Humor can be therapeutic or can be an excellent mask…For the last two days since depression and humor or comedy has been in the forefront of Hollywood, some of my clients who have been effected by depression have been posing lot of questions…and that has made me revisit the therapeutic nature of laughter-while it can be healing—perhaps it can be a smoking gun too!!! I have heard that famous comedy club in Los Angeles called the Laugh Factory has a as an in-house therapy program. Researching I have found that two nights a week, comics meet with psychologists in a private office upstairs, discussing their problems while lying on a therapy couch formerly owned by Groucho Marx. “Eighty percent of comedians come from a place of tragedy,” explains Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada. “They didn’t get enough love. They have to overcome their problems by making people laugh.”Further reading of Peter McGraw’s book on Humor Code brought some interesting perspective. The author talks about, that humor arises when something seems wrong or threatening but is simultaneously OK or safe. If comedians are going to mine their lives for material, they’re naturally going to start by looking for violations—the foibles, neuroses, and bad behaviors that are great for a laugh …So perhaps comedy as a therapy perhaps might not be funny at all sometimes.

R.I.P The Funny Ones!!!!!

By: Priya Senroy

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