Jeanne Dwyer, age 12, of Rochester, New York, for her question:
Why does tickling make us laugh?
A gentle tickle in the fibs provokes the human body to respond with a wriggly giggle. Even a baby responds to a tender toe tickling with chuckles and chortles and cuddlable contortions. This mechanical type of laughter is not well understood, but it certainly seems related to the many other types of mirthful merriment that tend to spice up our lives.
The body's nervous system is an astoundingly complex organization. Compared with it, a man made super computer is a mere ticker toy, and it is easy to forgive our scientists for being unable to explain this biological super system down to the last detail. They can explain what happens when someone gives you an unexpected gentle tickle in the ribs. But at present they cannot explain why the playful poke starts off a helpless seizure of giggles.
The nervous system is a complex network of nerve threads that flash information. The flashes are triggered by prodding stimuli, such as hot pokers and onion smells, indigestible dinners and ice cold showers. The swift reactions to most of these prods are sensible and dependable. But the flash response from a gentle tap on the dangling knee or a tender tickle of the toe seem to serve no useful purpose. Nevertheless, the body keeps them in working operation along with its army of more sensible fast reactions to sudden stimuli.
A tickle in the ribs starts a nervous response in the diaphragm in the midriff. The flustered diaphragm flutters up and down and its agitated acrobatics shake up the lungs that rest upon it. The jerking lungs gasp for quick breaths of air, and the whole body goes into a writhing spasm of laughter. The vocal cords in the windpipe give forth a breathless series of merry chuckles and chortles. Even the face gets into the act. This is what a tickle triggers the nervous system to do. But we cannot say why this mechanical stimulus provokes the body to laugh rather than something else, such as standing on its head.
Non mechanical laughter is triggered by things we see and hear. This takes us into the immense topic of human that is related to the higher systems of emotion and intellect. The humor that tickles a person's fancy may be the unexpected, such as a parrot flying out of a lunch box, or a switcheroo such as a bird with binoculars, or a misfit such as a scarecrow driving a limousine. The ten foot trout belongs with truth stretching or hyperbole humor. Blunders and boo boos, mistakes and mimics trigger laughter, so do funny puns and witty word plays, cavorting clowns and dozens of other out of the ordinary situations. When something tickles the fancy, the body reacts just as it does to a mechanical toe tickle.
Bubbling joy tends to be forgotten by most people who try to analyze human humor. Sometimes a person laughs or wants to laugh for no other reason than inner happiness. This deep, secret feeling of joyful well being wells up from the emotional nature and occurs in people who face the trials of life with a general attitude of cheerful courage. If laughter is a tonic, this joyous type is mankind's best medicine and best of all, it happens to be slightly infectious.