Therapeutic Use of Humor Isn’t a Laughing Matter

When a storm sent a tree crashing onto a motorists’ car in Minneapolis a few years back, the owner grabbed a pen and scribbled a few words on a piece of cardboard.

Standing next to his car, he cheered passing motors with his sign reading: “Compact Car.”

Now that’s the way to deal with a disaster, says humorist-educator Joel Goodman, who tells the story often.

Goodman should know. He makes a living out of telling people humor is no laughing matter--that you’ll live longer if you loosen up, laugh and enjoy life.

“People who laugh . . . last,” quips the pint-sized, 38-year-old Goodman.

Goodman, who speaks with a lot of one-liners, is director of the Humor Project at Saratoga, a nonprofit resource and training center in Saratoga Springs. He says his mission is to get people to use humor as a tool for handling stress and as a way to get along better with others.

So far, he has written seven books on humor and has spoken to more than 80,000 people in the last 10 years throughout the United States, Canada and Europe in lectures and workshops.

In Daily Routine

He has helped businesses and hospitals integrate humor into their daily routine. He has also received a grant from a Florida hospital corporation to study the medical implications and applications of humor.

Goodman, who has a doctorate in education, also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on health education at Russell Sage College in Troy.

Goodman says humor is important not only because of its health value, but because of its benefits in the workplace. He believes humor on the job boosts enthusiasm and psychic energy, which he says are steppingstones to greater creativity, alertness and camaraderie.

“Many people who are fired from their jobs get the boot not because they lack technical skills, but because they are unable to get along with others,” he says.

Goodman, an irrepressible lover of puns, started his work in humor education about 10 years ago with the opening of the Humor Institute.

He said he first became interested in humor when he was in Houston, where his father underwent cardiovascular surgery in the early 1970s. He said the driver of the shuttle bus from the hotel to the medical center joked with passengers, helping the relatives of critically ill patients cope with their anxieties and fears.

“I got to thinking about how humor can help people in many walks of life by ridding them of anxiety or helping them see the funny side of some real-life situations,” he said during an interview in his office, a clutter of cartoons, posters, gags and joke books in a red-brick church he converted to office space.

Goodman also speaks to professionals from corporations such as IBM and Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., medical groups and educators about how humor can improve productivity, improve teaching efforts and help patients get well.

He said when he first thought of trying to integrate humor into the workplace, he didn’t think the corporate market would be interested in such a project.

He was wrong. Since directing his energies to comic relief, he has developed programs for major corporations that look at how managers and executives can use humor to build morale.

He has also helped a number of hospitals set up humor rooms for patients, equipped with games, records, books and movies. The Humor Project has received a grant from the Humana Hospital Corp. in Orlando, Fla., to focus on the medical implications and applications of humor.

Staff Seminars

Sunnyview Rehabilitation Center in Schenectady recently hired Goodman to conduct a staff seminar.

“The first thing we did was to put up a humor bulletin board in the cafeteria,” says Anita Friar, director of social work at Sunnyview. “We asked people to contribute their favorite one-liners or cartoons.”

Friar says the hospital also has collections of humorous readings and audio and visual tapes that the staff distributes to patients.

“I don’t know if you can document it scientifically,” she says, “but sometimes focusing on a disability decreases a patient’s energy. Humor increases the positive energy, and when they use that energy they get better.”

Scientific research supports the theory that laughter is important for good health. Laughter releases endorphins, which are natural painkillers. A good, hearty laugh exercises internal organs like the diaphragm, thorax, abdomen, heart and lungs, providing a mini-workout.

Goodman believes that if people would only laugh 15 times a day, there would be fewer doctor bills.

“Future doctors, instead of saying: ‘Take two aspirin and call me in the morning,’ will say: ‘Watch a Lily Tomlin special and call me in the morning.’ ”

Humor can go a long way in romantic relationships as well. Studies show that a sense of humor usually rates No. 1 or No. 2 of qualities men and women look for in a romantic partner, Goodman says.

Goodman also puts out a magazine, “Laughing Matters,” which takes a light and serious look at the power of humor in everyday life.

Goodman’s lecture topics include such things as “Filler Phrases for Thesis Writers” and “Career Opportunities in Iran.”

Goodman says many adults aren’t comfortable with humor.

“Humor involves letting go,” he says. “That’s why adults shy away from it, because they think it means they’re out of control.

“Actually that’s true, because when people laugh they lose control--of their muscles.

“But humor is power. You can’t often control situations around you, but you can control your internal responses to them with humor. That’s power.”