This article appears in the March issue of 400 Life Magazine
Between her stand-up comedy career, web series and being a regular guest on other shows, Amy Lyle is used to public speaking and being in front of a crowd, but, according to her, a recent endeavor was unlike anything she’s ever done.
In January, TEDxBeaconStreet, an offshoot of TED Talks, posted Lyle’s presentation, “Finding the Funny in the Crummy,” where the comedian discusses connective humor — a phrase Lyle coined for jokes — even from things that might not have been funny at the time, that creates a relatable bond between the teller and the listener.
In her talk, Lyle gives an example of falling “all the way down” a flight of stairs while at work. Lyle said she remembered being humiliated at the moment until a woman who helped her asked, “But did you chip your teeth?”
“She had chipped her teeth in a great fall, and in that moment, we laughed,” Lyle told the audience, “but more importantly, we connected. By sharing her great fall, I felt better about mine. The healing power of humor is much stronger than we think.”
In a recent interview with 400 Life, Lyle spoke about what it was like writing and performing a TED Talk, which is a bit more academic than most comedy and what lessons she hoped viewers walked away with.
“It was just great,” she said. “The whole point was I wanted to spread this message of how can you learn to see the world through a lens of humor if you don’t. Naturally, I see the world that way, but other people don’t, so I went through the steps of that. It’s like looking for gratitude every day. It’s a muscle, and if you start looking for gratitude, you see gratitude.
“It’s the same for humor. If you start looking for humor every day, you see humor.”
In the presentation, Lyle cites two studies that look at the impacts of connective humor.
The first was a study that looked at one group of American POWs from the Vietnam War who, compared to other captives, came away with less PTSD or other issues, which the soldiers and researchers said was due to maintaining a sense of humor.
“Even though it was morbid and horrible, in that moment, that’s what they clung to, and it saved their sanity,” Lyle said.
Similarly, Lyle said there were several studies looking at humor for those who have fought breast cancer and a friend who is a breast cancer survivor was able to give Lyle her take on it.
“I love this quote. She said ‘being able to find the funny in the not-so-funny’ made her feel better, but it also made the people around her feel better because they didn’t know what to say to her because she had breast cancer,” Lyle said. “And, of course, breast cancer is not funny, but there was some funny things going on at that time. Like, for example, she said her dad asked her about her ‘autopsy’ on the day of her biopsy.”
Story continues below
The Link LonkFebruary 28, 2021 at 09:47PM
https://ift.tt/3b1Y3Pc
'Finding the Funny in the Crummy:' Amy Lyle hosts TED Talk on power of connective humor - Forsyth County News Online
https://ift.tt/3eOfySK
Funny
No comments:
Post a Comment