Reflection on natural selection

[Tobiasly]

Originally posted by hot_pastrami
On the same line of thought, not too long ago I was wondering why laughter exists as it does. All groups of people, regardless of their history and culture, tend to experience involuntary spasms of the diaphragm when something ironic, witty, or absurd is presented to them, sometimes to the point of temporarily incapacitating them. What possible advantage did this tendency give over others in a gene pool? Personally, when I really get going, I'm useless for the next 5-10 minutes as I struggle to regain composure

Well, we've all heard "laughter is the best medicine", and I've also heard that there's a decent amount of truth about that.. i.e. laughing releases endorphins and shit that make you feel better. (OK, maybe it's not the "best medicine", i.e. you should probably actually see a doctor about that fractured bone sticking out of your shin instead of laughing about it.)

Also, laughter incapacitating you probably has had little to do with natural selection, because situations in which you're in a side-splitting laughter fit probably aren't the same ones in which being incapacitated might tend to get you killed.