What happens to men and women?

Question

"a typical child will laugh out loud 300 times in one day. a typical adult does well to laugh 30 times a day"... and yeah, someone actually researched this. can't find the link... if you can back this statement up, thanks ahead. otherwise, what are your thoughts? why are we so removed from the humor happening around us?

Answer 1

we work, we worry, we have stress.  

for kids, its what will i play today.

Answer 2

We learn to suppress laughter at inappropriate times. If a co-worker trips and sends his lunchtime bowl of cottage cheese onto the face of the office backstabber, your first response might be to laugh out loud, but you suppress it in the interest of office harmony.

Answer 3

The idea of being "Grown up".  Like there are set rules in that or something.  In reality, I know I still laugh more than some children laugh and when I laugh, they will laugh too. :P.  I have the in toxicating laughter lol.

Answer 4

Unlike most, I don't find this to be a commentary on the senses of humour, but rather, on the ability to find joy in their lives.  Its still all around us, but the day to day grind gets far more of our attention than the little things that make us smile or giggle.  

The people who are 'story tellers' in my life seem to have retained this quality...they are accutely aware of things around them, and are able to find a story or humour in most things.  Its something I aspire to be in my life, as I feel they seem to have a happier life than most...

Answer 5

That is hardly a commentary on an adults sense of humour, so much as it is on a childs. They will laugh hysterically for hours without end over something as simple as playing "Peek a Boo"...

Answer 6

Children have more free time to enjoy themselves and laugh. Adults have to work for a living and it just isn't as funny as it was in grade school where you could get away with laughing until pop came out your nose. Try doing that at the office and see where you get! LOL

That said, as an at-home mama with two little kids I have ample opportunity to laugh. My kids say and do the silliest things and they regularly have hubs and I in stitches.

Answer 7

We lose our wonder...we know what everything is so it's no longer a mystery and amazing.  most of all imagination...if you dont think of the scientific explanation your mind creates one

my five year old laughs at everything...the rain, the clouds, the moon, the bugs, the dog, ME!, the silly flowers, slugs are cute, and girl snakes need flowers.

Her purple dragon lives in here closet to protect her from monsters, and tells her jokes and tickles her.

please if an adult had an imagination like that they would be sent to the loony bin in a new coat!

Answer 8

I think people take themselves and this world of ours too seriously.

Answer 9

i know its freudian but arent orgasms and the humor response supposed to be related?

I know as you age, your libido goes up and up, but then it peaks, and it gets less, and less (aw) ...and am saying the intensity and frequency of laughing about things lessens away with it - as if its all part of the same energy which is waning.

Answer 10

Unlike the typical adult, a typical child doesn't have a stick lodged up his/her @ss.

We take ourselves to seriously.

I guess were big babies too, we let things like responsibilities ruin our fun. Complain about all the things we have to do instead of just taking care of it and moving on.

Answer 11

Its called AGING.

The typical child also has more energy and less responsibility than the typical adult. The typical child has had less life experience and less hardship. The typical child does not have any grasp on reality.

Hope that helps.

Answer 12

An adult has to do a lot of things that s/he hates to do, that children would hate to do. Pay bills, work for jerks, fight automobile traffic, worry about illness, worry about the welfare of those children, obey cops and the law, pay taxes, etc. Even the wealthy have to spend time being concerned about keeping their money.

   Children also SCREAM. ;-) and cry. and have mommies and daddies to cuddle up to. If adults cuddle, it's usually to take care of our prurience. The s*x drive kills our childhood joys and innocence. Chemically and hormonally.

Answer 13

Kids laugh hysterically when they just run around, they don't need anything funny to laugh at in order to laugh.  When was the last time any of us did that?  (Not chemically induced, lol)

What happens? Life.  Life isn't always a joy.  Bills and other responsibilities aren't fun.  That's just the way it is.

Answer 14

We're not removed. We're just not as easily amused as children are.

Answer 15

this is not true for me I find humor in everything I decided when I was a teen to never let myself get to serious as an adult I have a full time job, and life no kids.

I enjoy my life as much as possible because I am not promised tomorrow so I still watch cartoons and remember my past mishaps and laugh. I surround my self with people who are funny and can laugh at themselves. Sometimes I'll just break out in laughter for no apparent reason. Some people think I'm crazy and that I need to grow up but those people are the most unhappy miserable sh*ts.

I try not to care what people think and laugh whenever possible it keeps me young and happy. So take a moment and laugh it up people. HAHAHA ;-)

Answer 16

Children are experiencing new things all the time, adults are usually stuck in a routine, same sh*t different day!

*Tracey it would take a miracle for me to suppress it if what you said happened.

Answer 17

Most children are very fresh and innocent. Most have yet to witness and experience the true difficulties of life. They are in awe by the things around them. Even the tiniest things like pebbles and butterflies. They can imagine the most fantastical worlds and they fully believe they live in a castle surrounded by dragons and knights and flying monsters. They don't wake up and turn on the news to find out millions of people died in a earthquake or children were shot and killed by a classmate during recess or any of the other numerous things that get us adults so down and out. They are vibrant. They see the world through rose colored lenses. You can upset a child and in an instant they have recovered and moved on the the next thing that please them. We unfortunately don't recover from pain as fast.

We'd do well to take a page out of the book of kids. Yes there is pain,death, ignorance and torment in the world but there is also life, beauty, and happiness to experience in the world. As adults we sometimes have a harder time recognizing it.

Answer 18

We are all morbidly serious

Answer 19

I laugh quite a lot but I'm usually never serious with the people I hang out with.

Answer 20

Adults don't laugh at things as easily as children do, because things become less funny as we age.  I saw a video on the internet of a baby laughing uproariously every time his father tore a piece of newspaper....tearing newspaper isn't funny to adults, but it's funny to a child because they are so new to the world and have yet to experience so many things that have become commonplace for adults.  

Adults are also more tactful.  A child will laugh if someone trips and falls.  An adult might want to laugh, but instead they will check and see if the person is okay.  

Additionally, we also have more stress and worries in our lives.  Children are basically care-free.  All they have to worry about is experiencing the world.  Adults have to worry about finding a way to make it in the world and provide for their families.

Answer 21

Mike T and Tracey said it well. There are more things that easily amuse us as a child, than when we grow up.

For example, a child has little or no problems laughing at someone tripping on their shoelaces, while a mature adult is conditioned to not burst out.

Answer 22

What Rio said.

Answer 23

It seems like sometimes adults just forget to appreciate what they have and dont live for the moment... cliche I know but true enough

Kids never really have anything to worry about, their parents provide everything they need so they can play and be happy little ones. But when we grow up we find that there is a lot to worry about and we focus more on the hardships and the troubles of day to day things.

It's all about responsibility really. The less you have the more you can enjoy life. Of course, this thought process isnt always correct. Like if you have a girl/boyfriend, you would (should) enjoy the commitment and responsibilities of having a lover with you.

That's what I think at least.

Answer 24

things are funnier the first time around. as we get older, we've already laughed at so many things they don't amuse us any more.

Answer 25

The hard knocks of life make it so we don't laugh like children. That's why I tell little ones to enjoy their childhood, not to say adulthood isn't a blast though...

Answer 26

people don't think about the funny things anymore because of the way we live. have more to think and worry about. a child doesn't have to worry about anything

here is a Link i found that backs you up

http://www.aath.org/articles/art_martin....

cheers

Answer 27

Society tries to beat it out of you.  It starts with a school system that discourages you from expressing your emotions, past the point of reservation and to the point that you learn simply to bury and suppress them.  It continues as you get older, and after awhile, laughing and playing all become the provinces of childish behavior, when IMHO it's all integral to being a healthy person.

I laugh at things wherever I can.  I do things for no reason other than to enjoy them.  This unwillingness to appreciate all that makes life worth appreciating is something that I have strode to keep out of my life wherever possible.

One of my friends gave me a hard time when I got my car, a Honda S2000 (google image search it, you'll see why).  She, a lawyer, argued that it was impractical and "childish."  I told her she was welcome to think that and we went out for a drive with the top down... took it to the coast and cruised, playing music and attacking the corners, and she started laughing and having a good time.  You don't get that in a Camry or a Tahoe :)

EDIT: see, truechristian?  That's exactly what I'm talking about.  The reason that you don't laugh as much is because you've learned that you can't.  Why can't you?  Because you work in an office?  Well, I have an office job and everyone thinks of me as a cohesive, lighthearted fellow whom they come to quite often with their problems.  I've met a lot of people who would like to do what I've done... get that convertible... have a pet parrot... draw pictures of everything... laugh at everything... and there's no reason that I, or you, or anyone else can't do that.  Isn't that what god would want you to do with your life?  To love it and cherish it and make the most of it?  (note: I didn't thumbs down you, just sayin' here)

Answer 28

I think some of it is because children are made to lught easily as they aren't as intellignet in their thinking yet. They may laugh at a simple thing like a very lame joke or someone blowing a raspberry. But also people as they grow up tend to be consumed with every day lives.

Answer 29

I think, as we grow older, we feel the necessity of keeping our behavior appropriate for the situation.  For example, we try very hard not to laugh during serious meetings, or at funerals.  At the same time, things that make a kid laugh just aren't funny to an adult.  I knew a kid in first grade who had a stuffed frog named Pig Fat.  It made me almost pee my pants laughing, when he said it then, but just brings a little smile today.