She has the laugh of a paranoid, Donald Trump asserts in his campaign speeches. The opponent of Kamala Harris for the presidency of the USA does not tire of defaming the American vice president. He makes fun of her as a woman and as a person of color. Many of his followers on the internet are participating in this nasty game, spreading offensive photomontages and fake videos. But Harris and her team cleverly fend off the attacks. On the side of the US vice president, many users, especially on TikTok, who usually deal with showbiz celebrities, have recently found themselves treating the vice president almost like a pop icon.

In her election campaign, Americans always see a smiling Kamala Harris, who makes fun of herself, not allowing herself to be touched by the insults and bad jokes of her opponents. Sometimes he even hits back, saying, for example, that as a prosecutor he had to deal with criminals of all kinds: “Criminals who abuse women and crooks who break rules for their own benefit. Trust me, I know guys like Donald Trump.”

Respect for the opponent is an advantage

Kamala Harris is drawing the ire of former President Trump when she openly calls him “weird” and then turns to the major issues of her campaign with due seriousness. With this strategy, she is able to win voters together with her vice-presidential candidate Tim Walsh, who is also noted for his humor, says educator and humor researcher Eva Ullman: “The election campaign in the US is not only about with humor. The Harris-Waltz duo has a clear political line with considerable prestige. There’s something very honest and down-to-earth about their humor, something welcoming and that’s very disarming.”

According to Eva Ullman, the duo’s biggest advantage over Trump in terms of humor is “that they show respect for their opponent. It looks like the bad-ass offensive jokes are finally backfiring on Trump and his team, because American society seems to be saying, “We’re tired of the derogatory, insulting, and humiliating jokes.”

“You either have it with laughter or you don’t”

Laughter in politics has been politicized since ancient times. The Greek philosopher Plato, for example, was of the opinion that laughter was a threat to the state. Those who are laughingstocks are no longer able to think rationally and are in danger of losing power. On the contrary, Aristotle, a student of Plato, loved laughter and believed that laughter separates man from animals.

Perhaps world history would have been different if Aristotle’s positions had been adopted. But when Christianity came, gaiety and laughter were ostracized for a long time. Over the centuries this has softened considerably, but the age-old fear of losing power through laughter and the relaxation it usually entails remains with many. Experts call this fear “gelotophobia”, which exists in the minds of many people. Research in 73 countries by the University of Zurich in 2009 found that in some cultures, such as those in the Middle East or Asia, where honor and prestige are highly valued, a person who laughs may be perceived differently than in the West.

Now when someone, like Kamala Harris, laughs out loud, the brain releases various feel-good neurotransmitters. It is no coincidence that the proverb says: “Laughter is the best medicine”. Happy, laughing people are attractive. Laughter researcher Michael Titze, however, clarifies that laughter is related to genetic material: “You can’t learn to have humor, you can’t acquire it by pretending or by force, because then it seems fake and not spontaneous. You either have it when you’re born or you don’t.”

Editor: Stefanos Georgakopoulos