What are the virtues of laughter at work?

Olivia Gazalé: At work, laughter is an extraordinary tool: it fluidifies human relationships, establishes complicity, reduces age differences, promotes the bond between teams and can even defuse conflicts. It is therefore easy to understand the success of corporate theatre, which uses comedy to unite teams and fight against stress or demotivation. 

In your opinion, laughter also has a darker dimension. How do you explain this? 

Olivia Gazalé : The many advantages of laughter indeed mask a more murky aspect, because it is both a tool for inclusion and exclusion. Laughter is indeed at the heart of relationships of seduction and power ! For it confers authority on those who know how to handle it. The " joker " gained the upper hand, arousing admiration and sympathy, and creating a protective clan. This laughter can also consist of belittling other people, generating a feeling of superiority in mockers and forced laughter in those who fear becoming the target. We sometimes laugh out of fear, out of pure allegiance... And this phenomenon can be observed from the playground: those who are skilled in mockery recruit allies. Freud said that he who knows how to handle humor "raises up against his enemy an army of adversaries, whereas at the beginning he was alone."  Making people laugh builds power, and laughing is often on the side of the strongest.

Is this "weapon" of laughter accessible to all ? 

Olivia Gazalé : No, you already have to have a certain amount of power to be authorized to use this weapon. Laughter obeys rituals, tacit rules. For example, the initiative of laughter is often the privilege of the leader over subordinates. Comic, which consists of breaking the rules, is not allowed to everyone. A subordinate cannot joke first in a meeting because it would be inappropriate. The superior can afford it, and in addition, the subordinate may feel compelled to laugh. If you are the target, you are disarmed, you can neither retaliate nor winnow. This can be very humiliating, especially in public. We then find in laughter a double face: powerful benefits and an offensive weapon, sometimes very aggressive, under the guise of humor.

To clarify, what is the distinction between laughter, comedy, and humor?

Olivia Gazalé: Laughter is a bodily reaction to a stimulus. This is often the result of comedy – which seeks to provoke laughter – but is not the only cause of laughter (e.g., tickling). Humor is one of the forms of comedy, which is a playful, peaceful state of mind, of "non-seriousness", "for fakes" Sarcasm, on the other hand, has a dimension of attack, of serious denunciation. It is crucial to make these distinctions.

If humour is "for fakes", as children say, can we laugh at everything?

Olivia Gazalé : You can laugh at anything, as long as it's humorous, that is to say by respecting a tacit "humorous pact". This pact depends on four key factors: the context, the speaker, the target, and the intention (playful or willingness to convey a hurtful message). To laugh, you have to feel safe, not feel threatened or attacked, yourself or your group to which you belong. If the intention is not to hurt and there is symmetry, it is humor. Self-deprecation, for example, is a key component of the humorous pact, because making fun of yourself is less hurtful than attacking others. But the vulnerability of the targets must also be taken into consideration. The more powerful you are, the less vulnerable you are to mockery.

Why is the question of vulnerability essential here? 

Because people who are already stigmatized in society are much more likely to be hurt by mockery. Some types of degrading jokes are very poorly received today, because sociology has shown that the repetitiveness of these jokes harms their targets. Not only does racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and fatphobic comedy consolidate stereotypes, but it reinforces discrimination (difficulty in obtaining a job, housing, etc.) against individuals or targeted categories.

Can laughter also be a weapon of emancipation?

Olivia Gazalé : Absolutely. Laughter is a weapon of subversion, contestation and extraordinary emancipation. It makes it possible to denounce injustices, to transgress norms and prohibitions, to desacralize power. Subalterns, minorities and women have seized on this instrument to make it a weapon of liberation. And there is nothing more formidable than an army of laughers. In my opinion,we must continue to laugh without limit at the powerful because satire is essential to the proper functioning of a society. Vulnerable people, on the other hand, don't need to be pushed even deeper.

Can we then reassure those who are worried about laughing less that we will continue ?

Olivia Gazalé : Yes, because it's " bad laughing " that has to stop. In my opinion, you can laugh at everything, but laughing at everything is a subtle and demanding art. I ended my book by replacing Plato's phrase "to philosophize is to learn to die" with " to philosophize is to learn to laugh better."

So remember that you can laugh at everything, with everyone, everyone, as long as it's with humor, that is to say by respecting the humorous pact: the intention is not to hurt or hurt. And there are a lot of non-offensive laughing subjects ! What no longer passes is exclusive and sectarian laughter, bearer of contempt or hatred. But when it's inclusive and builds solidarity, you can never laugh too much!