Chapter III: Occasions and Causes of Laughter

1. Laughter as provoked by sense-stimulus: tickling • 50

Ticklish areas • 52

Characteristics of the sensations of tickling • 53

Motor reactions provoked by tickling • 56

How far attributes of sensation determine laughter of tickling
• 57

The mental factor in effect of tickling • 59

Objective conditions of successful tickling • 60

Tickling as appealing to a particular mood • 62

2. Other quasi-reflex forms of laughter • 64

Varieties of automatic or “nervous” laughter • 65

Common element in these varieties: relief from strain • 67

3. Varieties of joyous laughter • 70

Prolonged laughing fit • 73

The essential element in joyous laughter • 75

Occasions of joyous laughter • 76

(_a_) Play • 76

(_b_) Teasing as provocative situation • 77

(_c_) Practical joking and laughter • 78

(_d_) Laughter as an accompaniment of contest • 78

(_e_) Occasions of unusual solemnity as provoking laughter • 79

Physiological basis of laughing habit • 80

CHAPTER IV. VARIETIES OF THE LAUGHABLE.

The objective reference in laughter • 82

Universal element in the laughable • 83

Groups of laughable things • 87

(1) Novelty and oddity • 87

(2) Bodily deformities • 88

(3) Moral deformities and vices • 91

(4) Breaches of order and rule • 94

(5) Small misfortunes • 96

(6) References to the indecent • 98

(7) Pretences • 101

(8) Want of knowledge or skill • 102

(9) Relations of contrariety and incongruity • 107

(10) Verbal play and witticism • 111

Co-operation of different laughable features • 114

(11) Manifestations of playfulness in objects • 116

(12) Spectacle of successful combat • 117