Nagligivagit*
Do animals laugh? That’s one of the questions that bobbed up in my head as I swam to consciousness this morning. Always with the questions. I forget most of them before I can get to Google. Scraps of paper fancified with questions litter the house. I mean to look up the answers. By the time I’ve repositioned them from bookmark to kitchen counter to cantaloupe rind to upstairs to Google, they are the consistency of felt and usually unreadable.
It is questions that fill my head all day. Not plans for the future, not grocery lists, not wisdom, but questions. I drive myself mad with them. But the answers, if I research them, are a great source of interest—entertainment, even—to me.
So back to laughing animals. I schlep downstairs, make the coffee while listening to the news (which fills me with more questions, usually horrifying), and then sit myself down before the Almighty Google. I love you, Google! Years back, I used to have to get myself to a library, look things up in books, often not find the answer, bother the reference librarian who came to hate me, and in that manner I’d spend hours of my life. Then there would be, by the end of the week, the forgetting of those answers. Life is hard.
Good morning, Google! Do animals have a sense of humor? Do animals laugh? (Beside the kookaburra.) AI thinks. AI says: Yes. Several of the superfamily Hominoidea–of which we humans, gorillas and chimpanzees belong—laugh. Dolphins laugh. Dogs laugh. Rats laugh. Laughter as communication is found in over 60 species! Their laugh does not sound like ours, or each other’s, but they laugh, they fool around, they tickle each other, they play pranks. They have fun! They have a sense of humor!
Google, stay with me. Now I have another question: What IS a sense of humor? Because everyone thinks they have one, but we know that’s not true. Years ago, before dating apps, you could find in the daily newspapers columns titled “Men Seeking Women,” and “Women Seeking Men.” They were columns of little ads—each ad consisting of about one or two lines describing what the seeker was seeking (“physically fit,” “hot,” “no fatties,” “spiritually inclined,” “hot,” “college degree not necessary,” “hot ,” and then there’d be about five one-inch lines self-describing the person doing the seeking. 99% of the self-descriptions read “…I’ve got a good sense of humor.” (Along with, “I am thoughtful, caring, and very creative.” Everyone also thinks he is creative. To consider yourself creative, all you have to have done is to have arranged those stick-on stars and moons all over your lampshades.)

Photo Credit: Jamez Picard on Unsplash
So. Hopeful, you would write to the P.O. Box number, self-describing yourself and giving over your phone number. If you’re appealing enough to one or two seekers, you might get a call, be invited out for a slice of pizza, and find out if the pizza-provider has a sense of humor. Believe me, Reader, (for I was one of those sorrowful seekers), by the time you knew where Pizza Man was born, whether he’d been married (or still is?), and what his allergies were, you would know whether he had a sense of humor. And you would know whether his sense of humor was the same species as yours. Because, listen up, people! There are senses of humor. Not just one. The man, the Seeker across from you in the pizza parlor putting 7o cents down for the tip, hasn’t laughed all evening. Not a smile or a wink. Is he on Thorazine? You tell him your funniest story about your cat, Lillybeet, toppling into the toilet. No smile. He asks if Lillybeet is your aunt. You say, no, no, remember? I said she was my cat? He thinks. He says, “I’m allergic to cats.” At the bitter end, in the parking lot, he tells you he probably won’t see you again, “Because,” he says judiciously, “We don’t have too much in common.” “Yes, of course,” I say. “You are correct. I have more in common with a bonobo.” He asks what a bonobo is.
O.K. So here’s the scoop. There are, Google enlightens us, many kinds of humor. A few kinds are: slapstick, dry humor, dark humor, parody, wordplay, and many others. So, in order to induce laughter in you, the kind of humor has to align with your own personality’s sense of humor. What is more, your personal sense of humor is innate. Holy cow! It’s in your DNA!
So…are we nothing but a jug of genes? Do people who laugh at slapstick have pink cone-shaped brains, whereas those who laugh at dark humor have a brain like a soft black radish? Ah, more questions. But I’m going to stop here. I’m tired. I’m hungry. Nothing’s funny anymore. Because the Big Beautiful Bill belongs on a pelican.
*Note: To express the statement, “You make me laugh,” the Inuit people use the phrase “Nagligivagit,” which also, in Inuit, means “I love you.”
Laughter is love. Love is laughter.
I don’t question that.
Thanks for clarifying it all.