I like to be made to laugh; I like people who make me laugh. I like that laughter is a natural, physical reaction to a mental stimulus; i.e. a psychophysiological response. And a positive one.
Much like how resting a hand on a hot stove causes the brain to quickly send a message to pull back, something tickling the funny bone causes the physical (and chemical) reaction that is laughter. Not only do we tend to wiggle and make noise when something strikes us as silly, but the brain then releases dopamine and adrenaline. Interesting that somewhere in there, what seems to be instantaneously, a cognition transmits a message to the body of the need to laugh, which in turn sets a chain reaction leading back to the mind, releasing hormones in the brain that make us feel happiness and - essentially - alive.
Adrenaline and epinephrine are the same. In reading up on it and dopamine, it's found that increases in epinephrine in rats also made them "capable of doing more work". So if your boss is killing the fun in the workplace, maybe turn them towards some science.
Fascinating to me that there is this whole process that springs within split-seconds of hearing a joke, or seeing a funny face. Never mind the science behind hearing or seeing that something, and subsequently processing it, then finding it humorous to set off the whole series of events. And this is just the dumbed-down after ten minutes researching on the internet version!
The body is amazing; laughter is amazing.
