Chapter 1Introduction
Figure 1.1 Children begin to laugh before they can speak
Courtesy Everett Collection.
Laughter is fundamental to human existence. Babies begin to laugh before they can talk, so it’s safe to assume humans would make each other laugh before we had formal language as well. I imagine that back in prehistoric times, a caveman dropped a rock on his foot and hopped around in pain, and another caveman laughed at him. Later on in the evening, gathered around the fire, the caveman who laughed re-enacted the scene for the others who weren’t there, and people laughed with him. Each time it was re-enacted it probably got amplified, ...
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