Exercising Our Creative Faculties Through Jokes

Chapter 6 excerpt from The Power of Thinking Differently by Javy W. Galindo

In a related vein, cultivating a sense of humor exercises our ability to think differently. By this, I do not mean having the ability to laugh. Spontaneous laughter can be produced manually by electrically stimulating sites in the frontal lobe region know as the supplementary motor area (SMA) and by stimulating sites in the anterior cingulate cortex. Through stimulation of these areas signals may be sent to the brain stem and generate the motor patterns for laughter.16

However, having a sense of humor means more than simply having the ability to laugh. Though many parts of the brain are involved in processing a joke, research has shown that it is the ability of the right hemisphere for new thought, new interpretations, and non-literal thinking that gives the punch line its proper meaning.

As I mentioned previously, patients with damage to their right hemisphere, specifically the right frontal lobe, have shown an inability to reinterpret narratives. Since their left hemisphere is intact, they are able follow along with the joke and show a sense of surprise at hearing the punch line. Unfortunately, they are unable to find the punch line humorous. With damage to their right hemisphere they are unable to find an alternative meaning that sheds new light on the story being told.17 The patients are able to comprehend the text, but are unable to find the correct context for the story to be funny. It is not surprising then that patients with right frontal lobe damage rarely laugh spontaneously and rarely laugh and smile when hearing a joke.18

It appears that the right hemisphere can carry multiple meanings while the left is firmly rooted on the one that best fits the neural pattern immediately invoked through the initial pattern recognition. In his book The Right Mind, Ornstein provides the following example.

A woman went to a butcher to buy a rabbit for a stew but the hares hanging at the butcher’s are quite large. So, she says to the butcher, “I’d like to make some rabbit stew but these things are too big. Could you cut one in two for me?”19

When given the punch line, “Sorry ma’am, we don’t split hares here,” patients with right side damage would have difficulty finding an alternative meaning for “split hares” that makes the story humorous. Additionally, after being given the alternative meaning, when asked to provide a new interpretation, they return to their original understanding of the narrative.

Because of this, cultivating a sense of humor may exercise our creative thinking faculties. Cultivating a sense of humor is cultivating the ability to find multiple meanings and multiple perspectives. When we find something to be funny, we are simply re-interpreting information in a context different than the dominant one.

It also bears repeating that to be able to laugh at one’s self, or at our predicaments, is then the ability to let go of more permanent notions of self identity and personal conditions in order to discover different ones, usually in a deeper, wider, and less personal context. This can open the door to new possibilities, new solutions, and alternative directions in which to take our lives.