Pimentel 1

Gerardo Pimentel
Professor Allie Turner
English 114A
30 September 2016

Hey readers I going to talk about stories that relate to the common idea of the authors and
that are related to my goal to feel nothing. That children that going through bullying, which is a
stressful situation for children, may use a style of humor to get them through their tough time and
they are also turning their negative experience into a positive one so just like Freud said they are
more likely to be depress and have anxiety. Also what Henri Bergson said laughter is the absence
of emotion thus the kid is feeling nothing and is trying to fit in with the other children. As Rod A.
Martin mention humor is use to boost a positive mood which the children are trying to have
because it seem hopeless because they are the victims of direct bullying. Also see that they have
a low self- worth that can lead them to depression and using humor is the only way to prevent
that from happening. All the articles have a common theme of humor is used as a tool to distract
us from difficult life situations and cause us to avoid our feelings.
The first story takes place when I was in the tenth grade. My English there was a girl I
has a crush on so the first semester I was on an emotional rollercoaster in trying to find if like
me. I said to myself that my emotions were clouding my think and that I need to get rid of them
so I can think clearly. the ABSENCE OF FEELINGS which usually accompanies laughter.
Indifference is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater foe than emotions. In a
society composed of pure intelligences though perhaps there would still be laughter; whereas
highly emotional souls, in tune and unison with life, in whom every event would be
sentimentally prolonged and re-echoed, would neither know nor understand laughter. (Bergson

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18). Thinking back to that experience I remember that I was laughter as much as I do now. I only
started to laugh when I say that I am not going to feel anything thus I agree with Bergson that
laughter is the absence of emotions. Also when started to think more logically I still found thing
funny but when I was worrying if she like I did not find much to be funny. The first part of the
previous statement was an example if I was part of the intelligent society as the quote states
which by my experience was proven true. The second part of the statement before the previous
one was when I revert to an emotional state every time she smile or look at me it was
sentimentally prolonged even though it should not have been but if I became super emotional I
would have forgot what laughter is. After this experience I decided that I needed to think more
logically so that do not make the same mistakes again which were doing nothing about it and
thinking much about what she felt while I could of just ask her out. This became one of the
mains reason that I chose to feel noting.
The second story is going to be about the death of my mother. She was diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer around the same time my youngest brother was born. She live with it for
approximately seven years. In the last year of her life she became bedridden all of my aunts and
uncles in the United States came to see her also my grandparents came to see her and anyone else
who could get here saw her too. After the funeral we brought In N Out for everyone who was
part of my mothers immediate family at home and we were happy for a brief moment. Well you
might being thinking that we are very cold but the truth is that we using humor to cope with grief
of the funeral. The effects of humor on mood have been demonstrated in a number of laboratory
experiments The experiments provided fairly consistent evidence of short -term effects of
humor on positive and negative moods and feelings of well being in the laboratory.(Martin
47) As the quote state the effect were short term even through it was short term we use it to

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distract us from our feelings. While this was happening I thinking to myself that I do not want
people to feel sorry for me Laughter was described as a device for avoiding excessive
sympathy, saving us not only from depression and grief but from all other forms of vicarious
sympathy, (Lefcourt 26) so in school not wanting people to feel sympathy for me. I use laughter
as a way to make people to avoid using excessive sympathy for me. For example I was talking
to a friend of mine he made a joke about my mom in which I responded with that she is dead in a
joking manner. Freud described laughter as a release of defensive tension that had been aroused
by circumstances preliminary to the laugh. The tension was said to be created by anything that
could provoke primary emotions, anger, and sexuality in situations where their expression would
be inappropriate (Lefcourt 26) What Freud said is true if I exploded with anger when my
friend told that joke it would have inappropriate because I have not told him that my mother was
dead in a serious tone. I use humor as a response instead of an emotional one because it is the
nature response as Freud states but you will that he said laughter in the quote. That is true but
laughter is a part of humor. There is no conclusion to this story because life goes on but when my
grandmother died we got over the depression of it quicker than the first death in the family
because we use humor to get through the first death in the family. provides a way for
individuals to shift perspective on a stressful situation, reappraising it from a new and less
threatening point of view. As a consequence of this humorous reappraisal, the situation becomes
less stressful and manageable, and the individual is less likely to experience a stress response
(Dixon, 1980). (Martin 48) This quote is the evidence that if humor is use to cope with a
stressful situation then the results are that you manage the same stressful situation much better.
After these death in the family I said to myself that I do not people to feel sympathy towards me
so I do not feel sympathy for others thus being my second reason for choosing to feel nothing.

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The third story is about my experience with bullying in the fifth grade. They would call
me names they did not bother me because of the saying that sticks and stones breaks my bones
but names will never hurt me. Since peer victimized children may not be proficient at using
affiliative or self-enhancing humor styles, they may gravitate towards the excessive use of a selfdefeating humor style. may believe that the jokes are actual indictors of their own selfworth. (Klein and Kuiper 74) This quote shows children that are bully might use self- defeating
humor while this is true for some kids but it was not the case for me. Then one day the name
calling affected me then I got over it when my friends came to defend me by insulting them and
that made me laugh humor represent parental forgiveness Reinterpreting failures as being
of lesser importance than initially believe, mere childs play becomes a means of coming to
terms with them and therefore of averting anxiety and depression.(Lefcourt 27) As the quote
said humor is use to reinterpreted failure which I use to see how they got to me so I came to
the conclusion that I has shown weakness in the form of an emotion. . Also the quote says when
humors is use to reinterpreted failure the effect is averting anxiety and depression which is
true I experience less anxiety after the bullying and if I was going to bully became less of an
importance in my life. After laughing off the situation I experience no depression and I decide to
show fear to cope with bully if I am experiencing it again.
I use laughter and humor to avoid my feelings and to distract me from the difficult life
situations that happen in my life, which is the main idea in four articles. I also use laughter and
humor to accomplish my goal to feel nothing. I explain how I came to the conclusion that I do
not want to any emotions. I first reason why I made that decision because I wanted to think more
logical. The second reason is that I did not people to feel sympathy or for me when I was going
through a tough time. Finally the last reason is that I did not want to show any kind of weakness.

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Works Cited
Bergson, Henri. The Comic in General-The Comic Element in Forms and Movements-Expansive
Force of the Comic. N.p.: n.p.,1911. Print
Klein, Dana, and Nicholas Kuiper. Humor Styles, Peer Relationships, and Bullying in Middle
Childhood. N.p.: n.p.,2006. Print
Lefcourt, Herbert M. Early Conceptions of Humor in Religion, Medicine, Philosophy, and
Psychology. New York: Kluwer/Plenum, 2000. Print
Martin, Rod A. Humor and Physical Health. MA: Elsevier Academic Press, 2007. Print