Uncovering Solitary Laughter

Laughing alone is something most people, across many cultures, appear to do, yet it is almost invariably marginalized in academic literature. Our research shows that typically it is regarded as nothing more than compensatory vicarious sociality, and quite often as symptomatic of mental issues.

This book is the first attempt to bring this ubiquitous human behaviour out of the margins and into full cultural consciousness. It does so by revealing a broad diversity of contexts and functions, and by reappraising what is happening in solitary laughter. There are three main motivating threads in this respect: 1) the extension of "comic consciousness" and associated concepts of tolerance and play more deeply into the interstices of individual being, 2) a positive transformation of solitude, which we consider important amidst a noisy global epidemic of loneliness and depression, 3) fostering research, teaching, and applications of the therapeutic benefits of laughing alone.