Often the reasons we believe we enjoy alcohol don’t sync with reality. We are launching a series of ‘myth busters’ to demonstrate how certain commonly held beliefs are not entirely as they seem. Let’s start with the idea that drinking makes you funnier.
So you think drinking makes you funnier? It seems studies agree, at least to a point. You feel wittier and become easily impressed with your own bantering ability. Unfortunately, you are the only one impressed – unless of course your companions are equally impaired. Journalist Joel Warner and Psychology Professor Peter McGraw, authors The Humor Code, went on an epic quest (91,000 miles!) to determine what exactly makes things funny.
They wanted to understand if people drinking were actually able to come up with funnier jokes. Results demonstrated that although having a few drinks makes you feel more whimsical, unimpaired judges do not agree.
The study took 12 of America’s Funniest (an award-winning creative team with Grey New York, the agency behind E-Trade’s talking baby adverts) and asked them to come up with new jokes after each round of drinks. Not surprisingly as the ad-men became more intoxicated the caliber of the material suffered.
How does this sync with what happens to the grey matter inside your skull? Alcohol slows down your brain’s function making your thought processes sluggish and impairing your brain’s ability to receive information from your senses. How? Specifically by latching onto two neurotransmitters: Glutamate and GABA. Neurotransmitters are naturally occurring chemicals in your brain that facilitate cellular communication.
Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter, which increases brain activity levels and the brain’s energy. However, alcohol actually suppresses the release of glutamate, resulting in a slowdown along your brain’s neural highways. You literally think slower. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Inhibitory neurotransmitters reduce energy and slow down activity. Alcohol increases GABA production in the brain, resulting in sedation, diminished thinking, reduced ability to reason, slowed speech, diminished reaction time, and slower movement.
But since you think you are more amusing isn’t that what counts? Perhaps. It’s too bad others don’t agree.
Does Drinking Make You Hilarious? No . . . It Actually Makes You Less Funny
Does Drinking Really Make You Funnier? YES, says small study, but only when you are the judge
[i] Danbolt, N. (2001). Glutamate as a Neurotransmitter – An overview. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.neurotransporter.org/glutamate.html
[ii] DiSalvo, D. (2012, October 16). What Alcohol Really Does to Your Brain. Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/10/16/what-alcohol-really-does-to-your-brain/
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