter. All of these benefits have scientifically proven in the work of Professor Bill Fry of Stanford University in several decades of his professional life devoted to ‘gelotology’ his word for the study of the health benefits of laughter

STRESS hormones: Epinephrine, norepinephrine, and

cortisol are reduced.

MUSCULAR relaxation: Muscles take two hours to return to previous state

of tension after a big belly laugh.

IMMUNITY: Increased antibodies in blood after laughter improves

resistance to colds and other infections.

LUNGS are helped by laughter expelling stale air, allowing more fresh air

to enter.

EXERCISE: One hundred belly laughs a day give you as much beneficial

exercise as ten minutes of rowing—and without the agonized expression

that rowers, stationary cyclists, and joggers customarily have on their

faces.

ENDORPHINS and ENCEPHALONS: Natural high–making chemicals of

the body are increased by laughter.

Since then laughter has also been shown to improve cardiovascular health, raise our chances of longevity and improve the chances of a couple staying together.

Laughter is obviously good for our psychological health too. Who has ever said: “I hate being convulsed with spasms of joy, laughing and breathing deeply!” It’s a simple fact that most people look happier when they are laughing.

The pandemic is no laughing matter but it is still possible to be ironic about it and some jokes about it are very funny indeed. The Corona Stakes horse races on YouTube are funny because they make fun of the all the new words and clichés that the pandemic has generated. There is no disrespect to victims of the illness but fun is poked at all of us as we learn and repeat new words and phrases.

Watch this space.

Next article: The Use of Humor in Psychotherapy