Why we laugh | Sophie Scott

Translator: Aviaja Josenius Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

Hi. I'm going to talk to you today about laughter,

Hej. Jeg vil tale i dag med jer om latter,

and I just want to start by thinking about the first time

og jeg vil starte med at tænke på den første gang

I can ever remember noticing laughter.

jeg husker at bemærke latter.

This is when I was a little girl. I would've been about six.

Det var da jeg var en lille pige, omkring seks år gammel.

And I came across my parents doing something unusual,

Og jeg så mine forældre gøre noget usædvanligt,

where they were laughing.

hvor de grinte.

They were laughing very, very hard.

De grinte rigtig, rigtig meget.

They were lying on the floor laughing.

De lå på gulvet og grinte.

They were screaming with laughter.

De skreg af grin.

I did not know what they were laughing at, but I wanted in.

Jeg vidste ikke, hvad de grinte af, men jeg ville også være med.

I wanted to be part of that,

Jeg ville være en del af det,

and I kind of sat around at the edge going, "Hoo hoo!" (Laughter)

og jeg sad ved siden af dem og ligesom sagde "Huu huu!" (Latter)

Now, incidentally, what they were laughing at

Tilfældigvis var det, de grinte ad

was a song which people used to sing,

en sang, som folk plejede at synge,

which was based around signs in toilets on trains

som handlede om skilte i toiletter på tog

telling you what you could and could not do

som viste hvad du må og ikke må gøre

in toilets on trains.

i toiletter på tog.

And the thing you have to remember about the English is, of course,

Og hvad du må huske om os englændere, er selvfølgelig,

we do have an immensely sophisticated sense of humor.

at vi har en særdeles sofistikeret sans for humor.

(Latter)

(Laughter)

At the time, though, I didn't understand anything of that.

Dengang forstod jeg dog ikke noget af alt det.

I just cared about the laughter,

Jeg forstod kun latteren,

and actually, as a neuroscientist, I've come to care about it again.

og som neurolog er jeg begyndt at interessere mig for den igen.

And it is a really weird thing to do.

Og det er en meget sær ting at gøre.

What I'm going to do now is just play some examples

Nu vil jeg vise nogle eksempler

of real human beings laughing,

af rigtige mennesker, der ler,

and I want you think about the sound people make and how odd that can be,

og jeg vil at I skal tænke over lyden og hvor sær den kan være,

and in fact how primitive laughter is as a sound.

og hvor primitiv lyden af latter egentlig er.

It's much more like an animal call than it is like speech.

Det er meget mere et dyrekald end den ligner tale.

So here we've got some laughter for you. The first one is pretty joyful.

Så her er lidt latter til jer. Den første er ret munter.

(Audio: Laughing)

(Lyd: Latter)

Now this next guy, I need him to breathe.

Den næste mand, synes jeg, trænger til at trække vejret.

There's a point in there where I'm just, like,

Der er et tidspunkt hvor jeg tænker

you've got to get some air in there, mate,

du har brug for noget luft der, min ven,

because he just sounds like he's breathing out.

for han lyder som om at han kun ånder ud.

(Audio: Laughing)

(Lyd: Latter)

This hasn't been edited; this is him.

Det er ikke blevet redigeret; det er ham.

(Lyd: Latter) (Latter)

(Audio: Laughing) (Laughter)

And finally we have -- this is a human female laughing.

Og endelig har vi -- det her en kvinde, der ler.

And laughter can take us to some pretty odd places in terms of making noises.

Og latter kan tage os til nogen mærkelige steder, når det kommer til at lave lyde.

(Audio: Laughing)

(Lyd: Latter)

She actually says, "Oh my God, what is that?" in French.

Hun siger egentlig, "Åh du godeste, hvad er det?" på fransk.

We're all kind of with her. I have no idea.

Vi tænker det samme som hende. Jeg aner det ikke.

Now, to understand laughter, you have to look at a part of the body

For at forstå latter, må vi se på en del af kroppen

that psychologists and neuroscientists don't normally spend much time looking at,

som psykologer og neurologer normalt ikke bruger så megen tid på,

som er brystkassen,

which is the ribcage,

og den virker ikke så spændende,

and it doesn't seem terribly exciting,

men faktisk bruger du brystkassen hele tiden.

but actually you're all using your ribcage all the time.

Det, som I alle gør i øjeblikket med jeres brystkasse,

What you're all doing at the moment with your ribcage,

som I altid gør, er at trække vejret.

and don't stop doing it, is breathing.

I bruger musklerne i interkostalrummet, musklerne mellem ribbenene,

So you use the intercostal muscles, the muscles between your ribs,

at trække luft ind og ud af lungerne

to bring air in and out of your lungs

kun ved at udvide og sammentrække brystkassen,

just by expanding and contracting your ribcage,

og hvis jeg satte et bånd omkring jeres bryst,

and if I was to put a strap around the outside of your chest

kaldet et åndedrætsbælte, og ser på den bevægelse,

called a breath belt, and just look at that movement,

you see a rather gentle sinusoidal movement, so that's breathing.

kan man se en lille bevægelse i sinus, som er åndedrættet.

I gør det alle. Ikke stoppe.

You're all doing it. Don't stop.

Når I starter at tale,

As soon as you start talking,

bruger I åndedrættet helt anderledes.

you start using your breathing completely differently.

So what I'm doing now is you see something much more like this.

Hvad jeg gør nu er, som I ser, noget meget mere som dette.

In talking, you use very fine movements of the ribcage

Talende gør vi meget små bevægelser med brystkassen

for at presse luften ud --

to squeeze the air out --

and in fact, we're the only animals that can do this.

og faktisk er vi de eneste dyr er i stand til det.

Derfor kan vi tale.

It's why we can talk at all.

Now, both talking and breathing has a mortal enemy,

Både at tale og at ånde har en ærkefjende,

and that enemy is laughter,

og den fjende er latter,

because what happens when you laugh

for hvad der sker når vi ler

is those same muscles start to contract very regularly,

er at de samme muskler trækker sig meget jævnligt sammen,

and you get this very marked sort of zig-zagging,

og der dannes et meget stærkt zig-zag mønster,

and that's just squeezing the air out of you.

som presser luften ud af dig.

It literally is that basic a way of making a sound.

Det er måden vi laver lyde på.

You could be stamping on somebody, it's having the same effect.

Hvis man stamper på folk får man den samme effekt.

You're just squeezing air out,

Vi presser kun luft ud,

and each of those contractions -- Ha! -- gives you a sound.

og hver sammentrækning -- Ha! -- laver en lyd.

Som sammentrækningerne sker oftere, får man disse spasmer,

And as the contractions run together, you can get these spasms,

og der sker disse -- (Hvæser) -- ting.

and that's when you start getting these -- (Wheezing) -- things happening.

Jeg er rigtig god til det her. (Latter)

I'm brilliant at this. (Laughter)

Now, in terms of the science of laughter, there isn't very much,

Videnskabeligt set er der ikke meget om latter,

but it does turn out that pretty much everything we think we know

men det viser sig at stort set alt, som vi tror vi ved

about laughter is wrong.

om latter er ukorrekt.

So it's not at all unusual, for example, to hear people to say

Det er slet ikke usædvanligt, f.eks., at høre folk sige

humans are the only animals that laugh.

mennesker er de eneste dyr, der ler.

Nietzsche troede at mennesker er de eneste dyr, der ler.

Nietzsche thought that humans are the only animals that laugh.

Faktisk kan du finde latter hos alle pattedyr.

In fact, you find laughter throughout the mammals.

Den er blevet observeret og dokumenteret hos primater,

It's been well-described and well-observed in primates,

but you also see it in rats,

men rotter ler også,

and wherever you find it --

og allevegne --

humans, primates, rats --

mennesker, primater, rotter --

you find it associated with things like tickling.

er den forbundet med at kilde, f.eks.

That's the same for humans.

Det er det samme hos mennesker.

You find it associated with play, and all mammals play.

Den er forbundet med leg, og alle pattedyr leger.

And wherever you find it, it's associated with interactions.

Allevegne man finder latter, er den forbundet med interaktioner.

So Robert Provine, who has done a lot of work on this,

Robert Provine, som har arbejdet meget med dette,

has pointed out that you are 30 times more likely to laugh

har påpeget at du er 30 gange mere tilbøjelig til at le

if you are with somebody else than if you're on your own,

hvis du er sammen med nogen, end hvis du er alene,

and where you find most laughter

og man finder mest latter

is in social interactions like conversation.

i sociale interaktioner såsom samtale.

So if you ask human beings, "When do you laugh?"

Hvis du spørger mennesker, "Hvornår ler du?"

they'll talk about comedy and they'll talk about humor and they'll talk about jokes.

vil de tale om komik, humor og vittigheder.

If you look at when they laugh, they're laughing with their friends.

Hvis du ser på hvornår de ler, ler de sammen med deres venner.

And when we laugh with people, we're hardly ever actually laughing at jokes.

Når vi ler sammen med mennesker, ler vi næsten aldrig ad vittigheder.

You are laughing to show people that you understand them,

Vi ler for at vise andre, at vi forstår dem,

that you agree with them, that you're part of the same group as them.

at vi er enige, at vi er del af den samme gruppe som dem.

You're laughing to show that you like them.

Vi ler for at vise at vi kan lide dem.

You might even love them.

Vi elsker dem måske.

Vi gør alt dette samtidig med at vi taler med dem,

You're doing all that at the same time as talking to them,

og latteren gør meget af det følelses- mæssige arbejde for os.

and the laughter is doing a lot of that emotional work for you.

Det er noget, som Robert Provine har påvist, som det ses her,

Something that Robert Provine has pointed out, as you can see here,

og grunden til at vi lo

and the reason why we were laughing

når vi hørte de sjove lyde i starten,

when we heard those funny laughs at the start,

og hvorfor jeg lo når jeg så mine forældre le,

and why I was laughing when I found my parents laughing,

er at det har en enormt smitsom effekt på vores opførsel.

is that it's an enormously behaviorally contagious effect.

Du kan smittes med latter fra andre,

You can catch laughter from somebody else,

og du har lettere ved at smittes med latter hvis du kender den anden.

and you are more likely to catch laughter off somebody else if you know them.

Den er stadig moduleret af sociale kontekster.

So it's still modulated by this social context.

Vi lægger humor til side

You have to put humor to one side

og tænker på den sociale mening med latter

and think about the social meaning of laughter

for det er hvordan den er opstået.

because that's where its origins lie.

Jeg er blevet meget interesseret i forskellige slags latter,

Now, something I've got very interested in is different kinds of laughter,

og vi har neurobiologiske beviser for hvordan mennesker vokaliserer

and we have some neurobiological evidence about how human beings vocalize

that suggests there might be two kinds of laughs that we have.

der indikerer at vi har to forskellige slags latter.

So it seems possible that the neurobiology for helpless, involuntary laughter,

Det er muligt at neurobiologien for hjælpeløs ufrivillig latter,

like my parents lying on the floor screaming about a silly song,

som mine forældre der lå og skreg af latter over en fjollet sang,

might have a different basis to it than some of that more polite

nok har en anderledes baggrund end den mere høflige

social laughter that you encounter, which isn't horrible laughter,

sociale latter som vi møder, der ikke er en forfærdelig latter,

but it's behavior somebody is doing as part of their communicative act to you,

men det er en opførsel en person gør, som en del af kommunikativ relation,

part of their interaction with you; they are choosing to do this.

en del af deres interaktion med dig; de vælger at gøre det.

I vores evolution har vi udviklet to forskellige måder at vokalisere.

In our evolution, we have developed two different ways of vocalizing.

Involuntary vocalizations are part of an older system

Ufrivillige vokaliseringer er del af et ældre system

than the more voluntary vocalizations like the speech I'm doing now.

end de mere frivillige vokaliseringer som talen jeg frembringer nu.

So we might imagine that laughter might actually have two different roots.

Vi kan forestille os at latter egentlig har to forskellige baggrunde.

Jeg har undersøgt dette mere nøje.

So I've been looking at this in more detail.

For at muliggøre det, har vi måttet lave optagelser af folk der ler,

To do this, we've had to make recordings of people laughing,

and we've had to do whatever it takes to make people laugh,

og vi måtte gøre hvad som helst for at få dem til at le,

and we got those same people to produce more posed, social laughter.

og de samme mennesker lo en mere opstillet, social latter.

Din ven fortæller en vittighed,

So imagine your friend told a joke,

and you're laughing because you like your friend,

og du ler fordi du kan lide din ven,

ikke så meget pga. vittigheden.

but not really because the joke's all that.

Jeg vil spille nogle af disse eksempler.

So I'm going to play you a couple of those.

I want you to tell me if you think this laughter is real laughter,

Fortæl mig om I tror dette er ægte latter,

eller om den er opstillet.

or if you think it's posed.

So is this involuntary laughter or more voluntary laughter?

Er dette ufrivillig eller frivillig latter?

(Lyd: Latter)

(Audio: Laughing)

What does that sound like to you?

Hvordan lyder det på jer?

Audience: Posed. Sophie Scott: Posed? Posed.

Publikum: Falsk. Sophie Scott: Falsk? Falsk.

How about this one?

Hvad med denne?

(Audio: Laughing)

(Lyd: Latter)

(Latter)

(Laughter)

I'm the best.

Jeg er den bedste.

(Laughter) (Applause)

(Latter) (Bifald)

Not really.

Nej, vrøvl.

No, that was helpless laughter,

Nej, det var ufrivillig latter,

and in fact, to record that, all they had to do was record me

og for at få den lyd optog de mig mens jeg kiggede på en optagelse

watching one of my friends listening to something I knew she wanted to laugh at,

af en af mine venner der lyttede til noget jeg vidste hun ville le ad,

and I just started doing this.

og jeg lo på den måde.

What you find is that people are good at telling the difference

Folk er gode til at se forskel

mellem ægte og opstillet latter.

between real and posed laughter.

De er to forskellige ting for os.

They seem to be different things to us.

Nogen gange kan man se det samme hos chimpanser.

Interestingly, you see something quite similar with chimpanzees.

Chimpanser ler anderledes hvis de bliver kildet

Chimpanzees laugh differently if they're being tickled

end hvis de leger med hinanden,

than if they're playing with each other,

og vi ser noget lignende her,

and we might be seeing something like that here,

ufrivillig latter, kildende latter, som anderledes end social latter.

involuntary laughter, tickling laughter, being different from social laughter.

De er ret forskellige akustisk set.

They're acoustically very different.

De ægte er længere. De er højere i tonefald.

The real laughs are longer. They're higher in pitch.

Når du ler rigtig meget,

When you start laughing hard,

presser du luft ud af lungerne

you start squeezing air out from your lungs

under højere pres end du nogensinde kunne rent viljemæssigt.

under much higher pressures than you could ever produce voluntarily.

F.eks. kunne jeg aldrig presse min stemme derop for at synge.

For example, I could never pitch my voice that high to sing.

Også vil der komme sammentrækninger og mærkelige fløjtelyde,

Also, you start to get these sort of contractions and weird whistling sounds,

som betyder at ægte latter er meget nem at frembringe,

all of which mean that real laughter is extremely easy,

or feels extremely easy to spot.

eller føles nem at aflæse.

In contrast, posed laughter, we might think it sounds a bit fake.

Som kontrast vil opstillet latter lyde falsk i vore ører.

Actually, it's not, it's actually an important social cue.

Det er den ikke, den har en meget vigtig social funktion.

We use it a lot, we're choosing to laugh in a lot of situations,

Vi bruger den meget, vi vælger at le i mange situationer,

and it seems to be its own thing.

og den synes at være sin egen.

So, for example, you find nasality in posed laughter,

F.eks. hører vi nasalitet i opstillet latter

that kind of "ha ha ha ha ha" sound

den der "ha ha ha ha ha" lyd

that you never get, you could not do, if you were laughing involuntarily.

som du aldrig ville kunne frembringe hvis du lo ufrivilligt.

So they do seem to be genuinely these two different sorts of things.

De virker reelt set til at være helt forskellige ting.

We took it into the scanner to see how brains respond

Vi lavede scanninger for at se hvordan hjernen reagerer

when you hear laughter.

når vi hører latter.

And when you do this, this is a really boring experiment.

I arbejdsprocessen er det et ret kedeligt eksperiment.

We just played people real and posed laughs.

Vi viste folk ægte og opstillede lattere.

We didn't tell them it was a study on laughter.

De vidste ikke at vi undersøgte latter.

We put other sounds in there to distract them,

Vi lagde andre lyde ind for at distrahere dem,

and all they're doing is lying listening to sounds.

og alt de gør er at ligge og lytte til lyde.

We don't tell them to do anything.

Vi beder dem ikke at gøre noget.

Nonetheless, when you hear real laughter and when you hear posed laughter,

Alligevel, når du hører ægte latter og når du hører opstillet latter,

the brains are responding completely differently,

reagerer hjernen helt forskelligt,

significantly differently.

signifikant forskelligt.

What you see in the regions in blue, which lies in auditory cortex,

Hvad I ser at områderne i blåt, som ligger i auditive cortex,

are the brain areas that respond more to the real laughs,

er hjerneområderne der reagerer mere på ægte latter,

and what seems to be the case,

og det synes at være tilfældet

when you hear somebody laughing involuntarily,

når vi hører nogen le ufrivilligt,

you hear sounds you would never hear in any other context.

hører vi lyde, vi aldrig ville høre i andre sammenhænge.

It's very unambiguous,

Den er meget entydig,

and it seems to be associated with greater auditory processing

og synes at være forbundet med større auditiv processering

of these novel sounds.

af disse nye lyde.

In contrast, when you hear somebody laughing in a posed way,

Til kontrast, når vi hører nogen le på en opstillet måde,

what you see are these regions in pink,

hvad vi ser er disse områder i pink,

which are occupying brain areas associated with mentalizing,

som optager hjerneområder forbundet med mentalisering,

thinking about what somebody else is thinking.

at tænke over hvad andre tænker.

And I think what that means is,

Og jeg tror at det betyder

even if you're having your brain scanned, which is completely boring

at selv om du får din hjerne scannet, hvilket er ret kedeligt

and not very interesting,

og slet ikke interessant,

når du dér hører nogen sige: "A ha ha ha ha ha,"

when you hear somebody going, "A ha ha ha ha ha,"

you're trying to work out why they're laughing.

forsøger du at regne ud, hvorfor de ler.

Laughter is always meaningful.

Latter er altid meningsfuld.

You are always trying to understand it in context,

Du forsøger altid at forstå den i kontekst

even if, as far as you are concerned, at that point in time,

selv om, på det tidspunkt for dig,

it has not necessarily anything to do with you,

den ikke har noget med dig at gøre,

du vil stadig vide hvorfor disse folk ler.

you still want to know why those people are laughing.

Vi har haft muligheden for at se på, hvordan folk skelner mellem latter

Now, we've had the opportunity to look at how people hear real and posed laughter

i alle aldersgrupper.

across the age range.

Dette er et online eksperiment vi foretog med Royal Society,

So this is an online experiment we ran with the Royal Society,

and here we just asked people two questions.

og vi spurgte folk to spørgsmål.

De hørte folk le,

First of all, they heard some laughs,

og de skulle svare på, hvor ægte eller opstillet det lød.

and they had to say, how real or posed do these laughs sound?

De ægte lattere vises i rødt, og de opstillede i blåt.

The real laughs are shown in red and the posed laughs are shown in blue.

Hvad I ser er hurtig indtræden.

What you see is there is a rapid onset.

Jo ældre vi bliver, jo bedre bliver vi til at kende ægte latter.

As you get older, you get better and better at spotting real laughter.

Børn i seksårsalderen kan ikke kende forskel.

So six-year-olds are at chance, they can't really hear the difference.

By the time you are older, you get better,

Når vi bliver ældre, bliver vi bedre til det,

but interestingly, you do not hit peak performance in this dataset

men vi bliver ikke eksperter i området,

until you are in your late 30s and early 40s.

før vi er sidst i 30´erne og først i 40´erne.

You don't understand laughter fully by the time you hit puberty.

Vi forstår ikke latter fuldt ud før vi kommer i puberteten.

You don't understand laughter fully by the time your brain has matured

Vi forstår ikke latter fuldt ud, før vor hjerne er udviklet

at the end of your teens.

sidst i teenageårene.

Vi lærer om latter gennem hele vort tidlige voksenliv.

You're learning about laughter throughout your entire early adult life.

If we turn the question around and now say not, what does the laughter sound like

Hvis vi vender spørgsmålet og spørger, ikke hvad latter lyder som,

in terms of being real or posed, but we say,

ægte eller opstillet, men om

how much does this laughter make you want to laugh,

hvor meget denne latter giver dig lyst til at le,

hvor smittende denne latter er for dig, ser vi noget andet.

how contagious is this laughter to you, we see a different profile.

Og her, jo yngre du er,

And here, the younger you are,

the more you want to join in when you hear laughter.

jo mere har du lyst til at le, når du hører latter.

Remember me laughing with my parents when I had no idea what was going on.

Husk på mig, leende med mine forældre, når jeg ikke forstod det der skete.

You really can see this.

Dette kan vi se.

Alle, ung som gammel,

Now everybody, young and old,

finds the real laughs more contagious than the posed laughs,

synes at ægte latter er mere smittende end opstillet latter,

men som vi ældes bliver det mindre smittende for os.

but as you get older, it all becomes less contagious to you.

Now, either we're all just becoming really grumpy as we get older,

Enten bliver vi mere gnavne som ældre,

or it may mean that as you understand laughter better,

eller forstår vi latter bedre,

and you are getting better at doing that,

og vi bliver bedre til at forstå den,

you need more than just hearing people laugh to want to laugh.

og vi har brug for mere end kun at høre latter for at le med.

You need the social stuff there.

Vi har brug for den sociale vinkel.

So we've got a very interesting behavior

Så vi har en meget interessant opførsel

about which a lot of our lay assumptions are incorrect,

omkring hvor mange af vore antagelser er ukorrekte,

men faktisk er der mere end så om latter

but I'm coming to see that actually there's even more to laughter

than it's an important social emotion we should look at,

end at det er en vigtig social følelse vi skal bemærke,

because it turns out people are phenomenally nuanced

for det viser sig at folk er fænomenalt nuancerede

in terms of how we use laughter.

i hvordan vi bruger latter.

There's a really lovely set of studies coming out

Nogle dejlige undersøgelser kommer snart ud

from Robert Levenson's lab in California,

fra Robert Levenson´s laboratorie i USA,

where he's doing a longitudinal study with couples.

hvor han laver langsgående undersøgelser med par.

He gets married couples, men and women, into the lab,

Gifte par, mænd og kvinder, kommer ind,

and he gives them stressful conversations to have

og får stressende samtaler at have fra ham,

while he wires them up to a polygraph so he can see them becoming stressed.

mens de er forbundet til en polygraf- maskine, så han kan se dem stresse.

So you've got the two of them in there, and he'll say to the husband,

De er begge derinde, og han siger til manden

"Tell me something that your wife does that irritates you."

"Fortæl mig noget som din kone gør, der irriterer dig."

And what you see is immediately --

Og man kan med det samme se --

just run that one through your head briefly, you and your partner --

tænk lige på den situation, dig og din partner --

you can imagine everybody gets a bit more stressed as soon as that starts.

I kan forestille jer at alle bliver lidt mere stressede med det samme.

You can see physically, people become more stressed.

Fysisk kan man se folk stresse mere.

What he finds is that the couples who manage that feeling of stress

Han ser også, at parrene der tackler stressfølelsen

with laughter, positive emotions like laughter,

med latter, positive følelser som latter,

not only immediately become less stressed,

ikke kun straks bliver mindre stressede,

they can see them physically feeling better,

men også at de får det bedre rent fysisk,

they're dealing with this unpleasant situation better together,

og de tackler den ubehagelige situation bedre sammen,

they are also the couples that report

de er også parrene der udmelder

high levels of satisfaction in their relationship

høje niveauer af tilfredshed i deres forhold

and they stay together for longer.

og de bliver sammen længere.

So in fact, when you look at close relationships,

Så når man kigger på tætte forhold,

laughter is a phenomenally useful index

er latter et utrolig brugbart indeks

of how people are regulating their emotions together.

af hvordan folk regulerer deres følelser sammen.

We're not just emitting it at each other to show that we like each other,

Vi viser den ikke kun til andre for at vise at vi kan lide dem,

we're making ourselves feel better together.

vi får os selv til at have det bedre sammen.

Now, I don't think this is going to be limited to romantic relationships.

Jeg tror ikke, at dette kun gælder romantiske forhold.

I think this is probably going to be a characteristic

Jeg tror det kommer til at kendetegne

of close emotional relationships such as you might have with friends,

tætte, følelsesmæssige forhold som du også kan have med venner,

which explains my next clip,

der forklarer mit næste klip,

som er en YouTube video af nogle unge mænd fra fhv. Øst-Tyskland

which is of a YouTube video of some young men in the former East Germany

on making a video to promote their heavy metal band,

der laver en promo-video for deres heavy metal-gruppe,

and it's extremely macho, and the mood is very serious,

og den er ekstremt macho og tonen er meget seriøs,

and I want you to notice what happens in terms of laughter

og læg mærke til, hvad der sker i forhold til latter

when things go wrong

når tingene går galt,

and how quickly that happens, and how that changes the mood.

hvor hurtigt det sker, og hvordan tonen forandres.

He's cold. He's about to get wet. He's got swimming trunks on,

Han fryser. Han kommer til at blive våd. Han er i svømmeshorts,

got a towel.

har et håndklæde.

Ice.

Is.

What might possibly happen?

Hvad kommer til at ske?

Video starts.

Videoen starter.

Serious mood.

Seriøs tone.

And his friends are already laughing. They are already laughing, hard.

Og hans venner ler allerede. De griner allerede meget.

He's not laughing yet.

Han ler ikke endnu.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

He's starting to go now.

Han begynder at le nu.

And now they're all off.

Og nu griner de allesammen.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

They're on the floor.

De ligger på gulvet.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

The thing I really like about that is it's all very serious

Jeg kan rigtig godt lide at videoen er så seriøs

until he jumps onto the ice, and as soon as he doesn't go through the ice,

til han hopper ud på isen, og så snart han ikke falder gennem isen,

but also there isn't blood and bone everywhere,

og der ikke er blod og knogler allevegne,

his friends start laughing.

begynder hans venner at grine.

And imagine if that had played him out with him standing there going,

Forestil jer, at hvis det der skete var at han stod der og sagde

"No seriously, Heinrich, I think this is broken,"

"Nej seriøst Heinrich, den er i stykker,"

ville vi ikke synes om at se det. Det ville stresse os.

we wouldn't enjoy watching that. That would be stressful.

Eller hvis han løb rundt med et synligt brækket ben og lo,

Or if he was running around with a visibly broken leg laughing,

og hans venner sagde "Heinrich, nu skal du på hospitalet,"

and his friends are going, "Heinrich, I think we need to go to the hospital now,"

ville det ikke være sjovt.

Faktum er, at latter virker,

den får ham fra en smertefuld, flov og svær situation,

that also wouldn't be funny.

The fact that the laughter works,

til en sjov situation, til hvad vi alle kan le med i,

it gets him from a painful, embarrassing, difficult situation,

into a funny situation, into what we're actually enjoying there,

og jeg synes at det er en interessant funktion,

og det sker hele tiden.

and I think that's a really interesting use,

F.eks. kan jeg huske noget lignende ske

and it's actually happening all the time.

For example, I can remember something like this happening

ved min fars begravelse.

at my father's funeral.

Vi hoppede ikke rundt på isen i vore underbukser.

We weren't jumping around on the ice in our underpants.

Vi er ikke fra Canada.

We're not Canadian.

(Latter) (Bifald)

(Laughter) (Applause)

These events are always difficult, I had a relative who was being a bit difficult,

Disse begivenheder er altid svære, og et familiemedlem var besværligt,

my mum was not in a good place,

min mor havde det ikke godt,

and I can remember finding myself just before the whole thing started

og jeg kan huske at jeg fandt mig selv, lige før det hele begyndte,

telling this story about something that happened in a 1970s sitcom,

fortælle en historie om noget der skete i en komedie fra 1970´erne,

og jeg tænkte, jeg ved ikke hvorfor jeg gør dette,

and I just thought at the time, I don't know why I'm doing this,

and what I realized I was doing

og jeg indså at grunden var

was I was coming up with something from somewhere

at jeg forsøgte at bruge noget et eller andet sted fra

I could use to make her laugh together with me.

som ville få hende til at le sammen med mig.

It was a very basic reaction to find some reason we can do this.

Det var en grundlæggende reaktion for at finde en grund til at le.

We can laugh together. We're going to get through this.

Vi kan le sammen. Vi kommer igennem dette.

We're going to be okay.

Vi kommer til at være ok.

And in fact, all of us are doing this all the time.

Faktisk gør vi det alle hele tiden.

You do it so often, you don't even notice it.

Du gør det så tit, at du ikke ænser det.

Everybody underestimates how often they laugh,

Alle undervurderer hvor tit de griner,

and you're doing something, when you laugh with people,

og du gør noget når du ler sammen med folk

that's actually letting you access a really ancient evolutionary system

der gør at du får adgang til et ældgammelt evolutionært system

that mammals have evolved to make and maintain social bonds,

som pattedyr har udviklet for at danne og vedligeholde sociale bånd

and clearly to regulate emotions, to make ourselves feel better.

og at regulere følelser, at få os selv til at få det bedre.

It's not something specific to humans -- it's a really ancient behavior

Det er ikke specielt for mennesker -- det er en ældgammel opførsel

which really helps us regulate how we feel and makes us feel better.

der hjælper os at regulere hvad vi føler og får os til at have det bedre.

In other words, when it comes to laughter,

Med andre ord, når det gælder latter,

you and me, baby, ain't nothing but mammals. (Laughter)

du og jeg, baby, er ikke andet end pattedyr. (Latter)

Thank you.

Tak skal I have.

Thank you. (Applause)

Tak. (Bifald)