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1、一 寸 光 阴 不 可 轻 1 Whats so funny? John McCrone reviews recent research on humour The joke comes over the headphones: Which side of a dog has the most hair? The left. No, not fu nny. Try again. Which side of a dog has the most hair? The outside. Hah! The punchline is silly y et fitting, tempting a smil
2、e, even a laugh（这个笑料很愚蠢，但是仍然足以让人发笑，甚至大 笑 ） . Laughter has always struck people as deeply mysterious, perhaps pointless. The writer Arth ur Koestler dubbed it the luxury reflex: unique in that it serves no apparent biological purpose. 笑话从耳机中传出来： “狗哪一边的毛最多？左边。 ”不对，不好笑，再猜。 “狗哪一边的毛 最多？外边。 ”哈！这个笑话的关键语句有些
3、荒唐，却很合适，令人宛尔，甚至捧腹大笑。 笑一直让人类感到神秘， 或许笑没有什么意义。 作家 Arthur Koestler 称笑为奢侈的反射作用， “笑的独特之处就在于它没有明显的生物学目的。 ” Theories about humour have an ancient pedigree. Plato expressed the idea that humour is simply a delighted feeling of superiority over others. Kant and Freud felt that joke-telling relies on building
4、up a psychic tension which is safely punctured by the ludicrousness of the punchline. But most modern humour theorists have settled on some version of Aristotles belief that jokes are bas ed on a reaction to or resolution of incongruity, when the punchline is either a nonsense or, though appearing s
5、illy, has a clever second meaning. 幽默理论有着悠久的历史。 柏拉图认为幽默就是一种因感到比别人优越而体会到的快乐的感 觉。康德和弗洛伊德认为讲笑话时需要营造一种精神上的紧张气氛，最后抖开笑话的包袱， 让其滑稽有趣之处化解这种紧张气氛。 但是大多数当代幽默理论家最终都采纳了亚里士多德 的观点： 笑话的基础就是一种对不和谐情况的反应或解释， 这种情况下笑话的关键语句或者 没有什么特殊意义，或者貌似荒唐却聪明地隐含了第二层含义。 Graeme Ritchie, a computational linguist in Edinburgh, studies the l
6、inguistic structure of jokes in order to understand not only humour but language understanding and reasoning in machines. He s ays that while there is no single format for jokes, many revolve around a sudden and surprising co nceptual shift. A comedian will present a situation followed by an unexpec
7、ted interpretation that is also apt. 爱丁堡的计算语言学家 Graeme Ritchie 在研究笑话的语言结构，不仅为了理解幽默，同时也 为了了解机器的语言理解能力及推理能力。他说，尽管笑话没有固定的模式，但是许多 历史老照片不能说的秘密慈禧军阀明末清初文革晚清 笑话都是围绕某个出其不意的概念转换展开的。 喜剧演员会描述一个情景， 然后给出一个出 人意料却又恰如其分的解释。 So even if a punchline sounds silly, the listener can see there is a clever semantic fit and
8、that sudde n mental Aha! is the buzz that makes us laugh. Viewed from this angle, humour is just a form of c reative insight, a sudden leap to a new perspective. 所以， 即使笑话的关键语句听起来有些无聊， 听众却可以意识到其中有一个机灵恰当的语义， 而心头掠过的“对呀”这一恍然大悟的感叹就是令我们发笑的信号。从这个角度看来，幽默 就是一种创造性的洞察力，一种向新视角的突越。 一 寸 光 阴 不 可 轻 2 However, there
9、 is another type of laughter, the laughter of social appeasement and it is important to understand this too. Play is a crucial part of development in most young mammals. R ats produce ultrasonic squeaks to prevent their scuffles turning nasty. Chimpanzees have a play-fa ce - a gaping expression acco
10、mpanied by a panting ah, ah noise. In humans, these signals have m utated into smiles and laughs. Researchers believe social situations, rather than cognitive events su ch as jokes, trigger these instinctual markers of play or appeasement. People laugh on fairground r ides or when tickled to flag a
11、play situation, whether they feel amused or not. 但是还有另外一种笑，就是社会交往中缓解紧张局面的笑。理解这种笑也是很重要的。在许 多幼小的哺乳动物的发育当中， 游戏都是关键的一部分。 老鼠会在厮打游玩时发出超声波似 的尖叫声， 防止厮打变成真的争斗。 黑猩猩有一种游戏表情， 把嘴张得大大的， 同时发出 “啊、 啊”的喘息声。对于人类来说，这些信号都已转化成为了微笑和大笑。研究人员认为，激发 这种本能的游戏信号或缓解紧张局面信号的因素不是笑话等认知活动， 而是社会场景。 人们 玩旋转木马或被别人逗痒，开始玩闹时，无论是否感到好笑都会发出笑声。 B
12、oth social and cognitive types of laughter tap into the same expressive machinery in our brains, t he emotion and motor circuits that produce smiles and excited vocalisations. However, if cognitive laughter is the product of more general thought processes, it should result from more exp ansive brain
13、 activity. 无论是社交场合中的笑还是认知活动中的笑， 都是我们大脑中的同一表达机制在起作用。 情 感和运动神经网络令人微笑，并发出笑声。但是，如果认知活动中的笑是更多元的思维过程 的产物的话，那么这种笑应当源于更广泛的大脑活动。 Psychologist VinodGoel investigated humour using the new technique of single event functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRl). An MRI scanner uses magnetic fields and radio waves
14、 to trac k the changes in oxygenated blood that accompany mental activity. Until recently, MRI scanners needed several minutes of activity and so could not be used to track rapid thought proces ses such as comprehending a joke. New developments now allow half-second snapshots of all sor ts of reason
15、ing and problem-solving activities. 心理学家 VinodGoel 使用“单事件”官能磁共振成像这一新技术对幽默进行调查研究，磁共 振成像扫描仪使用磁场和无线电波跟踪伴随着心理活动的充氧血液中发生的变化。直到最 近， 这种扫描仪都还需要数分钟的时间才能完成扫描， 所以无法用于跟踪理解笑话这样迅速 的思维过程。而新的进展使所有的推理和解决问题活动都能在半秒钟就快速成像。 Although Goel felt being inside a brain scanner was hardly the ideal place for appreciating a jok
16、e, he found evidence that understanding a joke involves a widespread mental shift. His scans showed that at the beginning of a joke the listener$ prefrontal cortex lit up, particularly the right p refrontal believed to be critical for problem solving. But there was also activity in the temporal lob es at the side of the head (consistent with attempts to rouse stored knowledge) and in many other b rain areas. Then when the punchline arrived, a new area spra
