Christopher Duffy

And also, just aside from the whole science part of it, this is why I love laughter.

I mean, it's so...

fun to be locked in a moment with your friend where you are laughing so hard that you're crying, you're holding your sides.

It just is like that creates these memories with a friend, with a romantic partner, with a family member that you then think about and talk about for years and become this core of your identity.

I also think that at a time when we have a real deficit of attention, right?

There's so many screens and distractions in every part of our life.

It's very common to be in a conversation with someone who is only kind of half there or a quarter there.

And what I love about laughter is you are in the moment when you are laughing.

You are not half laughing and kind of half out when you're really, really laughing.

You are fully in it with the other person.

And that's such a beautiful and precious thing these days, I think.

What makes something funny?

Well, I will say that it is really subjective, but I think there's kind of two theories that make sense to me about what makes something funny.

One is called the benign violation theory.

So that is you're doing something that's kind of not allowed, but

it's not hurtful or harmful.

It's not like a benign violation.

A classic example of that is a tickle.

If you tickle a kid, your kid, you're kind of attacking them, but it's not hurting them.

If you grab them really hard, that's not benign.