VIDEO: Why do we laugh? Allow us to explain…

Boys do it, girls do it, rats and apes do it - but why?

Laughter is, as Joe Hanson (PhD) reminds us, weird. We scrunch up our faces and make wheezing noises, and we do it all over the world - instinctively.

Why? Well, Joe's super-science web series, 'It's Okay to be Smart' is ready to help with the answer to that - with plenty of science puns along the way.

Hanson's webseries focuses on a different question every week, from the science of running a marathon to the question of whether Santa is real.

In this video he explains that laughter isn't like speech - it's a much more basic vocalisation. Hell, even rats do it (in a super high-pitched way) and apes, too.

It's a funny old world.

— Subscribe to It's Okay to be Smart over on Youtube.