Mizah, Tanri’dan Bir Armağan Mi Yoksa Şeytanin Getirdiği Bir Ceza Yöntemi Mi? Sosyal Normlarin Cezalandirma Yaptirimi Boyutunda ‘Sosyal Ceza Olarak Gülme’
Is Humor a Gift from God or a Way of Punishment From Satan? ‘Laughter as a Social Punishment’ as a Sanction of Punishment of Social Norms in American Culture

Summary/Abstract: Does the person created with the sensation of ruthless pleasure use humor as a positive reinforcement tool or a negative method of punishment? Gelotology (laughing science), which analyzes the answer to this question through the endocrinological system, is a discipline of physiological and psychological research that investigates the effects of smile in particular and the effects of humor on the human body in general. The root of humor which is perceived as lacking seriousness, pleasant, enjoyable and unimportant in daily life, in the surface structure, on the contrary to common belief is based on negative backgrounds such as physical defects, mental disorders, vulgarity and cruelty in the history of human culture. In this article, the undisputed power of negative humor on human psychology, based on the humorous insights of immigrants settled in the United States which was discovered in the 1600s as a New World, will be analyzed on the data in different fields such as the nicknames of the Mormon Church leaders in 1840, music, military, policy, literature and the performing arts of America. In the article that is based on the ‘disqualification of different ethnicities and showing their own superiority’ perception of ethnic humor, which is one of the main areas of humor, the finding that New World settlers’ usage of negative humor with the philosophy of subjugating and diminishing the non-self by means of Superiority Theory as the main criterion in determining the identities of ethnic groups will be focused. Different and even opposite meanings laid upon humor, laughing as ‘social punishment’ within the negative and positive humor paradox in American cultural texture will be dealt with as punishment sanctions, such as being exposed, being a subject of ridicule, being criticized, being accused, being rejected, being judged and being humiliated. In the research, the act of laughing, which is the cognitive perception of humor and the physical display of humor, will be evaluated in terms of ‘time and space infinity of social punishments’ as a determinant element of social structure. The data selected by random sampling from American history will reveal that the person who performs the humorous act with the perspective of the Theory of Superiority does so with the sense of superiority of the self and superiority of self-perception. At the end of the article, the verdict of positive humor’s being a gift from God, and negative humor’s being a method of punishment brought by the devil will be reached.

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